Uploads from TGKW, tagged architecture, with geodata

Palace of Westminster

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:31:58 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

The Houses of Parliament, photographed at 7am one morning while I was in that strangely conflicted state of reeling blissfully from the previous twelve hours and, not having slept and feeling completely horsed, the misery of knowing that I have a long and gradual journey ahead before I can rest my head on a pillow. This is a feeling unique in my mind to larger cities, since in Glasgow home is never more than a relatively short and inexpensive cab ride away.

London, 2012.

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Singapore

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:13:20 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

Taken during the same trip on the Singapore flyer as this earlier image along with some thoughts provoked by my experiences in Singapore.

Singapore, 2011.

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Thoughts on the Beauty of the World

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:23:37 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

While having dinner at a chic restaurant on the roof of the 57-floor Marina Bay Sands (the building on the left in this photograph), I saw a boy who must have been no older than ten walking around. It made me wonder what he thought of the place, and I remembered a conversation I once had with two friends of mine, discussing the idea that kids shouldn't be exposed to anything quite as cool as that.

Let me explain: I grew up in Ayr, a biggish seaside town on the west coast of Scotland: there was a bowling alley, a decent selection of shops, plenty of bars, a few nightclubs, lots of green space and a beach. All in all, it was a fine place to be brought up but, by the time we were in our mid teens, my friends and I were bored. We were able to alleviate this boredom with day trips to Glasgow, which to us then was a big city. When we left Ayr at the age of 17 for Glasgow University, we were ready for it: despite our day trips, Glasgow was fresh, exciting, lively in ways Ayr was not.

I continue to love it here in Glasgow, but I would get tired of it if I wasn't fortunate enough to travel often. As it is, I consider it a perfect place to return to from travelling - to call my home - but the fact is cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and London are fresh, exciting and lively to an extent that Glasgow is, for the most part, not.

A few years ago during a trip to London, two friends and I (they old Ayrites too) were eating in a snazzy sushi bar, expounding on how exciting we found it, when a group of schoolkids walked in and took a table. "Can you imagine if we had been able to come somewhere so cool after school?" one of my friends asked. In trying to imagine it I considered that it would have led us to lose our sense of wonder at these things. My friends and I - twenty two at the time - thought it was great, an exciting thing for us to do, but if you've been coming to this sushi bar after school each week since you were twelve, then what do you do to get that excitement when you're twenty two? Go to the roof of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore? And if, when you were ten years old, you had a meal at a fancy restaurant and swam in an infinity pool on that roof as you looked out over the city, where you go when you're twenty two that makes your jaw drop?

Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why many of the Singaporeans I spoke to kept describing their city as boring. Then again, having spent only three weeks of my life there, what do I know? Maybe it is boring beneath all its surface.

However, I may be looking at it the wrong way altogether: maybe these things can only spoil your sense of the wonderful and the marvellous if you allow them to. Just as you can be wealthy and still appreciate what you have without taking it for granted, I'm sure it's possible to see extraordinary things all the time without having that sense spoiled: it's just something you have to work on maintaining yourself, to learn to keep your senses open and continue to appreciate all the things you see.

I'm lucky enough to see and do a lot of interesting things, and I'm often surprised by the indifference of some of the people who are there too. I suppose it looks a bit unprofessional or undignified to get too excited, and people probably want to appear cool, but sometimes I say to people, even though I've been working on them for years, "We're on a film set! Isn't this so cool!?!" or "I'm having my makeup done to go on TV!"

Exciting though I may find these things, perhaps what is most important is that they are superficial, and not a very rich source of wonder when compared to the things which are free and available to all to appreciate. One of the most spectacular things I did on my trip was to hold and examine up close the feather of a pheasant, and I didn't have to go to Singapore for that. It was awesome, I could have spent hours marvelling at that single tiny detail of nature's work.

AC Grayling once wrote "I'm passionately in favour of legalising heroin and cocaine. But I despise people who depend on these things. If you really want a mind-altering experience, look at a tree." While I'd be keen to stress the difference between enjoying drugs occasionally and depending on them, I agree wholeheartedly. There is wonder all around and, if we try harder to be open to it, I'm sure we can find the view from our own windows just as spectacular as the view from the roof of the Marina Bay Sands.

To one of the friends with whom I had that conversation, I gave a book of poetry for, I think, his 18th birthday, and I inscribed it with these words from a letter by Albert Einstein: "People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live... We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born."

Singapore, 2011.

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Hong Kong

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Sat, 07 May 2011 07:00:33 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

See more photographs of Hong Kong and read about my love of the place in this set.

To illustrate just how quickly Hong Kong rose up - literally - and became the metropolis that it is, my Dad told me that he remembers when the building which I have marked in the notes was being built: it was to be the tallest building in Hong Kong, and everyone was wowed by its height. The tallest building in this image - Two International Finance Centre - was the tallest building in Hong Kong when I took this photograph, and will be recognisable as the building from which Batman leaps in The Dark Knight. Its height has since been overtaken in Hong Kong by the International Commerce Centre, the 4th tallest building in the world.

Of all the things I've seen, this is my favourite view in the world: I've spent hours and hours sitting on this promenade just looking across the water. No photograph I've seen begins to do justice to how awesome it is to stand before this skyline. I can't wait to see it again.

Hong Kong, 2006.

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Jocelyn

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:46:50 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

Glasgow, 2010.

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Degree Show

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:14:20 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

The annual Degree Show of the Glasgow School of Art is one of my favourite fixtures of Glasgow's summer calendar. It brings with it an awesome street party in front of the Mackintosh building, one of the UK's finest pieces of architecture.

