The Burnt Out 4 x 4 and a cast of 1000s at Earlswood

Two burnt out cars to photograph in a week no wonder I have been grinning from ear to ear and singing happy songs all weekend. This year the dumped cars have been very thin on the ground with only five up to last weekend, its not a real problem because I have only just released my new catalogue (soon to be uploaded onto my website – now that’s putting the pressure on) and I have many many stock photos. But, its great to have the opportunity to get some fresh metal to work on.

Friday morning my brother saw this 4 x 4 while taking a short cut through the back roads of Earlswood on the way home from work. Earlswood is due south of the city boundary of Birmingham and famous locally for some excellent fishing at Earlswood Lakes. After heavy rain during the night I had to negotiate the flooded country roads and then stand in cold mud while I took the photographs. I decided not to let Sally the dog out of my car because the mixture of the mud and the remains of the fire all over the area did not make a good recipe for my car being clean on the journey home. Sally was not pleased.

The timing of the find was superb because it was very bright and sunny certainly one of the best days for taking close up often macro photos, I can also use the strong sunlight directed at different angles on the metal to produce some very creative effects.

As I was working the events of the burn out began to unfold: this chap lives on a canal boat and parks his car here just off the canal bridge at the entrance to the field, at 3pm on Thursday the farmer came running and shouting to the boat to get him to move his car which was right next to burning car 4 x 4 he managed to pull Ford Escort clear without any damage, being very selfish it’s a pity because I would have had 3 cars in one week which therefore would of set a new record for me.

The farmer who had been delivering a lorry load of manure to his field was then trapped in the field by the 4 x 4, fire engines and police vehicles.

I couldn’t at first understand why the burn out had these slash marks all over until I was told that the fire was originally up close to the gate and they got a tractor to move it. The fire had also damaged the box associated with the communications aerial in the field and after the battery power was used up the signal went down in the early evening.

All afternoon we played musical cars as this little picturesque country lane got more and more congested.

First I parked up – to take my photos

Then boat man to go home,

Then the man to inspect the aerial.

Then the police came to try and find some vehicle identification (no luck)

Then a visitor to the caravan site over the bridge.

Backwards and forwards came the farmer with his muck lorry, I don’t know what smelt worse the manure or the fumes from his diesel engine.

It was chaos. And don’t forget the traffic taking the short cut along the lane and even the joggers take no prisoners along the country lanes.

After about 3 hours of taking shots the recovery truck arrived but before they took my beautiful model away I managed to get some final pictures.

The lads took a break while I finished off.

I had taken as much as I could from the vehicle and by now the light was deteriorating

Photographing the Ford Escort Day 2

It is very unusual to find a car still there on a second day, but of course I will always pop along somewhat half heartedly just to put some closure on the car. But there it was untouched.

By now I have many (and I would say more than enough) photographs of the car and anything new would be generated by:

Change in the weather. (perhaps overnight frost on the metal)

Heavy overnight rain (creates puddles on the roofs, changes the surface colour)

Damage by bored kids (they create great bumps on the bonnet giving an effect of a mountainous landscape)

Different sunlight from previous day.

The sunlight proved to be the major difference from yesterdays cloudy dark sky to period of no more than an hour of golden Autumn sunlight.

I carried on experimenting from yesterday and even tried some flash photography once the small amount of sunlight dipped. It is difficult to extract anything different after a good long session on the first day, within 24 hours the metal becomes too rusty and its hard to transform the pictures into anything but a rusty surface and of course the aim of my finished images is to alter them far away from their originating base line.

There was no day 3 the car was still on the park until late in the afternoon but a typical November day with dank light and fine misty rain would not facilitate any sharp quality photographs.

Burntout Car in Tysley, Birmingham

I have often dreaded the thought of getting a telephone reporting a found burnt out car and for some reason not being able to go and photograph it. Well this morning it happened for real. About 9:30am I received a call from John the park cleaner about a car found off Cowley Road in Tysley, but I had to take my dog to the vet at 10am I had also arranged to take my dad for an appointment at 11 which meant the earliest I would be there would be 12:30 and by then the car could be towed away. A few years ago you would see burnt out cars left in the position were they were torched but nowadays they are carried away within hours so I was not confident this car would be there when I drove to the park.

