Dusk

It’s a night spot, not a time of day.

A very popular night spot with the younger crowd in South Shields too, situated in the heart of the night time economy in South Shields just off Mile End Road.

Only the sky is Photoshopped here, just to add a little drama to the monochrome image.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/180 second, f8, iso 200

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Solitude

Away from South Shields

Whilst South Shields does not suffer quite as much hustle and bustle as it’s neighbours Sunderland or Newcastle, it is still a fair bit busier than many UK small towns and cities. So it does us some good to get away from time to time just in order to relax in the quiet English countryside and breathe a fresher air which wafts from a different coast.

That’s why we had a few days away in the Lake District recently, so I thought I’d share this picture of Ullswater, taken just outside of the small village of Pooley Bridge where we were staying. The lakeshore was fairly quiet despite the local population having been boosted by thousands of campers taking a good break over the Bank Holiday weekend, and the waters had receded a fair bit because of a lack of rain over recent months. Still, it was good place to find solitude and a quiet walk as the sun went down.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 40mm lens, /180 second, f11, iso 200

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Soaked in sunlight

Quadrus Centre, Boldon

The Quadrus Centre in Boldon is on the outskirts of South Shields and many people view this office building as a contemporary work of art, with it’s intrinsic simplicity and “green” credentials. Great importance has been attached to it’s construction using renewable materials wherever possible, and with all wood sourced from well stewarded forests, it’s design incorporates much of what the environmental lobby has been looking for in recent years although it’s “cubist” looks are not necessarily loved by all. Set in a small area of wild parkland with a deep lake fronting the building, it has become a haven for birds, ducks, geese, and other wildlife.

Personally I love the way that it’s cedar clad exterior tends to soak up the available sunlight as it faces west at sun down, and it emits a warm golden glow from a single face, the rest of the building just merges into deep shadow.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 82mm lens, 1/180 second, f5.6, iso 200

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Moonlight at Marsden

Camel Island

This small island is in Marsden Bay, South Shields and the path to it is always submerged at high tide. Camel Island is reached via a small path leading down the side of a gently sloping cliff face and it is reputed that the Romans had a quay here and used this route to supply their fort at Arbeia.

This one has had a fair bit of work in Photoshop, the original picture was in colour and taken on a grey lifeless afternoon, you can see it here. So after converting to black and white, removing the sky and replacing it with new clouds and a moon, I then needed to to some additional dodging and burning to create this effect.

Camera details: Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/60 seconf, f5.6, iso 200

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Heugh Street Bridge

The sun drops over The Tyne

It’s probably been a long time since anyone in South Shields called this concrete edifice “The Heugh Street Bridge “, but that is what it was known as in the immediate post WWll yeears when it was built to provide a link from the industrialised shipyards to the residential areas of The Lawe. River Drive was hardly the thoroughfare that it it is now and there was still a myriad of streets leading off from the top of Mile End Road and around Wapping Street. Unfortunately the riverside area and the Market Place had suffered harshly at the hands of the German Luftwaffe and so these areas became the hub of building activity in the early 1950s.

Brigham and Cowans dockyard was situated below this bridge, as was a railway turntable on the end of the Newcastle to South Shields line. A look at the map will help you understand exactly where the dockyard and trainlines were.

Camera details: Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/45 second, f13, iso 200, Velbon tripod.

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