Margate Matters - Some observations on the resort

Margate has been on my list of places to visit, primarily to see David Chipperfield's Turner Contemporary gallery, along with a general lookabout.

The Gallery did not disappoint me, although one resident did say it was viewed as a "Concrete Bunker", but also added that it had brought a lot of visitors to the town.
Alongside this Margate has been the home of Dreamland, one of the earliest Amusement Parks, which was closed in 2006, and plans were laid to demolish it and build housing. This caused an uproar, and The Dreamland Trust emerged from the campaign, working with partners to secure £12m public funding to restore Dreamland and its jewels: the Grade II listed Scenic Railway, Grade II listed cinema complex and Grade II-listed menagerie cages.

A proposed opening date of 2015 has been mooted, but there seems an awful lot to do before that can happen.

Margate has a neglected air, as so many seaside resorts have, in their heyday they would have been beautiful, filled with holidaymakers from the manufacturing centres nearby, but that has obviously changed and new ways have to be found to bring people in, "Cultural Tourism" being a successful means.

On to the pictures, again a motley crew, architecture and the like forming most of the catch, the resort's nature did not make for people shots, (the children thing). So in the mix I have monochrome and colour, a no no for many, but what the heck, I choose shots I like, & process them to what I think suits the image.

My First Shot

Dreamland Promotion Display

Turner Contemporary

I always love concrete

The View from Turner Gallery

Action Men, boys dolls.

Reflections

A National Institution

He wanted me to photograph him

Wonderful design

In a shop window....

Conversation

Add caption

Tidal Pool

It's A Square World - An equilateral view from an obsessive snapshotter

I wondered why I always take shots in the normal format chosen by the camera, and then crop, drastically sometimes, and I thought I would try an experiment. Had a trip out with Thena, and took a few shots as we wandered around around London.
Had a few definite aims, but not doing anything that I would call serious photography. In the company of family I find it best to just snapshot, which is actually what I do anyways, just taking longer to compose etc.
So it came to looking at my tally from the day, chucked out most of them straightaway in Lightroom, which is now my preferred workflow (don't you love that term, sounds so professional), as the duds "never the see the light of day", though I did keep the whole take before, I must admit, filling up hard drives. Now going through these now, but that is a boring long term thing, though turning up some surprises, as new techniques and visions have come into play.
So I "synched" a 1 x 1 crop in Lightroom on all the ones I was trying an edit, and then on the individual processing I was able to fine tune the crop to how I wanted it. What was astonishing was how the real estate of the shot was cut down, I would have done mostly portrait crops, as that seems to be my favoured format, so a lot would have gone anyway.
As an aside I seem to enjoy the process of taking photographs rather than processing, though having "Taken A Wider View" and making the looks I like, with less regard to how things should look in a pure way, it is now more fun. This experimentation is sometimes successful, at least it seems so to myself.I will be setting up the square format on camera definitely...
So what did I get ? A selection of these are below :

Alone Together

All Aboard

A Little Art Deco

Zaha Hadid Serpentine Gallery Close up

A little Art Deco

The Big Tree

Yard Sale Dancers, Granary Square

Zaha Hadid Curves

Florin Court Detail

Just Waiting

On the Water

Blue and White

Moved Out

Italian Gardens

Remaining I hope

At a Stretch

Tasty Treats

Don't Use In the Rain

"Put On That Red Dress"

The Milliner at Work

Coming Soon to your world - 2014

Another year closes, and as always is a time for a little looking back, and plenty of looking forward. There have been some successes for me in terms of health, and photography of course. Now firmly entrenched in Architectural photography, and with music of course.

Had some great visits to Cambridge Modern Jazz, live music is so good to hear, and will continue that actively, for no reason other than it is so enjoyable, the challenges of equipment and lighting add to the interest, for me.

Unfortunately had a stomach bug this holiday, meaning I had to stay close to home (and loo), but gave me an opportunity to do some computer housekeeping, I have multiple drives loaded with files, and many duplicates scattered around, so I downloaded a trial of TuneUp Utilities 2014, both to find the files, delete them, clean registry and fine tune other settings.
Heartily recommend it, of course use with care, but it is has livened up my pc a lot, and has made a real difference to speed.
TuneUp Utilities 2014

15 Day trial available, then get from Amazon (cheaper)

Using Lightroom 5 now,  which is resource hungry but discovering many advantages to it, so glad I spent the time with it, rather than use Photoshop for everything. Enabling me to go back over the Library, see what is worthwhile keeping, and ditch the rest. Have been tardy in that respect, not clearing folders frequently. Festival folders generally get used once and lay fallow for quite a while afterwards. Deleting all the web sized files, too, so easy to just make some via Lightroom.

My new website is now online, and placing more images there, and intend to expand the text content too.


Photography website

Skip Mcdonald at Musicport

Using Facebook quite a lot, it is so immediate and the Groups are great for sharing information and shots.

More Concrete and a little night music

Experimentation with monochrome, which I love, and a couple from a concerts at the excellent Cambridge Modern Jazz night at Hidden Rooms, recommended.






 

 

 

 

The Marine Court "Ship" at St Leonard's on Sea, Hastings.

 

Would love an apartment at this architectural icon

 

The excellent Laura Jurd Quartet