In a conversation with 
Unlike Canary Wharf in London, Salford Quays doesn't have overzealous security guards floating around asking for permits or risk assessments for tripods. The Quays also looks great at sunset when the conditions are right.
Salford Quays was originally built by the Manchester Ship Canal Company. Salford Docks were opened by Queen Victoria in 1894. The whole area covered something like 1000 acres of land next to the Manchester Ship Canal. The Docks, in it's hey day, was the third busiest port in Britain, but with the advent of ship containerisation, the docks declined due to the size of the Manchester Ship Canal being too small to take the bigger vessels required for containers. The docks finally closed in 1982 and left to go in to decline.
In 1983, Salford City Council bought parts of the docks with the aim of regeneration and development. Development commenced in 1985 but also encountered severe pollution in the waters. It took a couple of years to sort the pollution by means of a compressed air mixing system to aerate the water.
After 1986, the docks were modified with new bridges, walkways and promenades with new development taking place over many years. It's now unrecognisable from it's past and even in 2022, work is still ongoing.
Erie Basin looking towards Detroit Bridge
This is a PoV which always makes me want to buy a longer lens to focus in on Detroit Bridge in the centre of frame. I made a New Year's resolution to up my photo processing game for 2022 and quite a bit of faffery went in to this one!
Salford Quay's Media City
The Quays is home to the BBC's Manchester broadcast base where they've made a failed attempt to become less London centric. I'm not a fan of the left leaning BBC. If you're ethnic, religious and disabled in any way, you're guaranteed to get in to broadcasting. Broadcasters are supposed to be representative of their consumers; I think they've gone too far!
'Slight' rant over. This is a wide angle shot of the Media City complex with a vague aroma of someone having a cheeky spliff behind me....
The Imperial War Museum, North
Looking across the Manchester Ship Canal, the Imperial War Museum looks grand and modern and houses a somewhat disappointing collection of stuff from previous wars where the United Kingdom usually won. Inside there was one thing that impressed me; a blown up wreckage of a military vehicle from Gulf War One from 1993.
I got lucky with the remnants of an unexpected sunset with colour still left in the sky. I've cropped it to 16 x 9 format to get rid of the unsightly barrier I was leaning against. Note to self; buy a longer lens....
Speed of Light
This is a zoom pull image taken a few years ago of a "troupe" of runners all wearing programmable and centrally controllable RGB LED costumes. There were I understand 120 people clad in these outfits and all were synchronised to change colour and flashing on and off all over the place.
They ran around in circles and between different Salford Quays' landmarks. I worked out all the best points of view were in advance so I ran like the wind between each location to bag the best PoV. A fat bloke with a rucksack running down the street with an extended tripod must have been a sight to behold!
Blue hour on Detroit Bridge
That's Detroit, Manchester, not Detroit, Michigan.
Having fun with a fisheye, tilting the camera way back for the whacky distortion and for the record I cleaned the lens for this one
Hitting the Buffers
Media City is the terminus for Manchester's tram system and this is the end of the line. Much like the tripod I was using on this evening when the damn thing failed! Improvisation and hope won the day....
Metrolink movement
I'm a sucker for moving objects in images so I risked looking like a trainspotter with a camera at low level on a tripod waiting for the tram to depart. I think I may have failed to avoid looking like a trainspotter!
Salford Quays sunset
This sunset shot in Salford Quays looked like it was going to fail miserably with dull terrible weather beforehand but just as we arrived this sky appeared! I had to work fast and used a variable ND filter and took as many images as I could before this sky disappeared, which was maybe only 3 minutes.
Rotating Detroit Bridge
This was one of the very first "proper" camera rotation images I ever did. I used a fisheye lens and rotated the camera four ways to get this effect. I've been slightly addicted to camera rotation photography ever since.
Speed of Light, again
I couldn't resist adding this image of the Speed of Light runners in their LED outfits. I managed to bag quite possibly the best PoV but I was sweating like a baker on a night shift to get here!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
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