A wider selection of my photographs from the evening can be seen on my Facebook page.

Glasgow, 2010

Friends

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:49:06 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

Despite the appearance of a trite band pose, this shot taken in the ruins of St Peter's Seminary was completely undirected.

Cardross, 2010.

Room With a View

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:47:50 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

Hello to everyone who's come here via a link from Relucent: if you want to see more of my work, the best of it is here.

Cardross, 2010.

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St Peter's Seminary

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Mon, 31 May 2010 13:46:43 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

Just over two years have passed since my first visit to the ruins of St Peter's Seminary, when I took this photograph of Euan on the altar viewed from the main hall. The ruins were then fascinating and beautiful. I suppose, to an extent, they still are, but, despite having been added in 2007 to the World Monument Fund's '100 Most Endangered Sites', they are now a truly sad sight, and I can relate to what Frank Arneil Walker wrote of the ruins: "nothing prepares one for the sight of the new grown prematurely old." The altar has been smashed into several pieces, one small but still very heavy piece of which I took home with me; the beams of the roof have been burned and fallen; the ground is now totally covered with broken glass and tiles, burnt wood and other rubble.

I like that the wide-angle distortion makes Jocelyn appear to be giant in this photograph.

Cardross, 2010.

Euan

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:03:54 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

During the January snows, [Paul Chambers'] hopes of a blind date with a woman he'd chatted up on Twitter were jeopardised by the closure of his local airport. He tweeted from his mobile to his 600 followers: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" He was subsequently arrested, interrogated by detectives for seven hours and fired from his accountancy job. Last week he was found guilty of sending a menacing electronic message and fined £1,000.

This is the kind of incredible story I hear every so often and think can't possibly be true, like that ridiculous one about the EU trying to ban bananas that weren't straight. That got so much press coverage and became a very popular example of the so-called evil of the EU, but it was completely untrue.

Paul Chambers' story, however, is very much true. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of it is this insightful and hilarious article by David Mitchell. It had me laughing out loud, proper belly laughs, like no piece of prose has since I first discovered the work of PG Wodehouse or Charlie Brooker.

Glasgow, 2010.

Euan

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:43:44 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

The skies were clear in Glasgow today, and there was a lovely quality to the sunlight. The cold wasn't too biting, either, so on the way back from the swimming pool it was pleasant just to sit in the sun.

Glasgow, 2010.

La Grande Arche

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:58:44 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

To my mind, the most awesome piece of architecture in Paris.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arche

Paris, 2010.

The Louvre

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:16:32 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

We started a craze among the tourists there, who all started photographing themselves doing this.

Paris, 2009.

Love

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:41:30 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

"Commissioned by Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, The Question Mark Inside is the latest work from public artist Martin Firrell."

My brief was to produce a fairly strict document of every word presented and also, as always, just to photograph anything else I see: "sort of architectural pornography!" as Martin described it to me. Travelling between the Cathedral and the Tate Modern, from whose balconies I had been photographing the projections onto the dome, I was able to capture this momentary juxtaposition.

stpaulsprojections.blogspot.com
www.martinfirrell.com
www.stpauls.co.uk/questionmarkinside/thequestionmarkinsid...

London, 2008.

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Mansfield Traquair

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:34:46 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

Image from a corporate event at “Edinburgh’s Sistine Chapel", the Mansfield Traquair.

Edinburgh, 2011.

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Spaced Out

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:19:00 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

Some of the crew shooting on location for the filming of the Gedda Headz music video Spaced Out, where I worked for two weeks as set photographer. It was from this spot that I took this, a favourite image of mine.

From left to right: Sam Ip, assistant director, Jean-Julien Pous, director, Keidrych Wasley, director of photography, and the camera operator, whose name I'm not sure of.

Hong Kong, 2009.

Crazy Heart

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:48:13 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

Jeff Bridges is my favourite American actor. When I watch a Jeff Bridges performance, I forget that I'm watching a Jeff Bridges performance, that Jeff Bridges is a real person: I really believe in the existence, the life, of the character he is playing (incidentally, this is something I've also thought about Sean Penn.) Understandably, I'm very excited to see Crazy Heart, for which, from what I've read, Bridges is a shoo-in to win the Oscar for best actor.

The theme song from the film has been on repeat in my living room for days now: hear it here, or sung by Bridges himself here.

Jeff Bridges is also a wonderful photographer: I've spent many a happy hour looking through his photographs, which can be seen at www.jeffbridges.com

Glasgow, 2010.

The Louvre

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:44:36 -0800

TGKW posted a photo:

Paris, 2009.

Billy

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:48:02 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

I fell in love with the 14mm during these shoots, and the low-light capabilities of the D700 were pushed to the max. Suprised by my lack of flash, curious crew members would intermittently approach me with a number, guesses at the ISO I was using: "1600?" Actually, this one was taken at ISO 4000 at 1/8th.

Hong Kong, 2009.

For the story of this gig, please see this earlier shot.

Sunrise

nobody@flickr.com (TGKW) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:58:48 -0700

TGKW posted a photo:

At the end of a night of drink and dancing, we left the clubs and wandered down to the pier, where we waited for the first boat homewards.

As I watched the sun rise over Tsim Sha Tsui - as Ryan and Iko are here - its rays reflected in all that glass, I was reminded that, no matter how high or how elaborately we build our skyscrapers, they - and we - will always be at the mercy of nature.