An Off Topic post

In case anyone was not aware tomorrow, 26 April 2011, sees the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster.

Please spare a moment or two to have a thought for the people affected by this horrendous disaster

If anyone is interested here is an excellent page with commentary and photos all about it: 

Hyde Cemetery Chapel, Tameside

Thanks for your post Hydonian. If that is demolished it will be verging on the criminal - it looks in excellent shape and I don't understand what the point would be in demolishing it - what reason could there possibly be to not just leave it standing ? It makes no sense !!

Sadly when chapels in cemeteries do fall into disuse, as many do, it is oft very difficult to find an alternate use for the building, not least because of it's location in a cemetery. For such buildings to be saved they usually need to find a use for them that can pay for themselves and it's difficult to find another use for Cemetery Chapels - that is why so many, unlike this one, do end up in very poor condition.

I will have to get myself down there and take some shots myself.  Thanks again for your contribution to my site - it's nice to have some guest contributors participating.

Hyde Cemetery Chapel

This beautiful chapel is situated within the cemetery in Hyde. It was built in 1894.



I heard that Tameside Council are going to demolish this beautiful building shortly - I hope I heard wrong. It's the last of three churches that used to stand within the cemetery grounds. The top one was originally the Church of England building. the middle one (and last remaining) is the non conformist chapel and the bottom one was the Roman Catholic building. If it goes then it'll be such a shame as it is a really unusual building and deserves pride of place.

Oldham Library (the Old One)

It is amazing the architectural jewels we have among us but until we come to appreciate them we just walk past them or take them for granted. All the below images are of the old library building. An example of what I said above I only recently spotted the figure heads high up on the walls of the building including Robert Louis Stephenson.

Making a point - from the roof of a Mill in Oldham

Hmmm that heading makes me realise I have been on the roof of a couple of mills in Oldham .. maybe not that remarkable in and of itself .. but surprising given I don't really have a head for heights.

Anyway that that was a digression back to matters at hand. You may wonder about the title of this post .. well let me explain. I was perusing the interweb one evening and saw a post on a site somewhere in response to a question someone had asked about blurring backgrounds when shooting with a compact camera.

The reply came back from someone , with great confidence and authority, that it was not possible to blur backgrounds with a compact camera because of the small sensor size everything is sharp from front right to the rear of the scene.  Hmmmm really ?, I thought.

Well kind readers please see the image below - taken with my Canon G10 COMPACT camera - and judge for yourselves whether the background is sharp or is it maybe just a little bit blurred ?

Now I am getting on a little in years and my eyesight isn't what it once was  ... but I'd say that background is ever so slightly blurred - what do you think ?

So there you go dear readers I made a point from the roof of a Mill in Oldham ... I don't mean I sat there outraged and instantly got in my car, drove to a mill, climbed the rusty stairs (muttering under my breath)  and then took this shot and came right home again, no , no it wasn't quite such. However I had decided I would at some point take a photo that showed that this persons statement was incorrect and was indeed going to post it on said site, ultimately I could not sign up to the site and so could not do this but the lesson remains - just because someone on the interweb speaks with great confidence and authority , doesn't necessarily mean they know what they are talking about - I could easily talk with great authority about something to do with brain surgery - doesn't mean it'd be a good idea to let me loose on your grandma with a scalpel.

By the way the image wasn't taken solely for that purpose - I thought it made an interesting photo and liked the optical illusion, if you like, of the small weed looking bigger than a large mill - the camera can and does lie.  It also goes to show it is worth learning about the practicalities and the "nitty gritty" of photography - it does give you more control, more creativity to know what things affect an image, how to get certain results.

Oh here is a shot of the rusty staircase I ascended to get to the roof of the mill:

A Snowy Day at Daisy Nook Country Park, Tameside

A  couple of wintry shots taken at Daisy Nook country park, Tameside.