Changing Landscape HMV In Administration 15th January 2013

Changing Landscape

I never really ‘got’ looking for music in a shop; what the heck are they playing today. Right, where do I start looking for what I cannot hear! Instead, for me its what’s that sound as I switch the car radio on; who’s that singing on TV, who’s this as I plough through You Tube in between doing other work - what an amazing voice, wow, quickly followed by ‘1 click Amazon purchase’ that takes a couple of seconds and consigned to ‘that’s done then’. Some days later a little padded envelope looks up at me from the door mat, ah what a surprise, I’d forgotten about that, a warm glow fills me. Call me old fashioned but I still like getting my hands on a new CD, carefully studying the artwork inside that little clear plastic case, made from that extra special brittle plastic guaranteed to crack. If I’m lucky it even arrives shrink-wrapped. Sound is vision, or is vision sound - both to me of course as an artist. Quick, get it in the PC; it’s snatched like a dog waiting for the post at the letterbox. My heart flutters with anticipation; my mind starts working on this new voyage of audio delight. If I’m lucky its play it again, and again, and……….

No doubt many will miss HMV that went into administration on the 15^th January 2013, not least the employees. It held its place in time, a modern day museum for an ever changing art form. Yet another victim in this changing world we’re in. And then one day – What? No CD’s anymore.....Oh my god! I never down load music; what’s an MP3 player anyway, never had one of those, what is the world coming to?

To be continued ….2026

Andy Sharpe 

Picture: HMV Cheltenham Store 5th December 2012

News Jessops Finished 11th January 2013 4.30pm

 Jessops 1935- 2013 11th January 4.30pm

I’m stood in Jessops Cheltenham talking to one of the staff, a long standing employee. He’s telling me, I have told about 150 people today that a lot of what you see in the press is not right, you know what journalists are like, saying it’s a crisis, when in fact there is no crisis, I try to go along with his rhetoric, at the same time feeling deep down this is it, the ship is finally going down. Months of just popping in the shop to find so little stock, a lack of frills approach to selling on a once thriving high street, now a distant memory in the world of one click purchase & being woken up the next morning by the postman with your shop on line experience, nicely packaged for some pounds less. Years came and went. In its hey day, a reliance we came to accept, Jessops will have it. Then, as if it was the last frame on the film, a young sales assistant said, we have to shut the shop, right now I’ve been told, that’s it.  

Personally I would like to thank all the staff at Jessops who over the years I always found to be polite and helpful.

Andy Sharpe

A417 Flood Water Depth Gauge 22nd December 2012 at 14.21

A417 Road Flood Depth Gauge is positioned on the west side of the road. This is a low spot in the road after its descent from Over Roundabout. The road then starts to go through a series of long gentle sweeping curves towards Maisemore Bridge. The road is steeply cambered in places to take account of the surrounding flood plain and River Severn that runs along the west side of the road. 2012 experienced some of the heaviest rainfall recorded, causing many floods throughout the country. Once again Gloucestershire has not escaped the effects of floods, although not as bad as they were in 2007.

At 10.35am 27^th November 2012 i did see water levels reach 2 feet on this depth gauge. Its well known locally that this road can flood after excessive rainfall. Surrounding fields become water logged eventually spilling over the road trying to feed into the River Severn. After extended periods of rainfall the River Severn, Britain’s longest river burst its banks.

A417 Road Flood Water Depth Gauge Nr Maisemore 29th November 2012

What a surprise to see one of my SLR Videos featuring on the front page of  ‘Firstpost’ World News website. This is the second time my work has been a front page feature. Click on Video below to view in HD.

 

* Click on Cog Symbol below picture to view in Full HD *

A417 Road To Maisemore Flooded. After checking the same location I photographed yesterday morning at a similar time 11.0am I could see the water level rose over night. A water mark on the road suggested an increase of several inches but has now retreated a little . This close up video shows the water flowing very fast across the road leaving surrounding fields, flowing towards the River Severn that runs alongside the road.

Technical

I filmed this footage on a Nikon D300s SLR camera and Sigma 50-500mm lens just to see how it coped. You can see some wobble at the beginning which is mainly due to the position Nikon chose to mount the Movie record button, not offering a remote activation option on this model at the time. Newer Nikon cameras address this of course. Sound quality is helped by the Nikon ME-1 Microphone picking up several birds in the back ground and a light aircraft over the sound of the water.

Video Equipment

Nikon D300s SLR Camera

Sigma DG 50-500mm 4.5-6.3 APO HSM Lens

Sigma Step Down Ring 95-86mm UV Filter

Sigma APS-C Hood HA 1030-01

Nikon External Me-1 microphone

SanDisk Extreme 111 30MB/s 4GB Memory card

Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod -- Without extra weight

Manfrotto 322 RC2 Joystick

Settings 1280 x 720 16.9 12.2MP

Video is straight from the camera with no extra software used.

