Liverpool Sea Odyssey – little girl giant

After the uncle giant fell asleep we headed down to Pier head to see his niece and her dog sleeping. We weren’t quiet so look with getting a clear view but once she woke up and started moving it got a lot better. Again it was an incredible piece of street theatre to watch. The atmosphere in the crowd was fantastic. Everyone loved her and Xolo her dog who was running around and entertaining the crowd.

Liverpool Sea Odyssey – uncle giant

On friday I heard about an event taking place in Liverpool over the weekend to commemorate the titanic disaster. A 50ft giant uncle, dressed in a diver’s suit, was searching the streets of Liverpool for his young niece, to deliver her a letter from her father who died on the Titanic. The little girl giant was also walking the streets with her giant dog Xolo in search of her uncle. They would finally meet up on the docks on saturday evening and sail away down the river Mersey on Sunday. We were in two minds about going. On the one hand it would be a fantastic piece of street theatre but on the other we live approximately 1.5-2hrs away from Liverpool and we imagined the roads and trains would be horribly busy. In the end we woke up early on Saturday morning and decided to risk it. The trains were as busy as expected but it was totally worth it. We joined the crowds outside St George’s hall around an hour before the uncle was supposed to take his afternoon siesta.

 

About 30 minutes or so after we got there, police bikes came round the corner and then we noticed music getting closer. Suddenly this incredible 50ft puppet came round the corner. He eventually sat down right in front of us. The puppeteers assailed down and removed his helmet. The skill and co-ordination involved was incredible. There were directions being shouted at them but because they were in French it some how added to the sence of theatre.

Once his helmet was removed he promptly fell a sleep. Complete with snoring and sounds of the sea playing.

I’ll be back with part 2, the little girl and her dog, tomorrow.

Street safari Manchester

Yesterday I went on a street safari course in Manchester (I shared some of the photos here for this weeks scavanger hunt sunday). We spent 3 hours walking around the city trying to capture candid street photos and photos of the architecture and street art. These are a selection of my favorites including the first one which I submitted to paint the moon p52 (unique perspectiv) and was included in Annie’s picks of the week, I was so surprised and honoured to be included. Street photography is not something I have considered before, so it was something different for me. I signed up for the course as it was greatly reduced on groupon and I hoped to learn a bit more about photography. I did learn a few more tips about photographing reflections and I had a go at trying to capture candid street photos. I definaetly have a long way to go with capturing good street photos but I really enjoyed exploring the city with my camera and with a group of people all interested in photography.

Scavenger hunt sunday – 29th January

My fourth scavenger hunt in a row! This weeks photos were all taken on a street safari photography course I took in Manchester yesterday.

Smile

Not the best street art I photographed yesterday but the nearest I got to a smile.

Stand Alone 

If it wasn’t for this prompt I wouldn’t have looked twice at this photo but after a bit of cropping and converting it to black and white I actually quiet like this photo.

Rusty or Something Old 

I loved the detailing on this old building

Artificial

This photo is articicial in that it is a photo of a building reflecting in a puddle. I then flipped the photo 180 degrees in photoshop so the building is the right way up but the legs look like they are walking on the ceiling. This is one of my favorite photos from yesterday and the best tip I learnt.

Repeating Pattern

The roof of a tunnel we walked through.

I’m still editing photos from yesterday so expect at least one more post of my favorites later (possibly more).

First snow this winter

Yesterday we had our first snow fall this winter. Although it snowed most of yesterday and we’ve had a few heavy showers today, thankfully it’s not sticking. As much as I see the beauty in a snowy scene I don’t enjoy the disruption snow brings to travelling.

Day 275

9th June 2011

We made the long drive from the Maremma back to northern Tuscany, to Lucca where we would spend our last two nights in Italy. After checking in to our B&B which was just outside the walls of Lucca, we spent a few hours exploring the Lucca, having a few drinks and a nice meal before heading back to our B&B to get a good nights sleep before our last full day in Tuscany. It rained on and off that afternoon but I like the dramatic look it gives some of these photos.

This mirror was outside on the wall in one of the famous “squares” in Lucca. It’s not actually square at all but oval shaped and was previously a roman amphitheatre. I have lots more photos of this piazza to show you taken on the 10th June as well as many more areas of Lucca.

Day 226

21st April 2011

Gosh, how far behind am I with uploading my photos? I’ve still been taking a photograph every day but I’ve been away a couple of weekends, I was without a computer monitor for a week and have been generally busy with finalising our up coming wedding.

Here our a couple of photos taken on the drive to Anglesey for easter weekend.

Day 170

24th February 2011

Tonight as I walked home from work I noticed the clouds were a pretty pale peach colour and thought that I would photograph it when I got home. However when I arrived home I changed my mind as the sky around where I lived was not that impressive. 5 minutes later though the sky was getting far more impressive.

As I shot away the colours became more and more vibrant. I couldn’t pick my one favorite so I thought I’d share three today.

Project 64: out of the box – week 5 grey (including days 152)

I was struggling to find something to shoot for grey. When I woke on Saturday the weather was grey and miserable but it didn’t occur to me to use it as a photo oppertunity for project 64 until we were on the motorway. All the spray from the cars made the view seem more grey and suddenly I’m taking photos through the windscreen (don’t worry I wasn’t the one driving!). I’ve tried taking through the windscreen shots from a moving car before but never been happy with them. For that reason I took a back up shot for grey on Sunday.

Day 152, 6th February 2011

 

Manchester Christmas markets

It’s become something of a tradition of ours to visit the Manchester christmas markets every December. We book a day off mid-week (it’s busy enough during the week, so who knows what the weekends are like), wrap up warm and catch the train in to the city. The markets are a mixture of food and gifts from all over Europe but particularly Germany, France and to a lesser extent Italy.  Here are a few of my favorite photos taken on the day. You can find the rest on my flickr page.

I also took some photos of various shop window displays such as this one below.

And finally a picture taken at dusk with the Manchester wheel in the background.