The PK Perspective

Perth City Wednesday 21st July

I had been aware that it had been raining heavy all night and when I got up in the morning, running late as usual, I didn’t think about the rain beating down on the roof. I couldn’t find my boots quickly enough so just shoved on my trainers and ducked out the door. The city centre was very wet but just had a few big puddles littering the streets. I got to the bus stop, thankful for my storm proof jacket, and had to jump over a rather large puddle to get on the bus. The driver advised me that the Crieff road was a bit flooded but he would try and pull into a drier part for me. I thanked him and took my seat not thinking it could be that bad. How wrong I was! We came over the railway bridge and into a biblical storm. The rain was lashing and the road was under a foot or so of water. The mini roundabout was barely visible at the edge of the flood and the other 2 roads leading off it were closed and I could see what looked like a river or mini loch happily expanding over Feus Road. The bus driver dropped me off a bit further up the road than usual as the bus stop was under ankle deep water (and that was on the pavement). Hood up tight I walked the 100 yards or so to work which thankfully was on slightly higher ground and not flooded, once there I called my mum who lives down the road and at the worse of the flooding and found she already knew as she had went into her kitchen and found it full of water and when she opened the back door the patio was nowhere to be seen under the new pond. Luckily for her the kitchen is sunken and has a step of a few inches to get into the dinning room or hall and this probably saved the rest of the ground floor.

The rain calmed as the day went on and I supported a service user into town which wasn’t really affected by the flood with the roads and pavements clear with only a few basements needing pumped out. On the way back we noticed a police sign on the Crieff road and were worried that the road was closed but it was just a danger sign as a manhole cover had blown when the flood hit in the morning and the pressure not only moved the cover but also a fair chunk of road and the area was littered with large chunks of tarmac, am very glad I hadn’t been there when that happened.

Sweeping the water under the fence

After work I walked around to mums place to see her and my sister and her family who had flown up from London for a visit. I went round the back as I had no boat to get down the main road which was still flooded and was now full of firemen and pumps. The back street and pavement were clear, as was the main part of garden but the patio was only passable with wellies or by jumping between sandbags. The drains were spewing up water and the vent under the house was throwing out water too. The neighbours daughter was standing sweeping the water under the fence to her garden where a industrial pump was pumping it out to the back street where the drains were still functioning. I jumped the bags and into a slightly sodden Kitchen, the water had dropped enough that at least it was no longer filled with water. Not sure how they got the kids and stuff into house, but they did, but unfortunately without luggage as the airline had misplaced it! Between us we kept sweeping the patio water under the fence until it levels dropped enough that we could move the pump between the gardens without the other one rising dangerously high again. Eventually we could actually see the paving slabs and could take the lino off the kitchen floor and give the floor a sweep and clean.

Out the fr0nt the water levels were high and it was like walking out the front door at a loch side. Fortunately for us the water reached the front garden but not the door, guess the old Victorian drains and foundations aren’t all bad, the people over the street were not so lucky. I got some shots as the water receded a little and I felt a bit safer standing on the sandbags at the front gate. There were pumps and firemen everywhere, all working hard to uncover the street again. It was well into the evening before the street was anywhere near passable but it still had open drains as the manhole covers were missing. We found out from a neighbour that the problem was that the old drain had been slowly blocking with silt and were now 70% Silt, the local councilor who lives in the street had been campaigning to get it fixed and had won and the work was to start next week. Too late unfortunately for the residents.  The old blocked drain could not deal with the quantity and speed of the rainfall and panicked!

The worse of the flooding at the front of the house

Today though is a warm and bright day and it seems impossible that yesterday was so wet, the center is all dry and sunny like nothing ever happened. However for those in the flooded areas there are ruined kitchens and wet foundations and floors to remind them of yesterdays weather tantrum. Thanks and praise have to be given to the fire brigade  and the people in the neighbourhood (especially my mums lovely neighbours) who all chipped in to clear the flood and save as much of the houses as possible.

Corinna hotel  Sat 19th June

There’s a condition at work which we call “nightshift brain”and this is when during or after working waking nightshifts your brain gives up its higher levels of functioning due to the tiredness, isolation and general messing about of the body clock. The phenomenon can last for a good few days after the last nightshift. Now due to doing 4 waking nights, finishing on the wed morning, then doing a sleepover shift (which is a late shift, sleep at the service then do an early the next day) on Friday, by Saturday my brain had pretty much given out. This all made my shoot of the wonderful R.P.G on Saturday a bit of a challenge.

Although I was faultly RPG weren't

They were again playing the Corinna Hotel in all it’s dodgy glory.  This time they had a warm up act, Patrol, who were just finishing when I turned up. They did sound very good and everyone gave them a glowing review. Sorry I missed you guys! As always the light was shocking there but this time I had come with a plan. I had used coloured acetone to make filters that fit on the flash, ingenious! They would of worked really well too if I didn’t have so many problems with the flash gun. I had put in cheap batteries which the flash just ate through at an amazing rate and only with very fresh batteries did it work to it’s best. Lesson leaned though, you get what you pay for! This along with my faulty brain that set the camera up with ISO 100 instead of 1600 and at no point figured this out until the next day, made for a challenging shoot. But through the technical difficulties and the rather rowdy crowds (my thanks to Pauline and Sandra who acted as my bouncers and stopped me getting stood on even though it put them in the line of danger) I managed to get some great shots.  Again I also used rear flash and slow shutter approach and as the band and crowd were quite lively I got some good movement shots. I did need to do quite a bit of photoshop work to lighten them up though, knew I should of worked in RAW format so I could play around with exposure and that and due to the low ISO and hence darker shots I did tend to transfer a lot of shots in to black & white to get the contrast and detail I wanted.

