Taken at 02:19pm in Blackpool, UK. Thursday 22nd January 2009.

The Winter Gardens is home to Europe's second largest theatre (the Opera House) and is one of Blackpool’s most treasured historical buildings. It opened in 1878 and has seen the likes of Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey and a host of West End theatre productions over the years. I’ve seen several gigs (including The Arctic Monkeys and The Subways) there and I also had the job of photographing NALGAO’s three-day conference throughout the venue back in October 2008. Although the interior decor needs sprucing up and looking after, I personally think that it’s still one of the town’s better assets.

I took this photograph from the top level of the recently regenerated Hounds Hill Shopping Centre car park. I’d always struggled to get the shot I wanted of the exterior of the Winter Gardens because there simply wasn’t a high enough vantage point to produce something more interesting from the usual images you see of the building. The new car park at the Hounds Hill helped me to overcome this problem and, at the same time, offered the chance to see Blackpool’s town centre from a completely new perspective.

I’ve recently re-edited my series of photographs for the Blackpool project to include some new photographs and (hopefully) make it a stronger set of images.

This can be seen by visiting the ‘Blackpool: An Unimagined Space?’ gallery.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 26mm
Shutter Speed: 1/80th sec
F-Stop: f/16

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Tags: Blackpool,Architecture,Art Deco,Winter Gardens

Taken at 12:17pm on Blackpool Promenade Bridge, Monday 17th December 2007.

Since I started my documentary project on Blackpool in 2006 I have taken thousands of photographs, so every now and again there are photographs that I don’t spot straight away during the editing process. Editing and revisiting my work on a regular basis can help re-shape and re-imagine the whole feel of the series. I recently came across this photograph I took six months ago during this process and it features two locally well known subjects; the art deco of the old Palace Discotheque and the world famous Seagull.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 61mm
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
F-Stop: f/9.0

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Tags: Blackpool,Promenade,Wildlife,Art Deco