The moment when I first see a car is full of anticipation, what condition will it be in is generally the most important concern but for this car I was just relieved to see it still there.

Sadly the arsonists had driven across and ploughed up the ground of the small football pitch. 

The car, a Ford Escort the make and model which traditionally produces some great scorch marks was in perfect condition and in an ideal position in the field which in the limited winter daylight is very helpful because it means there is a better chance of getting good quality sharp pictures.  I had plenty of room to move around the car and point my camera at the best angles, bear in mind that when I’m looking through the lens I aim to capture an image that resembles a landscape (either from outer space or the window of an airplane over a forest or sea or even a seascape below water) and during the manipulation of the image later on my PC I try to dissolve the picture of metal, plastic and glass. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing great markings on a car but that side of the vehicle is in shadow or to too close to a wall/fence and therefore I cant get access. The only problem I encountered here was the choking from the smoke of the still burning tyre.

I had been warned by John to lock my own car and watch my equipment and just be aware of what was going on around me while I worked (the inner city area of Tysley isn’t the best) but the burnout was on the edge of the park far away from the walking paths and Sally was on guard, nobody knows that she is so viscous she would lick them to death.

 Despite the warnings I experienced no problems and I was there photographing until it got dark, its unusual to have so much time to work (because the car would normally be towed away by lunch time) and once I had taken as many photographs using my usual method of lenses and camera settings I utilised the time to experiment not only with other lenses but I changed to my film SLR (Canon AE-1 Program) and used a few roles of film. Under normal circumstances I need to work quick and because of the time constrains I don’t like to use a tripod however, I was able to spend more time setting up the shot. I have often wondered what it would be like having a car in a photography studio with the perfect lighting conditions and being able control the shoot, one day it might happen but this was the closest I have come so far.

Hot of the press is a finished picture

The World Series Markes The End of The Baseball Season

You may have noticed that I post to “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” at some crazy times during the night; the reason for this is my love of Major League Baseball. It all began when Five TV (in the UK) started live coverage of ESPNs “Sunday Night Baseball” from the United States. That programme begins at 1am (UK time) and indeed the majority of American baseball games begin either at midnight or 1am (7pm or 8pm Eastern Standard Time in the USA).  I would possibly video the show and watch it on Monday evening, but now as I’m able to be flexible with my working hours and for that matter sleep time I’m able to watch live.

I latched on to the Chicago White Sox as my team, I don’t know why, possibly because I didn’t want to go with the popular option of the Yankees, LA Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or even the Chicago Cubs. This is perhaps because I can’t relate to supporters of the big four Premiership football teams in the UK who don’t live within 200 miles of the ground. Why can’t they support their local team? Anyway because I was a fan I looked at all the Sox related sites on the internet and then began to follow games on line via the brilliant graphical representation on Yahoo sports and MLB.com.

This year I discovered the TV coverage on MLB.com. Via the internet I was able to choose from 15 live games every night from the 1^st of April through to the end of September, I was in heaven. So while on one PC I have been editing my photographs, building websites and blogging, on the other I was watching the Sox game. Because coverage of the days games across America begins about 8pm UK time and will finish as late as 6am the next morning I was able to watch other teams either before or afterwards. Furthermore, since I don’t live in Chicago (not even in the USA) I wasn’t restricted by the TV blackouts that they enforce for a game in the locality and therefore I was able to watch all 166 White Sox regular season games (in baseball they play every day). Taking advantage of the very favourable exchange rate in April this year it only cost me just £60.  

 People will say and its always the women in my life who have said it that there isn’t a sport that I don’t follow but that isn’t totally true I’ve got no time for horse racing, darts and loads of other sports, many such as tennis and perhaps golf I might watch for a short time if there was nothing else to do. I love football but not wall to wall on TV every night (TV coverage tends to be the Big Four) but I am passionate about playing and watching cricket. 

