This summer I had some particular obsessions walking around the Floating Harbour.
Harbour fish
Photos in a slideshow, or in a flickr album and some little films
Continue reading “Some of my summer obsessions: fish, water lillies, jetties and rope”
One of the walks I’ve repeated is from Pill, over the Avon via the M5 road bridge and down the river to Sea Mills. I first walked this with Tracy Homer in August last year, and then again in November, but I really wanted Vik to see it too, because there is just so much to see. It takes in some really interesting spaces, especially the industrial ones, and it’s seeped in history – but this time it got very dramatic, as we got to see one of the impacts of the heatwave from closer than I even thought I would.
Here’s the map of our walk, from 5th August 2018:
An album of (a lot of) my photos – mouse/swipe over the first one to start the slideshow, or click through to the album…
…and here are Vik’s gorgeous photos from her holga and deliberate double exposures from her Fuji PET – hopefully you can start the slideshow below, or click through for her album.
I’ve got some specific photos, some soundscapes and a mini film below, with thoughts on some of the things we saw, if you want more…
Continue reading “Pill to Sea Mills – with an added grass fire”
Back on 7th July, Vik and I went looking for streams on Dundry. Our plan was to find as many of the streams that join together and form the Malago, and then follow the river right down to where it joins the Avon… but things didn’t turn out that way. To be fair, it wasn’t all our fault – and we still had a lovely day and saw lots of new things, even if we didn’t see as many streams as I wanted.
Map of our walk here:
My flickr photo album (mouse/hover over the first image below for a slideshow, or click through)
And some gorgeous photos Vik took, in her flickr album.
I also have sounds, words and photos below…
Continue reading “A heatwave walk looking for streams on Dundry, and following the Malago home”
This summer, I experienced something that was legitimately one of the very best things I’ve done in Bristol, and something I’ve longed to do for years – I went on the Bristol Ferry trip down the New Cut, to Netham Weir.
This is a rare trip anyway, as the Bristol Ferry Boat Company only run a couple of these a year, but for the last year they haven’t run them at all, as Ashton Avenue Bridge was covered in scaffolding for the Metrobus works. In the past I’ve only seen these trips after they happened, but for the 6th July expedition, I booked my tickets early, and persuaded some friends to come too – my good friend Matt Gibson, Charlie Revelle-Smith of Weird Bristol fame, and landscape architect Wendy Tippett, who I podcasted with last year about the Sylvia Crowe landscapes of the Cumberland Basin, and her architect husband Andrew.
Here’s the map of our trip:
and my album of photos – click through, or mouse/swipe over the first photo below, and hopefully you’ll see a slideshow. I took a lot of photos, so I’ve written about them as well below…
If you want to know about the New Cut, before I start, check out my podcast interview with Roy Gallop of the Friends of the Avon New Cut, who told me about the history of this very special part of the Avon.
Back in June, the lovely Matt Gibson took Vik and me for a roadtrip, to explore various sources of the Avon – Wor Well, where the Tetbury Avon starts; Joyce’s Pool, where the Sherston branch of the Avon sometimes begins; to see a long barrow; and around Malmsbury, where the two branches meet. It was a lovely day, and I have photos, a sound and some thoughts.
Here’s the map of where we went:
and I have a flickr album of all the photos from the day, but I’ll have specific albums below too. As always, mouse over the first photo to start the slideshows…
Two weeks ago, we had one of those Bristol days, that started misty and murky and ended beautiful and spring-like. I crossed Gaol Ferry Bridge twice – here’s my compare-n-contrast.
Misty morning – looking west, then east:
Back at the start of May, I had a morning trip to Leigh Woods, and it was wonderful – a perfect Spring day, with the clouds whipped across the sky, the light changing continually, from sunny to cloudy and back again. It was such a perfect Spring day, and I loved exploring the Stokeleigh Camp Iron Age Fort, so on the way back down Nightingale Valley, I turned north and walked up the silt banks, through the long grass, and along the tide lines. I have photos, and sounds, below, but let’s start with photos. The album is on flickr, but if you mouse over the first picture, it should bring up a slideshow…
and here’s the map of where I walked – without all the back-and-forth of looking at the same things over and over!
Back in March we had that unseasonable, surprise snow day, and Vik and I walked along the Avon and up into Leigh Woods. I’m still thinking of how the falling snow sounded on the evergreen leaves, and how it felt under my feet – powdery and perfect.
Vik loves to use her toy cameras – plastic lensed, cheaply made medium format cameras, mostly the Holga and Diana, with no settings, and a ton of idiosyncrasies, like lightleaks, and the way the back of the camera will fall off for no apparent reason. And with a ridiculously low ISO film, on a day without all those snow-clouds overhead, she wasn’t set up well, so only took two photos. But wow, they’re gorgeous!
Compare them to my photos from the walk – and check out more of Vik’s photos over on her flickr and her instagram.
Excuse my terrible phone photo!
Photographique is Phil Searle’s fantastic Bristol print lab: developing photos, printing them from digital and negative, selling frames and doing all kinds of things. They’ve recently moved into their new North Street premises. I’ve been using their services, or just dropping in for a chat, for 10 years, so I was completely delighted when the manager Hamish Trevis, asked me if I’d like to have my photos on their walls this month.
It was a really good process for me. This Avon Stories project is about a year old, but while it exists in different forms online (including the podcast and social media), and of course all my walks are In Real Life, I haven’t started showing it yet. In fact, I haven’t had a show, or put photos on walls since my Photography degree finished, nearly 4 years ago. I’ve really missed the process of editing, and taking this huge pile of stuff I’ve been making, and thinking how I can present it, so my huge thanks to Hamish and to Phil, for giving me this chance.
If you’re in/near Bristol, please do pop into Photographique, 53 North Street, and check out all their services online – and while you’re there, have a beer in Phil’s fantastic pub, The Hare, next door! And if you like film photography, you can also enter their Analogue Photography Competition from anywhere in the UK, and win cash prizes. But if you’re not nearby, I’ve put the photos I’m showing into a flickr album.
As well as putting the photos on the wall, Hamish made me a fantastic little booklet to go with them, so if you can’t get to see the pictures in person, here’s what they are, and why I’m showing them.
A gas leak on the closed Avon path
Last Thursday was the hottest day of 2018 so far, a truly beautiful day, where it felt like summer, not spring, and a perfect day for a walk. Tracy Homer and I were exploring some of the nature reserves along the Avon – a very similar walk to one I took in November last year with Vik, but in reverse. It includes four very different nature reserves: the Goat Gully; White’s Paddock & Bennett’s Patch (aka the home of the wicker whales); Bishop’s Knoll Woods; and Old Sneed Park Nature Reserve.
My map is here:
and there’s a photo album on flickr, or if you mouse over or click on the first photo below, it should open up the slideshow.
So what did we do?
Avon Stories 