Tag Archives: photography

Serving the public good

Friday 30th March 2012, 2.35pm (day 218)

Public good, 30/3/12

Let’s think about it: will either David Cameron or George Osborne will have a statue erected to them in a hundred and twenty years’ time that will extol their contribution ‘To The Public Good? Considering the ideological stance of their party is that there is no such thing as ‘the public good’, I doubt they would want to see such a memorial.

On the other hand, considering that Mr. Heywood’s era resulted in Manchester becoming one of the most powerful and successful cities in the world, and built art galleries and universities and football clubs, and Mr Cameron’s era in Manchester is largely characterised by the closure of all but one of the city’s public toilets, it should be easy enough to predict the answer to the question posed earlier.

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The one decent thing about air travel

Thursday 29th March 2012, 7.20am (day 217)

Above Domodedovo, 29/3/12

Well, there’s the views and then there’s the chance to get wine 24 hours a day (and sometimes for free). Oh yeah, and the occasional decent movie. (Watched The Ides of March today. Recommended.)

This photo was taken 5 minutes after take-off from Domodedovo airport, Moscow.

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Silver birches in snow

Wednesday 28th March 2012, 9.55am (day 216)

Silver birches, 28/3/12

There’s got to be billions of these trees in Russia. They line all the roads out of the city of Moscow. They’re everywhere.

I know this is a similar theme to yesterday (and it’s taken from almost exactly the same spot) but I’m not doing much other than work on this visit: so little opportunity to get pictures of much other than the rather drab urban area around the Moscow School (Yugo-Zapadnya Metro station). As you can see, it was a bright, sunny day today, at least in the morning – but it’s still cold.

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Back to winter

Tuesday 27th March 2012, 11.40am (day 215)

Snow in Moscow, 27/3/12

In Britain at the moment it is about 21°C and full-on summer, apparently. But here, in Moscow… it isn’t. I have no idea what this structure actually is, it is either a ventilation shaft for the Metro or just a brazier, possibly there to help warm the homeless overnight. Either way it shows the reality of the weather here right now. International travel? Yeah, it’s fun… somtimes!

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Manchester city centre, from the air

Monday 26th March 2012, 9.45am (day 214)

Manchester city centre, 26/3/12

Whereas yesterday’s picture encompassed a range of, say, about 50mm, I guess this shot covers a range about a million times wider (that is, 50km). This is the view I got this morning as my plane took off from Manchester airport to the south of the city. The prominent building just left of centre is the Deansgate tower (a Hilton hotel on its lower floors, residential apartments above). The main city centre is to the right. The university will be on the edge of where the high buildings start, just to right of centre.

As you can see it was another beautiful day in the North-west of England, 20°C at least – but not in London, where I was flying on this leg (clamped under a foul brown smog when we landed); nor, indeed, in Moscow where I currently reside (-1°C, a few inches of snow, and still thoroughgoingly winter). Ah, what the hell. It’s all the travel experience, innit.

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Joe’s eye

Sunday 25th March 2012, 3.15pm (day 213)

Joe's eye, 25/3/12

Glorious day today, as warm as anywhere I’ve been since last August. Most of the population was out today enjoying it, whether in town, the woods, wherever. I took lots of good photos and the choice was a hard one today, but I picked this just because it’s different, and you’ve seen a lot of photos of town and woods before. Isn’t this beautiful? Like I said with the moss the other day, how much detail there sometimes is when you look closely enough. (Note that you can just see the lens of the camera reflected, almost centrally, in his pupil.)

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The last sunset of wintertime

Saturday 24th March 2012, 5.20pm (day 212)

Sunset, 24/3/12

Officially so. The clocks go forward tonight as we enter British Summer Time.

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Bumblebee in Guinness glass

Friday 23rd March 2012, 4.35pm (day 211)

Bee in glass, 23/3/12

The weather remains beautiful and springlike. I’d say it has brought out the bumblebees but actually, for some reason this year there has been a real crop of big, fat dozy bumblebees doing the rounds for about two weeks now. This one I trapped in a glass to get it out of the pub, but then couldn’t resist using it as a model for about twenty photos during which it got increasingly pissed off and eventually started zooming up and down the glass so fast I couldn’t photograph it any more, so I let it go.

This shot I love, though, it looks like a little mouse with a single wing. You’re viewing it from behind: the two legs to the right are its rear two legs; its head is facing away from the camera, and its left wing is obscured because it lies along the line where the glass meets the paper. The magazine underneath it gives an interesting background. Yeah, I’m happy with this one. Nice photo to end a good week.

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University of Manchester campus

Thursday 22nd March 2012, 1.55pm (day 210)

Daffodils on campus, 22/3/12

I know I did this theme a couple of days ago but there really wasn’t any other photo today which encapsulated what was an absolutely glorious spring day.

Incidentally, those who know the Manchester campus may be bemused as to where this is, because it really must be one of the least green campuses in Britain – there is hardly any green space, plus this bloody big road running right through the middle of it. Trust me however: this is just outside Blackwell’s, under the ramp to the shopping precinct and opposite the Kilburn building.

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Mini-jungle, Keighley Road

Wednesday 21st March 2012, 8.50am (day 209)

Moss carpet, 21/3/12

It’s nice to have a change of scale occasionally. I can quite see this as a luxuriant jungle, hard up against some crags. If a condor were to be flying past in the middle-distance, or there were a little human figure in the foreground, about to plunge into the darkness beneath the trees, it would not look too wrong.

Actually this is a patch of moss on the top of the stone retaining wall between the A6033 and the Hebden Water, a minute’s walk from my house: total area covered by this photo, less than a square foot. How much of the world do we so often miss seeing?

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