So what is it about baseball that will captivate me into the small hours of the morning?

I do like the break in the action between an innings although the commercials did drive me mad with their repetition, but this break allowed me to do other things while the game was on, a lot of Brits say this is one aspect of the game they don’t like and would like it to be more flowing.

 The visible pressure on the players and fragile balance between success and letting the whole team down because at certain times, generally towards the end of the game one bad pitch or error could loose the game.

There are so few errors: most of the play is brilliant and slick which means that the players have to do something or indeed be something exceptional to make a difference.

The policy of MLB to strive for an equal level between all teams: This was achieved in 2008 with Tampa Bay who this year are the beaten World Series finalist having gone from the team with worst record in baseball for the last ten years to the best. The governing body put rules in place to help the small teams, for example: they have first choice of the cream of the new young players that are breaking into the game, they either hold onto them and strengthen their squad or cash in and sell them to a larger organisation who have to give them star players and money to compensate, initiatives like this seem to operate throughout the game. While the teams in the big markets do attract the best free agents they have to pay hefty fines when they exceed the payroll ceiling, the success of this levelling is further illustrated when you factor in the New York Yankees (perhaps the richest franchise in sport) they could only finish a disastrous 3^rd in their division and couldn’t make the playoffs while the small market Tampa Bay won the division and went all the way to the big one. 

I often wonder how great it would be if the Premier League in this country applied similar rules, it would break down the top four monopoly of Manchester United, Chelsea. Liverpool and Arsenal.  But it aint going to happen. dream on.

A busman’s Holiday in Ireland

I suddenly realised I hadn’t had any time off this year. Certainly nothing more than the odd day here and there; this is one of the disadvantages associated with having a job that I enjoy doing, I really look forward to Monday mornings. So I decided to take a few days off and visit my sister who lives in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. And what was I doing most of the time? Taking photographs.

A short drive from Birmingham up the M42 to East Midlands, a short cheap Ryanair flight to Derry and within no time I was drinking Guinness. It rained every day but what do you expect, never the less there was some periods of sunshine too. Although I spent most of the time on my holiday taking photos I missed a great shot during the flight, it was a very cloudy day and I thought it was pointless getting my camera out of the bag and left it on the hand luggage rack. Sure enough passing over Liverpool there wasn’t a gap in the white carpet but then during the descent into Derry the plane banked to approach the runway and at this precise moment the clouds parted and the autumn sun low in the sky lit up the landscape below, it lasted no more than 30 seconds. There was the incredible view from above of a farmer ploughing a field with a flock of white birds (I presume seagulls) following the tractor, this of course contrasted vividly with the dark brown soil. The one that got away!

I spent time in Enniskillen photographing and popped into the Buttermarket where local artists have their studios and galleries, 

I remembered the work of Frances Morris from the last time I was there about 4 years ago she paints and displays beautiful photography too. Francis assures me she doesn’t use any digital manipulation software such as Photoshop; all her work is “as taken” her photographs from Venice use the brilliant sunlight to enhance the colours giving the image a strong vibrancy. Frances doesn’t have a website at the moment (she should) but when she does I will link to it.

With my camera I walked around the town exploring places that are off the beaten track, during the 30 years my sister has lived in the area I have visited Enniskillen many times but because I’m no fisherman and not interested in boats I have never seen much of either the river or Loch Erne. 

While I didn’t find any Irish burnt out cars I managed to keep within the theme of cars with these two odd speed limit road sign pictures, I forgot that I was after all in Ireland.

Enniskillen is close to the border with the Republic of Ireland both to the south into Cavan and Sligo or strangely north east to Donegal and handy for day trips. We headed down to Mullaghmore, County Sligo. I really enjoy working with my camera here because within a mile you have the contrast of the rocks, cliffs and crashing waves of the Atlantic coast, a sleepy fishing village and a deserted beach not forgetting the mountains in the background.

 See more photos of my trip to Ireland at my Flickr site