Britannia Panopticon

I recently had a great day out with my close friend, Mavis, in Glasgow. After a wander around the galleries within Trongate 103 and a wee cuppa in Cafe Cossachok we ventured out to speak to a man wearing a top hat and monacle. He enticed us into the old playhouse, Britannia Panopticon, with the promise of silent movies and a live band (no admittance charge but donations welcome at the end).

This theatre is the oldest music hall in the UK (possibly the world) and is famous for the debut performances of Stan Laurel and Jack Buchanan.
I'm not sure how often it opens up to the public but I would definitely recommend a visit. It was fantastic, even if you do have to wear more clothes inside to keep warm.

The Britannia Panopticon as it looks today.

Silent movies inside the theatre (with a live band)

You can read more about this marvelous building at the Britannia Panopticon Website and The Theatres Trust.

West End Festival (and bloody photographers!)

I went to the West End Festival in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, on Sunday. The weather was great so the park was mobbed with people, animals and.... photographers.

I don't know if this has always been the case at these types of events and I've just never noticed before or if it's the advance in photo-technology that makes everyone suddenly want (be able) to be a photographer. They were everywhere!! Most annoyingly, they were always in my frame!!!

Every shot I tried to take, there was a photographer in sight. Worst of all, if I tried to take a shot of something without people in it, a PHOTOGRAPHER would jump in my way. One guy even looked at me, saw I was trying to take a shot, but just stayed there, staring at me. How rude!!

It did occur to me that perhaps I was in a lot of photographs but I do try to stay inconspicuous. I would prefer to have a sneaky, little Leica to snap away at scenes without anyone's knowledge. Or a medium format, TLR camera where I can hold it at my waist to take shots. Scenarios where the audience are caught unaware are always better for capturing true emotion and genuine activity, in my opinion.
I know some people would object to this approach as it does seem a little 'peeping tom'-ish but I would try not to be imposing.

In hindsight, I should have simply taken all the photos that I was going to take, with the photographers in them. It would have made a pretty nifty little project - something I might toy with for future events (starting next Sunday at the Mele in Glasgow??).

There was a female who was taking photographs of the bmxers at the ramps whilst the Beatles tribute band were on. She wasn't so obtrusive like the others. She even saw me taking a photo and smiled.
As I watched her give her card to the best biker of the crowd I realised that my problem, perhaps, isn't so much with all those invasive photographers but with competition.

Ha!

Here are some shots I took of the day on my dslr (Sony A100) - [still to come].
I also used my 35mm camera (Centon), with colour film, for part of a project I am doing with my cousin - all will be revealed in a future blog....

Reflections!

A colour assignment for College....

My Plan A (window reflections) didn't really work as too many things went wrong.
I was 'grilled' by a drunkard who wasn't happy that I might be taking his or anyone else's photograph without permission. I couldn't be bothered putting him straight about the laws but did try to explain that, as my camera was pointing up near the top of the 5 story builing in front of us, no-one would be in the photograph. It didn't stop him from trying to be in the shot as he moved from left to right while he tried to figure out just where to stand so that the lens was facing him. His comprehension of physics was obviously skewed by his alcohol consumption but it was quite amusing to watch him dance around for a while. He got fed up trying to get in the frame and came back for a second mega-rant. Time to move along, Ams, before this gets too scary!!

Even more of a problem was the fact that the beautiful Arch windows that I had spied, from a distance in the car, didn't actually have glass in the frames. Even the drunk guy would know that I could never get a reflections shot from them. Gutted!!

By this point it was too foggy to be able to see anything, anyway. Back home to mope about my lack of success.

Returning to Glasgow another day for Plan B (reflections on water) and I completed my second roll of film. Only after taking all, bar 2, of my shots did the reflections become really colourful so I'm not sure how this will turn out on submission. Acceptable? I hope so.

Here are two of the images, scanned from print. Both are taken at the River Clyde in Glasgow.

BBC Building


Finniston Crane [Clydeport] and the Squinty Bridge

GFT!

I was meeting a friend in Glasgow recently and, as they were running late, I decided to have a hot chocolate in the GFT Cafe.

A few sips and a wee doodle later I realise I really miss the Glasgow Film Theatre :(