Devon Break

By shendyNo Comments
A few photos from a very pleasant couple of days in Devon. We went down on Thursday after work as a friend was playing for the Exeter Music Group Symphony Orchestra at Exeter Cathedral. They played Rachmaninov's "Die Toteninsel", Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and his Symphony No 5. The 1812 is one of the few bits of classical music I know, and it was rather splendid - real cannons recorded in Plymouth earlier in the week plus the Cathedral bells and bells from a couple of other local churches piped live into the cathedral. Stirring stuff! Friday morning was spent wandering around the centre of Exeter, where I took some photos of the interior of the cathedral. In the afternoon, the sun was warm enough to go to the beach at Budleigh Salterton - the cliffs sheltered us from the cool wind and it was really rather pleasant to sit out and feel the sun on your skin at long last. On Saturday, we stopped off...
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Saints v Sale

By shendyNo Comments
It's been a while since I've posted any rugby photos. The Brother and I always go to the last home game of the season - the weather is often good and it's a chance to show our appreciation for the players who are leaving, and this year it was particularly worthwhile as two of the fans favourites were playing their last home game - Soane Tonga'uiga and Brian Mujati. And it was a lovely day on Saturday - I do enjoy watching a game in the sunshine in a t-shirt, although I do think that rugby should be a winter game. It has to be said though that the sun, particularly later in the game, did make shooting quite difficult. To top it all off, Saints thrashed a relatively inexperienced Sale Sharks side 47-7, with Sale's 7 points coming with no time left at the end of the game. Oh, and the Saints had the decency to score 4 second-half tries down in "my"...
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Hart’s Bakery

By shendyNo Comments
On Tuesday I got up at the somewhat unprecedented hour of 5:15 and went to take some photos at Hart's Bakery near (almost under) Temple Meads in Bristol. I'd asked owner Laura Hart a couple of weeks before about going in to take some photos and she was more than happy for me to do so, and was wonderfully helpful throughout. Here are a selection of the photos - I've converted pretty much all of them to black and white, and they seem to work well like that, but I have included both colour and b&w versions of those that work well in both. Hopefully I'll be going back in a week or two to do some more, at a more sensible hour when Laura prepares the bread and pastries for the next day....
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A London Trip

By shendyNo Comments
We took a trip up to London (our second in three weekends, after not having been for several years). This time the main reason was for me to go to a Status Quo gig at the Hammersmith Odeon - it will always be the Odeon to me, not the Apollo. There, I've said it. My name is Simon and I'm a Status Quo fan. In all fairness, this was the original lineup playing for the first time in over 30 years and I never saw that lineup play. They had also committed to playing nothing they recorded after 1976, which happens to be the point that I think they started going downhill. Rockin' All Over The World was the start of a long slow decline. Prior to that, they were a fantastic rock band. Anyway, you're here for the photos. We have three from around the Temple Quay area of Bristol - we allowed plenty of time for the bus to get there and...
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Cumberland Basin

By shendyNo Comments
Today was the first trip out with the full new camera kit - yesterday I traded in the D200 and lenses and picked up a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 lens to go with the 24-70 f/2.8. I headed down to Cumberland Basin in Bristol and took some pretty industrial stuff - photos that turned out really nicely in black and white. I started off around the Floating Harbour/Avon locks, then headed along the Portway where there are a couple of old jetties that are decaying rather nicely. Finally, just by Bridge Valley Road, there are a couple of old bits of rail tunnel that have been blocked up. There are quite a lot here, but I took 300 shots today and I like what I've got. I'm not sure if it's the D600 or the high-spec lensesthat's made the difference  (probably both) but these shots are really crisp and sharp. Liking the new kit. ...
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