With special thanks to local birds for their audio input on this video

Andy Sharpe

Severn Bore Goes Bollywood 19.09.12

News

Art for art's sake is where I am normally. That’s great: I get to do what I was born to do and people get to see and enjoy what I see.

What a nice surprise then it was to see my video of the Severn Bore that I published on YouTube featured on the front page of an Indian News website called “Firstpost” - it  headed up a feature “Nikon to foray into mirrorless digital camera market”.

About Firstpost

“will serve as a trusted guide to the crush of news and ideas around you. With thoughtful analysis and fearless views our team of editors and writers will track news in India and the world and provide a perspective that is reflective of a changing dynamic”.

Severn Bore SLR Video Approaching Maisemore Bridge 19.09.12

Severn Bore Driving Into A Cold Headwind Approaching Maisemore Bridge.

Equipment:

Nikon D3200 Camera

Nikon 18-55mm Vr lens

Hoya HMC 52mm UV filter

Nikon External Me-1 microphone

Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod -- Without extra weight

Kingston SD HC 4GB (4) memory card

Video is straight from the camera with no extra software used.

6.0MP 1080P 24

Andy Sharpe

Severn Bore Maisemore Bridge 18.09.12

 

Severn Bore 18^th September 2012

What started off as another trip to meet the Severn Bore, turned out to be much more. For those who have not seen one, they are not all the same, a 1 star Bore is as exciting as a 5 star, to me anyway. I love the unpredictable and  I love the elements taking charge. Today I thought I would make a short video of the bore leaving Maisemore Bridge on its way to Maisemore Weir. Trees swayed and fidgeted about in the cool north westerly breeze, while fluffy clouds passed by. I set the tripod up and composed my view, did some preliminary test shots and decided on some settings. I then thought I would just take a walk across the bridge looking south towards Gloucester, straight into the direction of the sun; always a challenge at this location. Suddenly a lad appeared fully equipped with suit and surf board. He thought he may have been too late, so I said best get a move on - as it turned out he had plenty of time. Better to be early than late of course. I’m reminded of the time I was driving parallel with the bore approaching Maisemore Bridge a few years ago, I just about made it, car door flung open as I came to a stop. As the surfer made his way down river I thought I would do a sequence of shots with another camera and longer lens, so many thanks to Matthew for putting on a great display coming towards the bridge. After watching the approaching wave I picked him up as he got on, staying with it for some time. He had the Severn Bore to himself which is always special to watch. I’m sure he will be back for more. After taking some more shots of the wave coming towards the bridge (always a spectacular sight) it was turn round a bit quick and off to the other side of the bridge to carry on with filming. Some quick adjustments as the bore emerged from under the bridge below me, hit the record button and conclude things with a short video that captures the bores final moments before reaching  its end at Maisemore Weir.

Andy Sharpe

Venus Passing The Sun 06.06.12

Venus Passing The Sun 6^th June 2012

Suddenly I woke up. Sunlight was hitting the bedroom window. I had almost forgotten. I certainly forgot to set the alarm. I expected rain and a grey start, instead by the time I’d  wiped my eyes I could just see some blue sky peeping through fast moving low cloud. I ran down stairs, grabbed the tripod, clipped on the camera, ran to the front door and then realized I had nothing on ! Bugger, so ran back up stairs, grabbed some cloths, back down again and quickly shot out of the front door, still half dressed. I apologies to any birds that may have seen my dress code ! Then above the roof tops, watching the clock tick by, a large block of dark grey cloud made its way across the sky just in time to block out any sign of the sun. Well, it is Great Britain and summer time after all. The sun crept above the roof tops of Cheltenham behind low cloud. No need for fancy filters then. I got some pictures of light creeping around the clouds. Almost giving up any thoughts of seeing this amazing event, then I realized I might need sunglasses if the sun did show, so ran back in doors quickly to get some. By now it was just coming up to 5.37am and with a sudden dazzling burst of light that lasted for what seemed like a blink in time, I fired off several shots, more in hope than anything. Still dazed from broken sleep and that sudden if not very short burst of sunlight, I went back in doors to see the sun was still trying to break through the clouds properly. I decided to go back to bed until the next wake up call, which was for the Severn Bore’s arrival later that morning, when I would make my way over to Maisemore Weir. When I got up, I downloaded my Sun pictures and to my delight I actually managed to get 3 frames of Venus passing the face of the sun. Each shot was taken at 5000^th of a second, so it really was a close call as the next frame in sequence was into cloud cover again, phew.

