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St George & Merry England!

This country may have a more complicated past than some may like to think, but let us never forget that which made our country great. Let us build upon it, learning from the successes as well as the mistakes and failures; let us make England great again and put the "Great" back into "Great Britain!"

Work is underway rebranding my website as part of my developing photography & photojournalism business, with the aim of having my "Michael's Mission" blog/podcast launch on Pentecost Sunday 19th May. Together we can restore England to her true greatness and help other nations revive theirs too!

Happy St George's Day everyone!

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A collection of photos from the St Patrick's Day parade in Bristol on Sunday 17th of March. For a celebration of traditional Irish culture, it was quite modern and flamboyant, and not without its references to more progressive political agendas (though I've heard of worse), it was wonderful to see how many people come together to enjoy and appreciate a culture that, inasmuch as it has spread across the globe, remains of distinct localised origin.

This is why I am a photographer, to explore in visuals culture in all its various forms, the good, the bad, and the ugly, exploring what makes communities tick, what brings people together, and what pulls them apart. It is local culture that brings communities together, forging links between people and the places the live in, no matter their origin or background, and if we want local and national cultures to continue playing that role, then we must do everything to preserve their identity and uniqueness through all the cultural convolutions of an increasingly globalised world.

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Happy birthday Victoria Coach Station! Opening on March 10th 1934 as the headquarters of London & Continental Coaches, it's celebrating its 90th birthday this year! I spotted TfL's info on the heritage of the building heading home from a church youth conference a few weeks ago, but had too much luggage for easy photography, so I popped into London (on the coach of course) last week to take a few snaps.

It goes without saying that as London's main central coach station, it's grown significantly over the years, with a separate arrivals facility and some coaches using bus stop style bays on the street outside, or a second departure facilities beneath the NHS Digital building.

The original building is an interesting example of Art Deco architecture and the transition from Traditionalism to Modernism in architecture the style represents, with its rather grand entrance facade, on the corner, but plain, unornamented facades on the sides. It's very striking, but more at a distance, with little granular detail at closer level to interest the viewer.

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Made a turn by King's Cross to have a look at their relatively new family waiting room on my trip to London last week. I was there mainly for the model railway, but the whole set-up is so brilliant I thought it really did warrant a bit more coverage.

Opening in 2022, the family waiting room features a variety of seating areas and a play area to keep children entertained while they wait for their train, and its design includes lots of references to the heritage of the East Coast Main Line, aiming to pique the interest of young travellers in the hope that it might bloom into a career in the rail industry. In all honesty, the thinking does seem a little cliche and almost politicised, but I still love the idea of a place where some thought is put into the experience of travel in an age when experience isn't nearly as frequently enough of a consideration as it should be. Raising a family can be challenging, and travelling with one even more so, so if we want to encourage families to travel at all, let alone by public transport, then putting the effort into creating places where children can be engaged and occupied during periods of waiting can go a long way to help.

[mjalford98]

A little sample of this weekend's products from a Saturday afternoon walk in Clevedon. I'm generally not a huge fan of winter photography, but I've recently found a new style that works really well for this time of year, going for a more gritty, grimy, urban atmosphere. It's a style that works well with the stark contrast of taking photos into the low afternoon sun in crisp air, often benefiting from the dramatic cloud patterns we see quite a lot in winter around Bristol.

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I'm competing in the LCE Photographer of the Year 2024! Help me out by clicking on the images below to vote for them in the "People's Choice" category!

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

A belated merry Christmas & happy New Year to all! I managed to catch a bad dose of some winter bug which seems to have been going round, but is quite unlike anything I've had previously, completely knocking me out for nearly three weeks over Christmas, hence the inactivity in this corner of the web. Anyhow, here's to a better 2024!

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Out on a bus trip into town to sort out a few random bits of business - not something we've done all that often of late as the car has proved more convenient for getting into Bristol city centre, which can mean quite the difference between a trip taking half a morning or afternoon or a full morning or afternoon. But I will admit I do rather appreciate being forced to slow down the pace of life.

After spending quite a bit of time of late working on developing my old blog with the addition of video and audio podcasting, it was nice to get out and just take a few snaps of the lovely autumn foliage, so more like shots incoming...

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Exploring Reading for the first time last week, I was quite surprised by the architectural variety to be seen around town, but this spot has to be a bit of a favourite so far. I'm a sucker for quirky arches and tunnels that hide scenes from view until you pass under them, revealing a completely different vista, but this scene is also quite interesting for the comparison of traditional vernacular architecture on Castle Street with the more modern architecture of the housing development behind.

Vernacular architecture is distinct from classical architecture in the sense that it was usually built more for pure functionality foregoing artistic decoration, but traditional vernacular architecture is still greatly appreciated by architectural traditionalists because it still features some variation in the basic structural pattern that break up the monotony of a large blank wall space, even be it as simple as the brick or stone arches over windows and doors to bear the weight of the structure above and transfer it around the door or window in question. The potential for decorative effect is well seen in the terraced buildings on Castle Street, which have used different materials to visually stand out more.

Technological developments in the early 20th century rendered the need for such practical features null, allowing architects to explore new artistic styles that might have their admirers, but have not seemed to gain the same universal appreciation even after the passage of time.

The more modern housing development is a typical example of modern housing estate architecture - no bold statements, and in this case there's some variation in brickwork that does something to break up the monotony of large wall faces, but there's certainly none of the character of the earlier housing stock. Of course, it does what it's meant to do, and that's no bad thing, but when we consider architecture as the backdrop of people's lives, surely we can do more to explore and create architecture that will be more universally liked?

