Tag: Transport

Arran

It was a whistle stop trip to the isle of Arran for a Sunday shoot.

After a little early morning jaunt on one of CalMac’s finest. They do a cracking bacon roll, by the way. It was decided that we would head to Brodick Castle. A National Trust for Scotland property with extensive gardens, it’s a beautiful place. I need to head back to spend longer there sometime and to see round the castle itself.

If only there had been more time…. We were running a little late to get the ferry back (there’s limited spaces just now) so had to do a bit of a route march to get back to the terminal. My legs almost couldn’t take it…. I need to to more excersize if I plan on doing more shoots like this.

Summerlee

So this one took me two visits to get all the way round. I seriously underestimated the amount of glorious things there were for me to snap. Also the cafe is brilliant.

Out in Coatbridge, Summerlee is an old iron works now home to an almost endless display of the industrial heritage of Lanarkshire. Even up into my youth still a source of steel, Lanarkshire was home to many coal mines, weavers, engineering plants, steel and iron works. Summerlee is the child and photographer friendly home to a collection of social and industrial history exhibits. There’s a working tram service, coal mine (recreation), canal barge, miners’ cottages, trains…. you can see why it took me so long with my rust problem (I have a lot of rust photos).

So you have the iron Vulcan barge in the post feature image and the the beautiful entrance way now for a few more…

Main visitor centre entrance
The tram leaving the miners’ row cottages
Inside of one of the miners’ row houses
The old iron work foundations and their residents.

Dundee

So I spent a brilliant weekend in Dundee… I started shooting when it was getting dark on Friday evening then went on to visit the V&A Dundee, RRS Discovery and the best statue I’ve visited in a long time.

The V&A is brilliant inside and out and of course they have a specially commissioned item in the shop that shares its name with me. A Selkie cushion. Yes, I brought one home with me. You can take photos in some of the exhibits just be careful of flash. So from there it was all aboard the RRS Discovery which lives next door.

Photography is actively encouraged and its a great exhibition and place to learn about how we finally made it to the South Pole and Antarctica. Amazing to think this ship was frozen in ice for 2 years while they investigated and made all sorts of scientific discoveries.

They wouldn’t let me use the darkroom but then you don’t really need it with a DSLR……. Yep they were taking photos all the way down there….

I had time for one stop before home but I’ll post about that tomorrow….

Riverside Museum

So it was the final shoot for my intermediate night school course and I’m gonna miss it. I still join a group every second Sunday so the learning and fun will continue with the friends I made there.

Riverside Museum

Back to the location and Riverside is still known to some of us as the Transport Museum and we get easily confused as it previously lived in the Kelvin Hall building. Opened in 2011 and designed by the amazing architect, Zaha Hadid, Riverside is a purpose built site and united the history of transport in Glasgow and the greater area with the tall ship Glenlee. Filled with cars, bikes, trains, trams… if it goes, it goes here.

Glenlee
Glenlee, photobombed by Neil

Glenlee alone is worth a visit. Both are free to enter and are camera friendly. Busy, unsurprisingly, on weekends and holidays, so not always open to tripods. The mock street has a photographer’s studio so you can ogle some lovely old cameras. It’s a great place for shots but can be dark. Good luck and high ISOs are needed.

Subway

On a good day you can enjoy views along the Clyde with the Titan crane and Clydebank to the west and SEC/BBC/Hydro/Squinty bridge/Science Centre to the east…. You don’t even need a wide angle to get all those in. This place really is a gift to photographers.