Glenrothes: Plook-on-the-Plinth…

As you may already know, I grew up in the small Scottish town of Glenrothes before moving  to South Shields in 2004. When people ask where I’m from, I reply ‘Fife’ or ‘north of Edinburgh’ as know one has heard of Glenrothes. So, imagine my surprise in finding an article on the BBC website naming Glenrothes as “dismal place in Scotland” in the 2009 Carbuncles Awards! Glenrothes actually beat Motherwell to the award. Yes, Motherwell!

Find the article here.

The award was given by design magazine Prospect who viewed Glenrothes as being somewhat of a land of wasted opportunity, highlighted by its ‘depressing town centre’. Now when I look back and think of the town centre (the biggest indoor shopping centre in Fife) I think of how modern and large it was. Then I remember… it was modernised in (what must have been about) 1994!! Ouch.

I have heard from friends and family how, since the demise of what were some of my favourite stores as a teenager (MVC, Woolworthes etc) there is apparently nowhere within the Kingdom Centre to buy DVDs or CDs. Quite a gaping hole when it comes to large indoor shopping centres.

Ive from a number of friends that getting out of Glenrothes is one of the best things you can do! Limited opportunity being the reason, and it looks like Prospect Magazine has hit the nail on the head!

A quote from Prospect editor Gordon Young sums things up:

“There is nothing wrong with the town itself. But the people who live there are being badly let down by its depressing town centre, which could and should be better.

“The place is crying out for more civic space. Instead what is offered is a drab shopping mall, surrounded by depressing car parks.”

Not what Fife Council want to hear I imagine.

On a brighter note however, this should hopefully give the council a much needed kick up the…

Already, ideas are being put forward for regeneration of the town centre and surrounding areas, so lets hope some results are seen.

At least now, when I’m asked where I’m from I can reply ‘Glenrothes’ and they’ll know through infamy what I’m taking about!

 

 

South Shields Photo of the Day…

Drumrole please…

This is the result of my recent experiment in photographing candles. The technique here involves splitting the channels and comes from the latest issue of Digital Photo Magazine.

Originally the plan was to take some smoke photos but alas the breeze howling through the loft made that rather difficult, so I opted to ditch the incense sticks and worked with candles instead. I like how bold this shot is (no saturation editing here)

These photos were all taken using the kit lens with the Canon 400D with a wide aperture setting and later edited in Photoshop.

Below are some more basic photos. Ony some minor cropping and rotating done here. Enjoy:

 

R.I.P Tony Hart…

Photo courtesy of tonyhart.co.uk

Rather sad news yesterday as it revealed that Tony Hart has passed away at the age of 83.

The man was one of my heros as a child, and he will be very much missed.

South Shields Photo of the Day…

 

As seen as its such miserable, gleekit weather (that’ll no doubt see us through to June), I thought I’d lighten things up with a photo taken in the summer of 2008.

This was taken at the flower beds at the entrance to the Harton Cemetery here in South Shields using just a basic kit lens on the trusy Canon 400D.

I applied  a Gausian blur to the photo and erased it over the bee to give that more clarity and to stand out. Does the trick I think!

The Problem with Forums / Where the Egocentrics are King

The problem with forums is that no matter what help you ask for or in what manner you do it, there will always be that one person with a holier than thou attitude who will criticize and demoralise others in an attempt to enforce some imaginery authority and to make themselves feel like kings…

Kings of an internet forum…

Congratulations…

 

It seems clear now; flowers are to bees as forums are to narcissistic sociopaths…

Government Photography Law response…

At last, the government has responded to the petition to clarify the laws regarding photography in public places. The petition was signed by 5,793 people including myself of course. If you wish to see the website, here it is but I’ll post the official government reply below anyway.

The response:

“Thank you for your e-petition asking for clarification of the law on photography in public places.

There are no legal restrictions on photography in public places. However, the law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else in a public place. So there may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations, inflame an already tense situation, or raise security considerations. Additionally, the police may require a person to move on in order to prevent a breach of the peace, to avoid a public order situation, or for the person’s own safety or welfare, or for the safety and welfare of others.

