West Kirby

Cambridge Camera Club reached the finals of the PAGB National Print Championships in Connah's Quay (Deeside, North Wales).  After an uneventful drive up the M6, Ann and I decided to spend what remained of the afternoon at the seaside: West Kirby, to be precise.

 
Not the sunniest of days, but one with the most amazing cloud cover which worked particularly well in Infra Red.

To give a sense of scale, the middle photograph shows a power station and a paper mill on the left, and the new bridge which spans the Dee on the right.  The bottom picture shows circular patterns in the mud caused by some kind of vehicle.  See below for a guess as to the possible culprit.

West Kirby has a rather strange causeway across the mud-flats which forms the boundary of an enormous boating lake.  It's obviously a favourite walk for couples, dog walkers and the like.  When the tide is in, there is the rather surreal sensation that these people are walking on water, when viewed from the Promenade.

The machine which we think must have generated the tracks in the mud is - well - we don't really know.  It's operated by the RNLI and has caterpillar tracks to stop it sinking without trace.  More strangely it has a couple of wooden benches attached to the back, so either it's designed to give joy-rides to tourists or - more likely - to rescue people who have been stranded by the incoming tide.

Whatever else, it clearly needed a good hose-down at the end of the working day...

Stratford Patterns

The final few pictures from the Olympic Park trip were taken once the group had split up at the Westfield Shopping Centre.  I was rather taken with the patterns in the buildings and the bus/DLR stations.

The final picture was taken from a moving train as we departed after a highly enjoyable - if exhausting - visit.

Westfield Shopping Centre

In the area around the Olympic Park, it's impossible to avoid the new Westfield Shopping Centre: a temple to Mammon which forms, I believe, what will be the official entrance to the games in 2012.  Hating such places I confess that I didn't go inside.

More interesting than the shopping centre was a bridge which linked it to the nearby DLR station.

Security is so tight at Westfield that cars are searched when entering and leaving the car park!

The final picture gives some sense of the gathered multitude who were worshipping at the aforementioned temple.  Not one of my favourite places...

The Viewing Platform

As part of the 2012 London Olympics preparations, a viewing platform was built so that visitors (including the all-important International Olympic Committee) could see the whole site and the progress which was being made.  This "platform" is, in fact, the equivalent of a Portakabin which has effectively been glued on top of a 21-storey block of flats!

Being so high results in a truly panoramic view of the whole of the Olympic Site - and most of London, in fact.  It was a hazy day and I was shooting through glass, but the results are still fairly spectacular.

More than one person commented on the fact that the tower block was swaying slightly in the breeze, which is yet another reason why I don't think I could live in one of those things...

Grunge and Graffiti

The whole of the area around the new Olympic Park is covered by graffiti in one form or another.  Although not HDR in the true sense of the acronym (i.e. each image below is a single exposure) I felt that the subject matter called for treatment which added an element of "grunge" - something which HDR Efex does extremely well.

I'm afraid, when I saw the next image, I couldn't resist giving it the title Union Jack.  Sorry...

The colourful graffiti also works pretty well in almost-monochrome infra red too.

Northern Outfall Sewer

Ok, so it's not a very prepossessing name, but the Northern Outfall Sewer (more of a canal than a sewer) forms one of the boundaries of the Olympic Park.  Some marketing bod has seen fit to rename part of it as "Green Way", which seems much more appropriate. 

It was actually very attractive, with lots of interesting waterfront properties and no shortage of buildings, people, boats and dogs to photograph.  "H. Forman & Son" is a smokery and restaurant, and there was the gentle aroma of oak smoke drifting across the water.

My favourite part of the walk along the towpath was a close encounter with a lone Basset Hound, which seemed to know exactly where it was going without any help from humankind.