Posts tagged Photography
Model Shoot: Dee La Beau
Jan 31st
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a group shoot with a couple of photographers, and a couple of models. Well, I’ve finally had chance to start processing some of the pics, so tonight first up we have the images of the delectable Dee La Beau. (click to enlarge any pic)
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And you can view the rest of the shots in the gallery for Dee La Beau and contact her via her Purestorm Profile.
~Shepy
Group shoot sneak preview
Jan 16th
I went along to a group shoot tonight with a few friends from Twitter, shooting with 3 of us photographers and 4 models, around a very loose theme of Pin-Up / Burlesque. I’ve got loads of shots to edit through, and I’m really happy with quite a few of them, but thought I would post up a couple now just for a wee sneak preview. More coming soon as I get chance to edit them.
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Such a fun afternoon, great shoot, I’m really looking forward to sorting the rest of the images.
~Shepy
Photography favourites of 2010
Jan 2nd
2010 has been a busy year for photography for me, and I’ve especially been trying to widen my range of subjects. 2009 I shot mostly urban exploration, in fact over 75% of the shots that I took were taken in derelicts, so I went in to 2010 determined to try and broaden my horizons somewhat. I thought I would collect together my top 10 favourite shots of the year, across a number of different subject genres / topics.
So here are some of my favourite images from 2010. (click to enlarge for all images)
Aerial Photography
 Event Photography |
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 Kids Photography |
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 Landscape Photography |
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 Nature Photography |
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 Boudoir Photography |
 Portrait Photography |
 Urban Photography |
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 Urbex Photography |
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 Wedding Photography |
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2010 was a fun year, and gave me some great photos I’m proud of. I’m looking forward to seeing what I produce in 2011.
~Shepy
Gully Sutherland’s Victorian Winter Wonderland
Dec 31st
Harking back to the music halls and variety shows of Victorian times, Newcastle was treated to a impressive variety performance by several well known burlesque dancers, comedian Alfie Joey (of iDeal fame) and a couple of local bands. All came together to provide an excellent performance, a superb night entertainment and laughter all round.
I was on hand with camera to snap the night’s proceedings, and here are some of my favourites from the night:
Urbex: Dalton Pumping Station
Dec 27th
Dalton with chimney intact (click to enlarge)
Bestwood pumping station (click to enlarge)
Dalton grounds plan (click to enlarge)
The Architect
Thomas Hawksley was a big name in water engineering in his lifetime, with many great achievements under his belt. He worked with Lord Armstrong to invent a self-activating valve which allowed for the water pipes to be fully charged under pressure meaning water could be drawn at any time from the system. Previous to this water supplies would run intermittently due to lack of pressure and leaks (which couldn’t be isolated with valves) making them wholly unreliable. Hawksley went on to be the lead architect and engineer on no fewer than 150 water pumping stations, many of which remain to this day as grade listed buildings. Hawksley was a fan of using tried and tested designs, which can be seen in the similarities between many of his pumping stations.
The top two pictures on the right of this page show Dalton and Bestwood, where the similarities are readily obvious. Some very impressive work really from a man who was entirely self taught, and managed to get himself attached to a local architectural firm at the age of 15, continuing on to be lead engineer for a number of highly prestigious architecture firms and even to become the first president of the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers.
The Water Company
The Sunderland & South Shields Water Company, created from an act of parliament in 1852 by combining the water boards from the two districts, were responsible for the clean water supply to a large urban conurbation. One of their primary roles was the commissioning and then operation of water pumping stations to draw water up from groundwater wells up to reservoirs on the surface. One of these pumping stations at Ryhope still remains in serviceable condition, though not in active use, and is steamed up periodically through the summer as a museum and visitor centre.