Each situation will be different and it would be an operational matter for the police officer concerned as to what action if any should be taken in respect of those taking photographs. Anybody with a concern about a specific incident should raise the matter with the Chief Constable of the relevant force. “

Well, we can at least give them credit for looking into it.

However, in my humble opinion, its still leaves  a lot of questions unanswered. For example, it seems to delegate the resonsibility of clarifying the law down to the average bobby on the beat which, as you may have heard of countless times in the media and as I have heard from several fellow BFP (Bureau of Freelance Photographers) members causes a lot of problems. What one police officer may see as harmless photography, another may see as an infringement of terror laws or insightment to riot. I wont go into the police throwing their weight around…

Then you have the cases (Ive heard a few) where a photographer will ignore warnings banning photography merely to make a point that this is a free worldand he/she should be able to do as they please. In such a case a bit of common sense, forward thinking and consideration for others would be advised. For example if a sign says ‘no photography’, as I see it that should be complied with afterall, rules are, unless I’m very much mistaken, there for a reason. As the governent say its a ”matter for the police officer concerned as to what action if any should be taken”. And so, I feel the simple solution would be to follow the rules or call the ‘non-emergency’ emergency services number and enquire further, depending on your viewpoint. Dont just break the rules for the sake of proving a point as this will (and does) cause problems. Think, then act.

All in all, I find the Governments response rather disappointing as it is very vague and doesnt address many of the issues photographers such as myself were concerned about in the first place…

… personally, I am not entirely surprised.

The midnight photographer AKA Earth’s natural satelite…

A full moon.

I took this shot using the Canon Telephoto Zoom lens in the back lane at around midnight a few nights ago. Now, considering the lens is refered to as a ‘budget’ zoom lens, ‘m sure you’ll agree this is a damn good photo! I’ve taken photos of the moon before but none have come out quite this good. The first time was on the night of the QE2 photo shoot which you can find some photos of here or here. At that time it was partially eclipsed by the earth but luckily this time it was full moon with clear skies… sadly though it was colder than a mother-in-law’s embrace and the tripod was painfully cold to handle. A worthy sacrifice.

South Shields Photo of the Week…

 

Further to my last post (http://jrmarnie.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/south-shields-photo-of-the-day-10/) heres another photograph from my recent still life experimentation.

I wanted to create a more ‘old’ feel, hence this tatty bear. I just used a basic kit lens for this shot with the trusty maglite as a light source.

Im actually starting to like still life photography; raking around the loft for good subjects. The ‘man-room’ in the loft is doubling nicely as a budget photo studio. Goes to show you dont need lots of fancy equipment to get a good shot!

South Shields Photo of the Day…

Your beloved photographer has been trying out some still life photography for a change. Now as many of my devoted fans… *cough*.. will know, I prefer to just take shots as they appear and not tamper with things.

This changed however with the new issue of Digital Photo Magazine which had an interesting section on still life photography. Having spent countless hours in the man room/budget photo studio/loft job searching and fighting off hordes of the undead on the Xbox360, I fancied getting back into photography after the festive period. So, having grabbed a few bits and bobs that were kicking about in the man room, I created this:

Looks like a basic still but is actually a composition of three different photos. Each object was lit using a mag-lite torch with a long shutter speed (around 5 seconds depending on the aperture). I took around 15-20 photos of each object to get it just right. Then in Photoshop I dragged all three photos onto one layer and changed the blending mode from normal to lighten. This basically means that all the lighter parts of the photos appear through the darker shades.

And there we have it… a basic still life!

South Shields Photo of the Day…

I thought I’d kick off 2009 with a nice winter photograph. Alright, so this was taken in December 2008 but I feel given the hail (which I can hear now as I sit in the attic room) and the overall icey temperature that this frosty photo is appropriate.

As you may notice, Ive added a gausian blur to the shot to make it a little more subtle. Ive also altered the opacity of the blur over the main subject to keep in that detail in.

I used the Canon Zoom lens for this shot and took the actual photograph from around 15-20 feet away.  The image stabilisation feature works very well for shots such as this!

Seen as Christmas is over, I’ll be adding more photos in the coming days… storing them on my brand new 160Gb hard drive after editing them using my new Bamboo graphics tablet!!!!