July 12th – At the end of the new Lichfield Southern bypass, just at the A461 end, a hazel thicket. The squirrels don’t seem to have found it yet – it’s absolutely laden with nuts.
A remarkable sight.
Tag: bypass
December 16th – On my return, I stopped to play around with long exposure shots at one of my favourite spots – the footbridge over the Chasetown Bypass near Chasewater. I love the curving lines of the road here, the streetlights and the way all the surfaces and lines interact. It’s a lonely spot, but there’s something quite beautiful about it at night.
I guess it’s that Late Night Feelings thing again…
November 10th – Night ride home. Long exposure experiment without a tripod. Again, the camera is stood on the guard rail on 15 second exposure, looking west up the A5 bypass from the Jerry’s Lane flyover at Weeford. In the distance, and ambulance is coming. When I took this, it was almost total darkness.
October 26th – And then, there’s the darkness itself, and the magical effect it has on otherwise ordinary, everyday places. A by-pass, a windswept pedestrian bridge, a well-positioned streetlight, a lone stranger.
Even Chasetown can be dramatic at times. Hello darkness, my old friend.
March 16th – You ever have one of those days when nothing goes right? Yes, that. I set out to visit a pal and never found them, cycled down to Burntwood to buy something that wasn’t in stock, and then left my bike lock key on the doughnut counter in the supermarket (there’s a lesson in there, somewhere). It’s only Saturday evening, and already this feels like Lloyd Cole’s Lost Weekend.
Crossing the bypass on my empty handed return from Burntwood, I stopped to look down the road towards the M6 Toll. I don’t know why, but I love this view. The distant, windy sweep of cars on the motorway; the endless points of sodium light; the red beacons of the Sutton Masts in the distance. The air was hard and clear, the clouds dramatic and threatening. Apart from the periodic moan of cars beneath my feed, I was alone.
Then I didn’t feel alone anymore. Something was with me. I turned around, and on the bollard at the end of the footway, perched an owl. We made eye contact, but as soon as I went for my camera, he was gone, into the darkening night.
Somehow, it was soothing, reassuring and beautiful.
December 18th – The weather has become warm, drizzly and misty once more. On my return from Chasetown, I noticed the streetlights on the road below were highlighting the thin mist. I’m fascinated by the view from this bridge. This is the new road system constructed a decade ago to support the M6 Toll. The roads are wide, open and fast, and without the expected traffic level, seem impressively large at night. In the background glow the red lights of Sutton Coldfield’s transmitters. There’s something almost inhuman about the design of these roads – no footpaths, a world prohibited to pedestrians, yet they have a very human beauty. I find them fascinating.
December 18th – Crossing the Chasetown Bypass from Anglesey Wharf to Paviours Road at night, I was struct by the parabolic nature of the footbridge, and the light and shade. Some of these structures – in daylight mundane, unremarkable – come to life at night. Sometimes, you just stop, and savour the magic of it.
February 19th – Alongside the Chasetown bypass, this bit of urban wit. The ‘Alison, will you marry me?’ sign has been there for weeks, but the conversation has grown in recent days. I love this stuff. Wonder if Alison really did say yes?
December 3rd – A cold, windy afternoon. Busy all day, I managed to slip out at dusk, and took a spin up to Chasetown in order to photograph the town’s Christmas lights from the top of the hill, a plan cruelly thwarted by the ugly fact that the don’t have any. On the way, I stopped on the southern footbridge over the Chasetown bypass to photograph the new road system. Between this new road and the M6 toll, huge amounts of farmland, heath and scrub were destroyed and asphalted over. These junctions altered the local road system massively and I don’t think the local ecology ever really recovered.
November 18th – The night photos continue. Sorry if you’re getting bored with them, I am trying to vary them a bit, it’s just that I’m mostly on my bike right now when it’s dark, and today was no exception. I escaped for a spin over to Whittington at 4pm, and was captivated by the traffic when crossing the A38 footbridge at Weeford. Looking south, the top photo shows traffic on the A38 itself, Little Hay Lane and M6 toll, off to the right. The lower picture was taken on the flyover taking Jerry’s Lane over the A5 Bypass near Packington Moor, with Lichfield TV transmitter in the background. I’ve been trying variants of these for a while and these are the first such long-exposure shots I’ve been happy with. Oh well – should see some daylight tomorrow…
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