Tag: canal

#365daysofbiking Haunting lights

Thursday December 10th 2020 – Coming home on yet another wet night, I turned to look at Chandlers Keep across Catshill Junction just as it was starting to come on to rain again. I thought it might make a good photo.

This worked better than I imagined it would, and I think it’s mainly due to the reduced sideways glare from LED streetlights used on that development.

They also give a really interesting ghostly aspect from a distance, that seems more pronounced in damp conditions.

There really is a theme lately: There is beauty in the grimmest nights I think.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3o8yEHR
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Harbour lights

Wednesday December 9th 2020 – The houses that replaced the marketplace and wasteland at Silver Court Gardens have been a welcome addition – and the Moorings, the road alongside the canal where the new house front the waterside – is really nice.

There seems a real community spirit there and no matter what the festival – VE Day, halloween, Christmas – the neighbours really get together to jazz up their houses and bring some happiness to the town.

As I passed on a wet night, I thought what a lovely little community it was, and what a great asset to the town the development had become.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3htQ0fU
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Looking the other way

Thursday December 3rd 2020 – On an evening ride on a night as the sky was clearing, I headed along the canal to Ogley Junction, and stopped as I usually do on the bridge there, for a moment of contemplation. Normally, I take a shot of the canal back towards Anchor Bridge, but today I turned to the right instead.

Here, the canal continues in a lazy arc to Anglesey Wharf and Chasewater, but before that is passes a notorious area of Brownhills called ‘The Chemical’.

The blue factory unit over there is stood on the site of a Victorian chemical factory and later, an alloy smelting works that poisoned the land, polluted the air and led to it’s descriptive nickname.

The Chemical stood as wasteland for many years until six years ago when the new unit was built as an extension to a local factory. The contaminated soil was encapsulated beneath the new building’s floor, and held safe.

Given a few years, I doubt many folk will ever know why we call this place The Chemical.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3pvhHaO
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Atmospheric pressure

Sunday November 29th 2020 – The weather was still awful, but resolved to make a better time of it, I set out with a good friend to try and capture the mist and light as best we could.

Sometimes, on the greyest, most horrible nights magic happens, and tonight, it did just that.

Mist and electric light can make the most industrial places look stunning – those swans are on a thin ribbon of canal between a waste transfer station and a scrapyard.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/37ZBM3f
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Inverted

Wednesday November 25th 2020 – I took to the canal towpath on the way home which was a bit of a mistake as it had rained a fair bit in the morning, and the way was lined with muddy puddles that made for damp legs.

But there was a treat waiting.

As I travelled, my headlight started picking up swirls of mist over the water, and by the time I was near the new pond and Clayhanger Bridge, there were appreciable clouds of vapour rising and tumbling above the water, but only in short stretches, whereas others were clear.

This phenomena is a meteorological inversion and is absolutely captivating to watch.

The bike headlight did a great job of lighting the scene up. It really was gorgeous. Best I’ve seen for a few years.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3fAE22T
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Hiding in the dark

Monday November 2nd 2020 – A windy, wet day with little to commend it. I took this photo from Catshill Junction bridge in the pitch dark on a long exposure and it’s not great, but does show the movement in the skyline well.

It was a foul, wet night – it’s rare I leave the towpath to hit the High Street due to mud and slipperiness but I did tonight.

But one thing redeemed the shot: I never realised the swan family were there, hiding in the dark.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3kmYJA6
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Foxed

 

Sunday November 1st 2020 – Coming back from an errand in Chasetown, in the early evening, a pair of glowing eyes caught my attention in the hedgerow near Catshill Junction. Undeterred by my light, a fox emerged onto the towpath.

This young male, sadly suffering what appears to be mange on his hind quarters, was relatively unperturbed by my presence and checked me out for a minute of two before trotting off.

Foxes are martyrs to mange, a skin infection triggered by mites that cause hair loss and open, irritating sores.

Thankfully, the National Fox Welfare Society gives away a free treatment in the UK that householders can put into food to treat the disease, and return Reynard to health. To find out more about that, click here.

Always nice to make a fox’s acquaintance, but sad to see this one suffering.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3l0BzB0
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Harsh but beautiful

Thursday, October 22nd 2020 – I’m still ambivalent about the iPhone as a camera. It’s a huge advance in photography without a doubt, but outside of it’s quite narrow comfort zone, you can really tell that it’s relying heavily on software post-processing.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the lauded ‘night mode’.

Here on the canal near Silver Street it took a stunning image on my way home from work – yet look closely and it’s very harsh.

I know I’m expecting way to much from something in an incredibly small package with tiny optics, and it is extraordinary, but the technology still has a very long way to go.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/35FjiCG
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Just resting

Sunday, October 18th 2020 – A rest day, with just a small loop around town in the evening to keep my legs moving.

It was dry and quiet when I rode up to Catshill Junction and back down the High Street. Not a soul around in the blessed, blanketing dark.

I love to see the town like this. It has such a curious character at night, when you feel like you’re the only person to witness it.

Long rides are wonderful, but sometimes the short ones are pretty fine, too.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/34oCg12
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Light on the surface

Wednesday, October 14th 2020 – The darkness, as I’ve pointed out, allows me a different selection of subjects, often ones which aren’t particularly interesting in the daylight, yet come to life at night or in twilight.

One of those is my old muse of Clayhanger Bridge and the canal overflow nearby.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the way the streetlight on the bridge, the reflections on the water and the sky and skyline combine. And the whole thing seems to vary hugely depending on the weather and time of evening.

I’ll never tire of it, even if readers do…

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2T3qFOe
via IFTTT