One of the pumping stations built for the Sunderland & South Shields Water Company was the Dalton Pumping Station, built between 1873 and 1879, the station was one of five built in the North East by esteemed water engineer Thomas Hawksley and the only one designed to the Venetian Gothic Revival style in the region. (Humbledon is neo-classical, Tees Cottage & Fulwell are Gothic, Cleadon is Italianate and Ryhope is Jacobean.)
The Design & Build
Many water pumping stations at the time of the build would use a Watt Steam Engine, so it was consider quite unusual when Hawksley opted for a pair of 72″ single-acting non-rotative Cornish beam engines (and Dalton is widely considered to be the only Cornish engine to have used super-heated steam). The reason for these massive engines was the need to pump the water from a depth of approximately 450ft, the first 268ft by bucket lift and then the last 182ft by ramp pump operation. When you compare this 450ft to the nearby well depth of Ryhope at only 250ft, you can understand the requirement for such engines. Though the engines were not as fuel efficient as other pumping stations, they were the right choice for working to such demanding depths.
With engines of this size, there was little choice other than to prepare the borehole, then build the engines, and then build the engine house around them once in place. The engine house also incorporates one of the earliest gantry cranes, with a 20 tons capacity which runs on cast iron tracks running above the side windows.
The engines were intended to pump water up through the limestone to a reservoir on the site, from which it could be pumped back out and supplied to Sunderland and it’s outlying areas. Hawksley didn’t wish for this utilitarian building to be too industrial, and so designed the grounds of the site to be as pleasant to look at and walk through as they were functional, arranged as a formal water garden. The grounds map on the right shows the three cooling ponds directly in front of the engine house all with ornate shapes, and the central one of which even included a fountain. The reservoir to the north of the Engine house continued this ornate theme, and all were interlinked by an array of pathways, grassed areas, trees and bushes lending the whole installation more of a feel of landscaped garden than industrial complex. The design for the grounds had 6 houses for workers of the site, two of which were full time gardeners to keep the grounds in pristine condition.
Urbex: St Joseph’s Seminary
Dec 8th
Early Years
St Joseph’s college was founded in 1880, designed to be the primary seminary priest college for the North East of England, and formally opened in 1883. The location for the college was selected as it is the perfect geographic centre for the Diocese of Liverpool, which in itself was created in 1880 as an off-spur of the Diocese of Chester. The seminary provided training and guidance in the North West through the process of being ordained for priesthood candidates, along with another similar facility at Ushaw College (also partially derelict now) which served the North East.
From the early age of 11 boys could enroll at the Junior Seminary and undertake early learning and preparation for entering the Senior Seminary at age 18. This system remained largely the way of things from it’s inception, till the Second Vatican Council, a 3 year council which resulted in radical reforms throughout the church, with it’s primary tasks being to:
- to more fully define the nature of the church and the role of the bishop;
- to renew the church;
- to restore unity among all Christians
- seeking pardon for Catholic contributions to separation;
- and to start a dialogue with the contemporary world.
Later changes
This Second Vatican Council, combined with dwindling interest and joining of the church, it was decided to combine and specialise the two main seminary sites, with St Joseph’s taking all of the junior seminary roles in 1972, followed by Ushaw taking all of the senior roles in 1975. St Joseph’s remained as a boarding school for children considering a vocation right up until 1987, and then for the final four years remained as a domecile only for the children studying a vocation at Sj John Rigby College in nearby Orrell. The building finally closed in 1991.
Famous Alumni
St Joseph’s can lay claim to several well known alumni from many walks of life through biblical scholars, politicians and even the odd celebrity, such as comedian Johnny Vegas and Paddy McAloon who went on to be the sinnger with Prefab Sprout.
Gladwell Collection
On closing the college donated it’s “Gladwell Collection” – a rare and highly valued literary collection to the Liverpool Hope University. The collection, though not grown since it’s donation in 1975, comprises of much material covering all of the topics one could expect of a seminary and college such as theology, philosophy, the church, secular and local history and contains documents dating back as far as the 16th century.
