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Arndale Shopping Centre, Manchester

Arndale Shopping Centre, Manchester

The Arndale Shopping Centre is now the UK’s largest inner city shopping centre since the opening of its new area pictured in the photograph above. I was stood on the carpark level 5 looking down towards Next and River Island. This was taken about two weeks ago now and it was the busiest I had seen it until yesterday, when I walked through to shelter from heavy rain, when there was at least twice the volume of people traffic.

Ideally this picture should have been captured using a tripod rather than hand-held, but I was in a rush to take a few images before the inevitable happened – as always. Two minutes later I was tapped on the shoulder by a huge security guard and asked to leave. Luckily I wasn’t told to hand over my memory card, delete photos and wasn’t escorted off the site, so I guess I got off lightly this time!

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Crowded 5th Avenue Sidewalk, New York City

Crowded 5th Avenue Sidewalk, New York City

It has been a while since I published any of my older photographs from trips to New York. The image above illustrates my first impression of the city – bigger than I ever thought possible, with more people than I had ever seen in one place. It seems to go on for ever (with roads in a grid pattern), it looks as though the roads and skyscrapers go on into infinity. This photograph was taken on the long walk down 5th Avenue from the Guggenheim Museum all the way to the Empire State Building. The reason I am showing you this photograph is two fold. For thousands of people living in New York this is an everyday normal sidewalk (or pavement as I prefer). However, for me, as an Englishmen in New York this was like stepping into another world! Manchester’s Market Street has got nothing on this place, in terms of crowds and volume of people.

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Allotments in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Allotments in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Berwick-upon-Tweed is the most northern town in England. Still part of Northumberland it borders Scotland and is located by the River Tweed. That being said, the above photograph must show England’s most northerly allotments. It might be interesting one day to research and photograph the countries most southern allotments and see how big the difference is in the the plants being grown…or not. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to share this image with you, because the majority of the allotments around the Greater Manchester area have been or are being sold off for property development. I feel that the anonymous figure in the foreground really makes this photograph worth publishing.

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Chester Town Crier

Chester Town Crier

After my failed attempt at a visit to Chester I finally made it over to photograph the city. It was originally planned that we would explore the north west coast of Wales but due to the weather being “not so promising” (raining) we ended up spending the day in Chester. The picture above shows the Town Crier who comes out to entertain the crowds at 12 noon. It was raining when I took this picture and the shop behind him is a little distracting but I love his facial expression. As for the rest of Chester, I was very impressed and definitely look forward to going again on a brighter day. I did walk around on the walls of the city and found some great views I would love to take more pictures of. Shopping in Chester isn’t so great but in terms of historical and photographic interest I would definitely recommend it.