Manchester Night Togging

Well it had been mentioned on a number of time about heading into the city centre for some night time photography so I decided to make it a geocaching event. 

So we had Lights Camera and a Beer, Manchester Nocturnal 

Meeting in Exchange Square and then heading towards the Town Hall via St Annes Square and Cross Street.

From the Town Hall we headed around to St Peter's Square and the front of Manchester Central Library. Here the main shots were of the metrolink trams using a long exposure to get that light streaming effect.

Next stop was the now Manchester Central aka G-Mex. Since the last time I passed here they have built a new entrance which hides the lower part of the old station structure. After some time here and the Bridgewater Hall oppersite it was onto Great Northern Square. The home of The Great Northern Warehouse and Bar 38.

At this point the group started to shrink as people started heading home to there different parts of the world. You will be asking why I used world there and not country, well with had the company of The Oz's who are Mary and Steve from Ohio, USA. The soon a breakaway group headed for food leaving Wicker and myself to wander down to Piccadilly Station and see what shots we could get down there. That didn't last long as we got moved off the footbridge over London Road by a plastic copper saying that it was private property and we needed permission to take pictures from it.

So I managed to get one shot from that location.

2000th geocache find

The time had come for the next milestone of 2000 cache finds. The Syllogiser and myself had decided to go for it together so planned a day out in Derbyshire. We headed to Froggett Edge and Johan's Journey.

After walking up onto the edge we needed one more cache for 1999 so on the way we managed to pick up Roman Lounger. This was off piste from the main path but was quickly found. Log signed and cache returned it was onwards to our milestone. We headed down the path that took us to the bottom of the cliff and on to GZ. With the search under I was under the cache but was unable to find a way to it. Don headed up to the top while I looked on the other side. I returned to where we had dropped our gear to the sounds on Don calling from the top. Before I could make my way up there he had descended down the hole in the rocks at the top and was making his to the cache. After some time I heard "got it"
Once the log was signed all that was left was to get The Syllogiser out of there without the help of the Mountain Rescue.

Healey Dell to Hail Storm Ridge and Back

A day out with Don (The Syllogiser) geocaching on the new LEGEND series. 23 caches and 2 dnfs over 10 miles. Starting at Healey Dell we winged it to Rolo and then set of up the Pennine Way with 2 diversions to other caches. The turning point back was Hail Storm Ridge and Wickers Hike 4 near to the trig point.

On the way back we did some Top of Naden caches and some more Wickers Hike caches.

Healey Dell to Hail Storm Ridge and Back

EveryTrail - Find the best hikes in California and beyond

Manchester Airport Viewing Park

Nimrod-Nose_tonemapped
Originally uploaded by scubaclogger

Went for a short visit to the airport viewing park. There charges for parking are stupid so I parked near The Romper Pub and waled the half mile down the road. I was expecting to see more planes on display but there was only 3 intact aircraft outside. The Nimrod was fenced of leaving the Trident Three and a RJX. The concode is inside but was closed at the time of my visit.
Plenty of action out on the runways, aircrft landing on runway one and taking off on runway two.

Salford Quays HDR Day

Spent the day around Salford Quays taking pictures and then editing them into HDR images. I have to take 3 pictures at -2, 0 and +2 exposure. then I just run these through a program called Photomatix Pro to generate the HDR image and then tonemap them.

Just some of the shots that I got. I wonder where I will get to next.

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Its been a while

Well it was back in March when I last posted a blog and that was for the Beer Festival in Wigan. Now after getting a macbook and find a nice program for writing blogs offline i'm hoping to pick it back up and update more often.

So what have I done that I could of blogged about but didn't get around to -

Geocaching camping event in Rivington, Dalesbridge, Derbyshire and Snowdonia. Walked up Mount Snowdon and been diving in Scapa Flow and Swanage.

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Wigan Beer Festival 2010

Went to the 23rd Wigan Beer Festival on the 5th March at Robin Park Sports Centre. This was combined with a geocaching flash mob event but the beer was the main reason for being there. During the evening I sampled six different beers.

Banks Top Sweeneys - 3.8%

A amber beer brewed with a highly rated German hop. Bold crisp flavor with a delicate spicy aroma.

Little Valley Organic Ginger Pale Ale - 4%

Light and fresh with a hint of ginger and citrus.

Lytham Blonde - 3.8%

Pale golden beer with a subtle hop aroma and a smooth dry finish

George Wright Mocne Piwo - 5.1%

Name is Polish for 'strong ale'. Light amber in colour with a morrish hop aftertaste.

Saltaire Blackberry Cascade - 4.8%

American style pale ale hopped with cascade and centennial hops, infused with a hint of blackberries.

The place was rammed with the loud music of the live band and plenty of beer flowing.