Andy Sharpe

8th May 2012 An Early Lesson The Hard Way For Baby Dunnock

An Early Lesson The Hard Way For Baby Dunnock

8th May 2012

Watching the news on TV I suddenly caught site of a fast moving object out of the corner of my eye coming towards the patio door. Thud, a little bird hit the floor and wriggled about, oh no I thought, it’s dead. I jumped up and ran outside to see in fact it was not but struggling to cling on to life. My next thought was to try and get it off the floor and to some sort of cover for safety. The Dunnock had this already planted in its defence system it seemed as it hopped straight towards some ivy under a tree. I went over to see it collapsed and flopped over on its side. I feared the worst, I quickly picked it up and tried to stroke some life back into it, well that was my thought anyway. Come on, come on I kept saying as if some spoken words would make a difference. It was limp, slowly but slowly though its little eyes started to open and a look of normality started to resume, I could feel its little heart beat was steady and it felt warm, it gave a few kicks and its little claws started to pull against my hand, so with a long phew I stroked it a bit more, carefully opened my hand and it took off into the evening sky. What a result !

Photograph was taken using my other hand, tricky but doable using an old Nikon D50 camera and Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens

Andy Sharpe.

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay 23rd May Cheltenham Crowds Bath Road

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Cheltenham

23^rd May 2012

Many years in the making; finally the Olympic year is upon us.

Its not about the torch!

Thousands of happy faces go a long way in times of austerity - Cheltenham is united. The tribal drum rhythm, thud, thud, thud, fueled the atmosphere, whilst carnival dancers held the gaze of many. On a balmy hot sunny day, car-less streets brought the party to Regency Cheltenham as I cycled from Bath Road through an endless sea of people as far as Boots corner, having never seen so many before. I stopped to take pictures of folk for that “where you were the day the Olympic Torch came to Cheltenham back in 2012 ”

After all that, I never got to see the torch but my neighbour said he saw it from inside Bath Road Co Op as it went by…..

Andy Sharpe

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay 23rd May Cheltenham Crowds Montpellier Terrace

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay 23rd May Cheltenham Crowds Montpellier Walk

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay 23rd May Cheltenham Crowds Imperial Square

Blue Tits Nest Removed From Nesting Box 21.05.12

Blue Tits Nesting 07.04.12 – 20.05.12

Its early April 2012  and at last we have Blue Tits visiting the nesting box  I made and put up over a year ago. I followed the recommendation with size specification and added a better quality roof using Green Mineral felt, polyester backed with a 10 year guarantee for good measure! I sighted the box not far from the kitchen window for easy observation, consequently most pictures were taken through the double glazing and just intended as a diary of events when passing .

It all got off to a good start I thought, lots of coming and going with nesting material by both birds, so my optimism was high.

During the previous winter I had a peep in the box and could see that it was empty which was odd because the last time I looked I had seen the makings of a really nice nest from the previous year that did not come to a conclusion, so this was an interesting development.

Every now and again I had a look through the window with the camera and took some pictures, mostly on dull days or after rain. This year we had one of the wettest April's on record. On the odd sunny day I managed to get some shots of the 2 birds bringing food to the box, so by now felt assured that we had young in the nest. One thing that did bother me though, was the frequency of visits to the box, they often seemed to be very spaced out I thought but I am no expert on these things, as long as 15 minutes between feeds seemed odd to me anyway.

After not hearing any sound from the box one day I did take a peep to see 6 very small mouths pointing up at me, so thought things must be moving along but slowly. I also managed to get a 1 x picture of the mother sitting on the nest undisturbed. Then a few days after, visits to the box suddenly stopped. I watched patiently for about 2 hours and saw no activity, so feared the worst. Sadly my fears were reality. I lifted the roof on the box to see 1 x dead chick and one cold egg, a sad day.

My feeling is that maybe this nesting pair are first timers to raising a brood or second year adults that did not manage to find enough natural food so did not put enough effort in. Each time I saw the adults with food in their beak it was either fat pellets from my feeder or the odd spider. I only saw caterpillars a couple of times and maybe this was a sign of poor food source which could be a result of the wet April delaying things.  

After the shock of finding things had come to an end, which I was not expecting, I thought it was worth taking some more pictures of the nest, dead chick and egg as they looked so beautifully formed.

I have now put the box back up and left the nest inside in the hope that maybe it will attract another breeding pair.

Up date 04.06.12

After consulting an expert i have now removed the old nest and cleaned out the nesting box. Re-sighted it and fingers crossed another pair will take to it.

I have decided  to frame the nest in a clear box as its so beautifully made, I cannot bear to just throw it away.

To be continued ……………

Andy Sharpe

Blue Tit Mouth Full Of Nesting Material For The Box 13.04.12

Blue Tit Feeding In The Rain 27.04.12

Blue Tit Bringing Fat From The Feeder To The Nesting Box 13.05.12

Blue Tits Doing Fine In Nesting Box 15.05.12

Blue Tit Bringing Food To The Nesting Box 15.05.12

Blue Tit Bringing Caterpillar To The Nesting Box 16.05.12