Category: Photo

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

Another shot from the archive. This is the Gateshead Newcastle Millennium bridge (The Blinking Eye).

I took this shot one Sunday afternoon in early 2008 when they lifted the bridge. The shot has been flipped round so that it looks like the cables are holding it up.

Let me know what you think of it, good or bad.

A Brief History of The Millennium Bridge

The bridge was lifted into place in one piece by the Asian Hercules II, one of the world’s largest floating cranes, on 20 November 2000. It was opened to the public on 17 September 2001, and was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 May 2002. The bridge, which cost £22m to build, was part funded by the Millennium Commission and European Regional Development Fund. It was built by Volker Stevin.

Already acclaimed worldwide for its physical and aesthetic beauty, it has fast become a significant tourist attraction in its own right. The bridge was the focus of a Spencer Tunick installation on 17 July 2005.

Six 45 cm diameter Hydraulic rams (three on each side, each powered by a 55 kW electric motor) rotate the bridge back on large bearings to allow small ships and boats (up to 25 m tall) to pass underneath. The bridge takes as little as 4.5 minutes to rotate through the full 40° from closed to open, depending on wind speed. Its appearance during this manoeuvre has led to it being nicknamed the “Blinking Eye Bridge”.

The bridge has operated reliably since construction, opening to allow river traffic to pass. It also opens periodically for sightseers and for major events such as the Northumbrian Water University Boat Race and the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Race. Its reputation was untarnished until October 2004 when the failure of a £200 circuit board prevented the bridge from opening.

The construction of the bridge won the architects Wilkinson Eyre the 2002 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize and won Gifford the 2003 IStructE Supreme Award. In winning the Stirling Prize, Wilkinson Eyre became the first, and so far the only, firm of architects to retain British architecture’s most prestigious prize — they won the 2001 prize for the Magna Science Adventure Centre. In 2005, the bridge received the Outstanding Structure Award from International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE).

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

“wash your hands regularly with soap and water”

This was taken a year ago inside The Gateshead Sage. If I remember correctly this was taken one week before the first Newcastle Photo Walk. So its happy birthday to #npwalk.

Newcastle Photo Walk on Flickr.

Newcastle Photo Walk on Twitter.

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

I don’t actually think anybody is lying on the other side. The blanket and jacket look like they have been hung up to dry.

The photo was taken in South Shield on a Photo walk outing back in April, 2008. At the time I passed over this picture in favor for a one with a dog in it.

Please let me know what you think 🙂

smlp: Next door’s flat is on fire. Great! #fire

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

Last time I was in Amsterdam the apartment we were staying in was covered with Coca-Cola memorabilia. Ever since then I have been trying to work out why the hell cans of pop as 330ml in size and not 400ml or even 300ml.
If any one knows please share it with me.

A Brief History of Coca-Cola

Atlanta Pharmacist and former Confederate Captain in the Civil War, Dr. John Styth Pemberton was the inventor of the “secret formula” that would later become known as Coca-Cola. In 1886, while working on an elixir or in his words; “the ideal brain tonic”, Dr. Pemberton took the basic formula of his earlier French Wine Coca, took out the wine, added extract of Cola nut, essential oils and other ingredients to concoct what his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, later branded Coca-Cola ®. Mr. Robinson was also responsible for the Spencerian script used by Coca-Cola which was later to become the most recognized trademark in the world. John Pemberton died in 1888, and through a series of complicated transactions, another Atlanta druggist, Asa Candler, ended up with control of the Coca-Cola Company. It was through Candler’s brilliant marketing that Coca-Cola’s popularity began to spread throughout the country. Another stroke of marketing genius was introduced by Joseph Biedenharn of Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1894, the Biedenharn Candy Company was the first to bottle Coca-Cola in the Hutchinson stoppered bottles. Two enterprising lawyers from Chattanooga, Tennessee named B.F. Thomas and J.B. Whitehead, recognized the potential of selling Coca-Cola in bottles and purchased the bottling rights for almost the entire country from an unconvinced Asa Candler. Coca-Cola’s history is rich with intuitive company leadership. Under the leadership of men like Robert Woodruff, Coca-Cola became the most famous soft drink and trademark in the world.

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

When I was up in Scotland some time ago I was playing around with a few out of focus shots.

This is a shot of Em standing on the rocks looking out at the Irish Sea. I’m not sure if it actually make for a good shot or not.

I have dulled down the colors to give it more of a sliloete look about it.

Let me know what you think…. Interesting or Rubbish?

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

Every time I look at this shot I keep thinking he look like a plastic toy…. however I can ensure you that he is real and also very interested in what us humans were up to sitting round the table.

smlp.co.uk posted a photo:

One of the bays in Paleokastritsa.

This shot was taken sitting at my table drinking a nice cold beer. LUSH!