Current plans
Plans are still under consideration for conversion of the Grade 2 listed building to 92 apartments, though even this has controversy surrounding it as much of the art and artefacts of the seminary are to be marked for sale or disposal despite them originally having been donated by numerous parishes, and they return has never been offered. In the meantime the buildings have served for use as location shooting for several TV shows, including the cellars being used for a wedding for Hollyoaks.
Though I’m not a fan of religion (but that’s one for another post!), I’ve always admired the grandeur and elegance in religious architecture and buildings. So, on with the pictures (click to enlarge)
Drooling at lenses
Dec 6th
Every now and again, Canon annoy me, and now is one of those times. Why am I annoyed? Because once again they have released some new Canon EF Lenses and once again I find myself wanting more glass. I've been happily pottering along with the lenses I have, and then I stumble past the Canon site and start salivating at the thought of a new lens.
Photography is one of those hobbies where there is always something else to be had, some other bit of kit that you want, and lenses more so than anything else. I've got two Canon lenses that get used for all the serious or important stuff, and a Tamron lens that I use as a general walkabout for 'snapping'. When it comes to clarity and sharp images, I'm still amazed at the quality put out by the 50mm F1.8 (or Nifty Fifty as it is usually known), and the depth of field is fantastic for portrait work.
When I first got my 5D mkII, as an upgrade from my 400D, i was a little bit peved that some my lenses would not work as they were EF-S, I loved the Sigma 10-20mm that I used to use for explores. That is until I used the 17-40L F4 that I take on urbex trips with me now, it's simply a world apart from the Sigma (even when I tried it on the 400D before I sold it)
I'm sitting here looking at the 50mm F1.2, and wondering if an aperture like that actually allows the thing to see in the dark, and if not then it really cant be far off. In a perfect world I'd have a bag full of L glass, and all with apertures less than F2. Portrait, gig and street stuff would be so much more interesting with that tasty looking 85mm F1.2L. One day, if I ever win the lottery, I'll go out and buy one of every lens in the L series just because I can, including the L series coffee mug :P Till then however I think I'm just going to salivate a bit more, and settle on one lens for the time being.
~Shepy
Photography: A couple of Scotland Landscapes
Dec 5th
I’ve been up to Scotland a few times in the last couple of months, and managed to take a moment to take a quick couple of pics. Not enough to make a massive post about, but I thought I would make a quick mini-post for these two.
Cheers for looking :)
~Shepy
Photography: Marie Antoinette themed model shoot
Nov 26th
I recently did a shoot for Daisy Stays, a local company that does custom made corsets and stays. When Paul, a photographer friend of mine, saw the images as they were put on Facebook, he asked if the girl who was playing Marie Antoinette would be up for another shoot so I said I would enquire.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and Paul and I picked up Monica, and we were off for the shoot, again with the Marie Antoinette look. Considering this was only Monica’s second shoot, the first being the Daisy Stays one, I think she did really well both in following direction and pulling poses.
Some images from the day:
Urbex: Pirniehall School
Nov 25th
Sadly not a huge amount of information about this place on the net, so this will be a bit less informative than I would usually like, but on with what little info I could find:
Pirniehall was built originally in 1896 as a mansion house for Sir Alexander Murray, on an estate purchased from the Duke of Montrose, using stone from a Quarry a few miles away. The architects were John Archibald Campbell & Andrew Edwin Martin.
In the 1940s Pirniehall was purchased by the old Dunbarton Council Education Department, who up until the late 1970s used the building as a residential school, giving many primary pupils a week’s introduction to a simple early version of adventure activities.
During the 1970s & 80s the site was altered for use as a residential education facility before closing in 1993.
In the grounds of the school are two very tall trees, which were used by pilots during WW2 as markers to show them they were nearing their base.
Plans have been discussed for the regeneration of the nearby village of Croftamie, which would also involve the “sensitive restoration of this redundant building” which reeks of progress stamping all over history to me.
And so, on with the pics:
