Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
The bright lights and neon colours of the English seaside resort of Blackpool are often very appealing to photograph. Especially when the sky is blue as it was when this was taken. However the lights weren’t on as the above photograph was taken in the daytime and the whole scene was very much void of colour. This made me think it would make an interesting and moody monochrome or black and white photograph.
Driving into Blackpool I noticed some very interesting illuminations towards the Cleveleys end of the promenade, so after an abandoned attempt to walk back there, I got in the car and drove up. Obviously the above photograph was taken with my camera on a tripod, but I found the use of long exposures impractical, as the cat’s head was moving from side to side. This meant that a long exposure rendered the head really blurred, so I had to up the ISO (camera sensitivity) and the shutter speed to compensate.
I had photographed “Coral Island” a number of times, but had never thought about going inside or enquiring about what it actually was. Turns out that this Coral Island was actually Britain’s largest ‘amusement arcade’. Not being a gambling man myself I only really went inside to use the toilet, but it is very interesting inside if a little dark. The above photograph caught my eye as it shows the main front of the arcade with the tower behind it.
There were about four or five of these birds stood proudly on the metal railing. Rather than trying to get them all in, I zoomed up as best I could in order to focus on this creature. The background shows the Ferris wheel of Central Pier. To capture this image I used my Nikon 18-200mm, obviously zoomed up to 200mm. I think the best part of this photograph is the soft background which helps the bird stand out a lot more.