Shooting Star

As part of my job being Frances's chauffeur, I took her to the local shooting club where she's a member.  I was allowed in on the understanding that I wore ear protectors and didn't make any sudden movements while Frances was shooting.

The final image involves a slight disagreement about the final score for Frances's 10-shot target.  Using a gauge specially made for the purpose, it became clear that it was 93 rather than 92.  Apparently the maximum is 101 - something which took a little bit of explaining to non-shooters like me.  Apparently there is a small dot in the middle of the inner "10" circle which scores "0.1".  Please don't ask me why...

Gloucester Road Shopping

I'm in Bristol at the moment and, of course, it is raining.  The original plan had been to go to the zoo, but there seemed little point given the weather.  Instead, Frances and I went shopping along the Gloucester Road, and here are some of the scenes we spotted.

Dog Friendly Fossil Hunting

It's been a bit of a lean period for photography recently, but hopefully I'll be able to change that over the Christmas period.  Due to a clerical error I had lots of holiday to use up at the end of the year, so I've taken up Frances's invitation to spend a week in Bristol.  Yesterday we went to Watchet on the Somerset coast, which claimed to have a "Dog Friendly Fossil Beach".  Curious to know what Dog Friendly Fossils looked like, Frances and I headed down there with Amber.  Not much in the way of fossils (dog friendly or otherwise) but still a great place for a Winter walk on the beach.  The rock formations were amazing too, with rich veins of Quartz (both White and Rose) in the red sandstone.

More from Harry Potter

A few more pictures from my trip to the Harry Potter studios, starting with the outdoor "guardian" and the flying Ford Anglia from Chamber of Secrets.

Part of the Main Hall.

The guardian of the stairwell which leads to Dumbledore's office.

Detail from the Chamber of Secrets itself.

The Ice Sculpture from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire.  All made of plastic, unfortunately.

A display of costumes, including Harry's Invisibility Clock.  The lining is made of material with a very specific green colour, which then has another image superimposed using chroma-key technology.

Astonishingly, the colours in the next picture are actually fairly accurate.  It's the office belonging to Dolores Umbridge in the Ministry of Magic, which is lurid pink in colour and covered in pictures of fluffy kittens!

A couple of pictures from the mask-making and "Animatronics" displays.  The first shows a very small set of Goblin heads, worn by the people working at Gringotts Bank.  If only real-life bankers were this attractive!  The second picture shows the mechanical head belonging to Grawp, Hagrid's giant half-brother.  There's nothing in the image to give it scale, unfortunately, but it was truly enormous.

Finally, a few more from the shops in Diagon Alley.

I always wondered about the best place to buy Kneazles...

A Truly Magical Birthday Outing

My own photography has taken a back seat to other commitments recently, but today was the day of my "mystery" birthday outing: to the Warner Brothers studio where the Harry Potter films were shot.  A wonderful day out, and the whole show has been superbly organised.  Considering how many people were there, the only place which felt at all crowded was the shop, which was full of HP merchandise at inflated prices.  Otherwise it was pretty good value, with the only other rip-off being the "Butterbeer", at £2.95 for a small helping of what was, basically, liquid toffee!

The studio was guarded by three of the giant chess pieces from The Philosopher's Stone.

The three principal characters had all made hand-prints when the studio was opened, and Izzi was pleased to discover that she had exactly the same sized hands as Daniel Radcliffe.

The entrance hall was pretty impressive in itself, with some superb portraits of various members of the cast.  It also had the obligatory Starbucks, who appeared to have the refreshments franchise.

Photography was definitely allowed in the studio, but the light levels were low and the colour was constantly changing.  I suspect that this, along with the ban on flash and tripods, guaranteed that virtually nobody got a shot they could use professionally.  Here are a few pictures I've managed to process since I got back from the outing.  Many are monochrome, as the mixed original colours were otherwise totally horrendous.

Dumbledore's office.

The Potions classroom.

The Potter house, in Godric's Hollow.

Diagon Alley (and, yes, the entrance to Gringotts really is that bent).

 The entrance to Hogwarts Great Hall.

An exhibit from the make-up department, with Timothy Spall on one of the shelves!

The Gryffindor bedroom.  One of the few areas where the colour is anything like accurate.

Finally, the 1:24 scale model of the entire Hogwarts Castle, which is truly astonishing.  There are some people visible in the first picture, which gives some sense of the size of the model.

Definitely a Grand Day Out, and thoroughly recommended for anyone who likes Harry Potter or who is interested in the minutiae of film making.