F211 – Fregatte Köln

The Fregatte Köln docked in Cork Harbour in 2005. Glorious day for a photowalk!

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/1600s

Priestman

Priestman are, or at least were, a brand of crane and excavator manufactured up until possibly the late 1990s. They have a long history according to this page. I found the logo above on a crane on the docks in Cork Harbour back in 2005. It’s probably still there!

The Priestman story began when William Dent Priestman in 1876, who had founded an engineering firm in Hull six years earlier, was asked to build a winch and grab for work off the west coast of Spain, in an attempt to locate lost gold. Though nothing was ever found, the mechanism that William Dent created was found to be equally effective at dredging mud and silt in docks, rivers and harbours.
….
Today, what is left of the firm trades in Bradford under new owner, Gardner Denver, the american based compresser and blower manufacturer. No longer are cranes or excavators manufactured. The replacment parts business became unsustainable after the last Priestman emplyee retired in 2007. All the drawings and specifications exist. These are all in storage slowley deteriating with age. The legacy lives on ?.

I gotta go back there and check if that crane is still there and get a decent photo of it. Here’s a very enthusiastic fan of Priestman vehicles. If that link doesn’t ping his post, I’ll leave a comment pointing him here!

PS. this is my first post from my newly installed Ubuntu 9.10 on a big 500GB internal drive. Previously I managed with about 40GB of space which wasn’t enough when shooting in RAW. Working off external USB drives was sort of painful but now I can store a few years worth of photos on my speedy internal drive!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 45mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

County Hall Deconstructed

County Hall in Cork, as it was in 2005. Not so long ago it was flooded but it looks vaguely impressive when seen from certain viewpoints since the facelift it received in this photo.

Shame it’s built on a flood plain.

Aperture ƒ/22
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/50s

Digging up Daunt Square

Flash back to 2005 if you will. Ireland is in the grip of the Celtic Tiger boom. Cork is undergoing a transformation. The city’s streets were dug up and remolded with apparently improved drainage (didn’t help recently unfortunately) and the revamping of the city centre was in full swing.

Here’s the construction on Daunt Square, with behind it the long gone Virgin Megastore.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/2500s

The doctor is out

The doctor is out, and won’t ever be in again.

Photo of the half-demolished buildings that became the ugly grey building across from Carroll’s Quay carpark on Leitrim Street, Cork.
Shot in April 2005.

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon PowerShot A70
Focal length 13.4375mm
Shutter speed 1/200s

Eyes on Fregatte Köln

Crewmen on the Fregatte Köln when it visited Cork in 2005 kept a close eye on me, Ryan and AJ as we photographed every inch of the ship we could see.

Looking back over these photos reminds me that this was the day the cheap memory card I used at the time failed on me and I lost a number of fairly decent shots.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 300mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

The Chicago Theatre

The Chicago Theatre on State Street in the city of the same name. The sign in front is hard to miss but I’ve never been in there. Maybe next time I visit Chicago. More info on the theatre’s history page. Love that Netscape favicon!

This was shot in 2005 but I know I have shot the same scene a number of times.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

Moving from Chicago to Washington

Barack Obama’s family probably had some help from America’s Secret Service when they moved from Chicago to Washington but for the rest of us, that journey would be a lot more mundane and would involve the services of a company like Hollander.

Photographed somewhere in Chicago in May 2005.

PS. Thank you if you nominated this blog for the Irish Blog Awards!

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

Construction in Chicago

Construction work on the Trump Tower in 2005.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

Look up at Marina City

Marina City, the round shaped buildings in Chicago that sit on the river make an imposing sight when viewed up close. Good thing there’s valet parking, you certainly wouldn’t want to be scared of heights driving around inside them!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Shoe Shopper Heaven

I’m reliably informed that many women enjoy the occasional trip to shoe shops and other establishments were garments and other finery may be purchased. Thankfully my wife isn’t one of them and hates shopping almost as much as I do. Nevertheless we found ourselves inside this shoe shop in Chicago so I decided to make the most of the moment and snap a few photos.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 21mm
ISO 1600
Shutter speed 1/100s

Chicago Spaces

Despite being a major city, or perhaps because of it, Chicago has plenty of open spaces and broad streets. I love this shot for it’s wide open space bordered by tall buildings.

If the photo looks slightly odd, that’s because I used the perspective tool, but never dragged it the other way..

Aperture ƒ/16
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 1600
Shutter speed 1/800s