Views From The Kitchen

I went to Pollok Country Park late on the last afternoon of my recent holiday. Seeing me carrying my tripod, I was asked by a jogging passer-by, had I seen the spectacular sunset? Great – not only had I missed the late afternoon light, I had just missed a marvellous sunset…

I had seen low-lying mist as I drove into the park and, having left the car just beyond Pollok House, I could now see that the ground was quite frosty – it really looked quite wintery. It certainly was a cold day and I was glad I had recently started carrying my gloves again. Walking along the riverside path, I passed the mill and continued for another five, maybe ten, minutes or so, before turning back. I figured that I wasn’t going to get any useable shots since the sun had dropped below the horizon and it was beginning to get dark. Happily though, I was proven wrong…
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Over the past couple of days, the weather has been marvelous photography weather – crisp winter days with bright sun and clear, blue skies – and I’ve been stuck in the office, looking out. This residential block at Cowcaddens Road and Port Dundas Road, not far from where I work, is known as "The Matrix". I had spotted that at lunchtime the sun illuminates the south-facing main side of this apartment block quite nicely, bringing out the colour in the various panels. I’m not a big fan of this building normally, but it’s not so bad when lit this way.
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I was running a little late for getting my train home from work tonight so, rather than arrive at the station out of breath, I made a small detour to look at the magazines in Borders in Buchanan Street. I had forgotten that I had seen an article on how this year’s canopy of lights had been raised over Royal Exchange Square earlier in the week. Instead of browsing magazines, I grabbed a few shots from the back of Borders…
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The new Sony Bravia advert, which was filmed earlier this year in Glasgow, was finally due to be broadcast for the first time tonight.

I read somewhere that one of the reasons Glasgow was picked was due to the large amount of green spaces (parks, playing fields, etc) for which the city is renowned. We’re not referred to as the Dear Green Place for nothing. You’ll see from early scenes of the advert that there’s still a fair degree of truth in this, even in this day and age.

The advert itself was filmed in the leafy Glasgow suburb of Toryglen, which is now not only green but also red, orange, yellow, blue, purple and one or two other rather interesting hues as well!
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Or…

Oh, What A Disappointment!

I managed to leave work an hour earlier today, and did the usual rush-home-grab-camera-gear-jump-in-car-and-rush-over routine. But as I turned the corner which brought the high-rise into view in the distance, my heart sank – I could see that the high-rise was now painted in rainbow colours.

Oh well, sniff, let’s see what photos I can get anyway. At least I can stop rushing now…
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I was busy at work today – we have a supplier installing a new system and I’ve to become involved with supporting it once they depart – and didn’t get to leave until just before 6pm. I had to rush home to grab my gear and then jump in the car and drive straight over. Fortunately, they waited on me.
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After yesterday’s anti-climax at the site of the filming of the new Sony advert for their Bravia brand, I had decided not to bother going back today and, instead, just spend a lazy day in the flat. Then, at about 5:15, my phone rang… It was Carol, calling from the site, saying that she thought it would be worth while coming over after all… The weather was sunny out, so I had little choice – well, what would you have done? I grabbed my stuff and drove over to the site as quick as I could safely manage…
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5:50pm  A bit of a crowd had gathered to watch day one of the shooting of the new Sony Bravia advert, but not as much as I had thought there might be given the publicity from the Evening Times yesterday. I wanted to get a wide view of all the explosives throwing paint up onto the tower block, so I mounted my camera on the tripod and remained quite far back. After chatting with some local kids (they wanted to look through the camera’s viewfinder), I decided I should really move in closer.
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What could all this mean?

• 70,000 litres of paint
• 358 single bottle bombs
• 33 sextuple air cluster bombs
• 22 triple hung cluster bombs
• 268 mortars
• 33 triple mortars
• 22 double mortars
• 358 meters of weld
• 330 meters of steel pipe
• 57 km of copper wire

Is my sister going to decorate her new apartment? No!!

Sony are in Glasgow to film the sequel(!) to their 2005 Bravia advert – the one which had all the colourful rubber balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. I had seen the advert on television last year, but hadn’t really paid it much attention. Reviewing it on the web site reveals an impressive piece of filming and editing.
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After a closure of three years and a refurbishment bill of not far off £30 million, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has reopened its doors to huge crowds.

2002 was the last year that Kelvingrove opened in July and the average weekly figures were 28,000 visitors per week. It reopened on Tuesday 11th July, 2006 and in the first week over 141,000 visitors walked through the doors. I was there on the Saturday – though they wouldn’t tell me my number!

The weather was very warm and sunny – and the place was heaving!
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