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Unwittingly celebrated World Heritage Day last Saturday with a trip to the Swansea Model Rail Exhibition, from which I've been sorting & editing footage and uploading with the ultimate view of creating a YouTube compilation, so time now to feature the first model railway to have all footage taken now uploaded.

Box Station is an N scale model railway built by the Swansea Railway Modellers' Group, the original subject matter being a station on the Great Western Mainline between Bath and Chippenham. The nameplate of the signal box is now preserved at the National Rail Museum. Some of these videos I have slowed down from the original running speed as seen on the model last weekend so as to give a more realistic appearance.

It was also here that the Rev. W Awdry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books came to watch the trains passing through, as he lived nearby, and he himself relates how the stories were inspired by hearing the freight trains passing by night, banked by tank engines who would push from behind on trains too heavy to be hauled up the gradient by the main locomotive detailed for the run, and imagining the different puffing patterns of the different sized locomotives as being them talking to each other.

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Marking a year since the passing of Her Late Majesty the Queen, and a year since these photos were taken, West Country class steam locomotive no 34027 Taw Valley, masquerading for the Platinum Jubilee as No 70 Queen Elizabeth II awaits its next turn of duty on Saturday 17 September during the Severn Valley Railway's Autumn Steam Gala last year. I have previously posted some more natural looking photos, but having quite a few shots from the day, I decided to put these two through a little experimental editing to add some extra variety of tone to the mix. All photos are of course on Flickr.

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A year before their planned withdrawal from cross-city line services, a pair of class 323s are seen pausing at Birmingham New Street en route to Litchfield Trent Valley. The class 323s were among the last trains to enter service with British Rail before privatisation, and with the sun setting on their day working commuter services around Birmingham, 323221 is seen repainted in a variation of the livery they first wore under British Rail's Regional Railways sector working for the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. What's interesting is that this after something of a hiatus in the early privatisation era when the main operator in the region was London Midland, the current livery used by West Midlands Railway again reflects today's branding of public transport in the West Midlands, as discussions once more circulate of bringing back a degree of local public control, as seen in London and Wales.

Privatisation of railways and other transport services is of course a controversial topic, and one which I hope to cover in my blog/podcast once that's up and running, but suffice to say that while I am very much in favour of creating opportunities for private entrepreneurship in all industrial sectors, public transport should at the very least see strong public involvement, especially at a local level. More will of course be on the way...

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Two snaps taken as I was heading home after the Bristol Harbour Festival on Saturday evening, with all the ferry boats moored for the night, while the fairground continued with its noisy trade, offering ongoing entertainment to those unable to depart from the fun of the day.

It's not often you see a fairground so squarely in the centre of a busy everyday environment, such that it's so evidently in view from land used for more everyday purposes, which is understandable given that they're often rather noisy affairs that people aren't generally going to be very happy with having around for any great length of time. I always find it fun combining different subject matter for photography, and the combination of fairgrounds with elements of everyday life are of particular interest, owing to the stark juxtaposition of the sensually overwhelming escapism of the fairground with the more mundane, everyday surroundings of the wider environment. Not that the harbourside is mundane - anything but!

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Evening photoshoot earlier this year with Great Western Steam Locomotive no 4079 Pendennis Castle, recreating scenes from the heyday of the steam era in the 1920s & 1930s, with all the night photos edited & published - a few more day time shots to receive some attention.

This was my first experience of an organised photoshoot, and great fun combining subject matter of a classic train with crew and passengers in historic costume, recreating the atmosphere of a world which once was so relatively recently, and which, at least in part, I would heartily support bringing back.

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Just indulging another of my passions editing a few of my photos of the fairground at the Bristol Harbour Festival earlier this year and publishing now as a reminder that I'm still around and plugging away.

Most of my photos from the festival are now on Flickr, but I am holding back on publishing too widely until I have had chance to attend to the video shoots I had taken, but which have not received much attention as much on account of time constraints as having to deal with various tech issues, but this is just one of a few recent events which I have recorded on video and which I hope to publish on YouTube once all shots have been edited.

[mjalford98]

Portway Park & Ride was Bristol's first railway station to open in over 50 years when it saw its first regular passenger services on the 1st of August 2023, and being both a rail enthusiast and an advocate for sustainable travel, I simply had to go and capture the station on camera sooner rather than later. I have previously published a reel with info about the station, but I was also able to get some better quality photos which I've now finished editing and uploading to Flickr.

Located just outside of Avonmouth on the Severn Beach Line, the station sees half-hourly services in either direction, of which half run a core service between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth, with extended services running between Severn Beach and Weston-Super-Mare. Services are mostly operated using British Rail built class 165 and 166 Networker DMUs. The station has been integrated into the park & ride bus scheme, sharing car parking facilities, presenting as an alternative to the bus. Personally, I would regard the bus as better for travel to and from the city centre, as it offers a frequent and fast service with few stops on the way, but having the train is a great alternative for those travelling to Temple Meads or the northern suburbs and a logical one given the proximity of the railway line to the existing bus park & ride.

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Day 1 of the Welsh Highland Railway centenary weekend celebration ran jointly by the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway and the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, recreating the early days of the line with construction trains and quarry slate trains, ending with an attempted recreation of a 1923 photo of Russell and Welsh Pony at Beddgelert. My camera was not happy with the lashing rain, so the phone had to come out, but at least that meant I had a few shots ready to go straight off the bat. Those on the camera will have to wait until I'm home and have time to edit and upload.