Although I was not at my best, RPG were. They played their hearts out and put up with the drunks wondering onto the stage area and were gratified with proper screaming fans and demands for more. It sounded like and felt like being at a proper concert, apart from the venue. I’m sure if they did a CD it would do very well, who says you have to be in your youth to make it big in the music world!!!!

Rehearsal studio on Shore Road Perth

R.P.G. at the rehearsal studio

Last weekend I took photos for a local punk band R.P.G and I’m pleased to say they were happy with the outcome. I agreed to meet up with them at their rehearsal studio in Perth to give them a hard version of the shots and also to take some album and rehearsal shots. That is how on Saturday evening after spending the day climbing cliffs and getting stung by nettles I ended up at a very dubious looking building in the red light district of Perth (not that I saw anyone selling their bodies). This group seem to thrive on dodgy looking places. This one looks like something out of a hard American urban movie or a post apocalyptic one. However the band are nothing to fear and greeted me with smiles and compliments (a good way to keep the photographer happy).  I listened to the rehearsal for a while before getting the camera out. Their music was still fabulous and real toe tapping, jump around singing stuff (though must admit I didn’t jump around and sing, not really enough space). After half an hour or so they took a break to rest our ears and their hands and voices. I took advantage of the opportunity to get some shots of them all together in their urban surrounding. The sun was still up but the light was pretty bleak, but that suited the aura of the place. My 1st problem was getting Bod to look at the camera, he looks everywhere but, the 2nd was getting them to put down beer and ciggies, which must admit gave up on, adds to their persona as a band. I had Smiler (their number one fan) hold the flash for me to try and get some more interesting light on them, thanks Smiler job well done. We used what was around us to set the mood so thanks whoevers van that was! They did want the prison in the background as this ties in with one of their songs but I just couldn’t get the definition on it with the sucky light, sorry guys maybe next time though. Once I was happy with what I had I let them get back to work and returned back inside with them to get some shots of them in action again.

The lighting was pretty drab but using the remote flash, Smiler, various tables and amps I got some cracking shots. I kept the camera on manual with the shutter speed at about 80th of a second, the aperture about F5 and iso 1600. This allowed the camera to deal with any movement and also with the flash and the drab light. However in processing at home I did have to remove some noise in some shots using noise ninja in photoshop, sometimes the pixel noise adds to the effect but sometimes sadly not!.  I captured their creative juices flowing in a rather compact space, thanks to the fabulous wide lens (best thing I ever got). Stan had written 3 new songs, though they worked mostly on one, the lyrics I believe are done by the singer Sandy. I am always impressed that people can write music, just something way out of my comfort zone, can’t even play a musical instrument and really struggle to read music. So writing 3 songs in a week or so is amazing in my books and such great tunes too. Keep up the good work. I gave up my photo spree when my flash started to struggle thanks to the batteries running out (that flash just eats through batteries like nothing on Earth). I stayed to watch the discussion, which involved a lot of hand gestures and raised voices, about the drums part in the new song. I am told this is just how they do it and it’s all in good humour. It def seems to work anyway so carry on boys. I left them to it at about 2300 and they were still in full flow. Guess  that’s why the rehearsal studio is outside of town. Their next gig is on 19th June at the Corinna hotel so they don’t have long to get those songs down to a T. Of course I will be there capturing it all on film, well memory card, for them.

The wonders of a wide angled lens!

Rabid Punk Guitars (R.P.G) at the Corinna hotel

I was invited to take photos at a friends punk gig. His band the Rabid Punk Guitars were playing at a local hotel. As I got my ticket for free I was more than happy to offer my services. So After doing an early shift after a sleepover, helping mum fit her open windowed car with a spare on the back wheel in to a garage about the same size as it, having an impromptu visit from father which included a light dinner followed by  a walk along the riverside and an inspiring conversation about my fabulous grandfather, having a few glasses of rose wine with strawberries at a friends place, I finally found myself at the rather shabby and very hot hotel function room and only a little tipsy.

R.P.G are a group of middle aged punk rockers and are absolutely fabulous. They write a lot of their own songs and do it very well. Although the lighting was awful I plonked myself down at the front and did my thing. I used my remote flash and got some great shadows. A few times I also put the flash onto rear, which means it goes off at the end of the shot when the shutter shuts, and turned down the shutter speed so I got some good movement shots in a very punk style. My friends were also very helpful holding different lenses and pointing the flash gun on command. Thanks folks. All in all a great night and I hope to get to the next gig they have.

2 of the R.P.G guitars

I have been wanting to attempt the technique of star trails for a long time now and always seemed to find an excuse to not stand out in the cold at stupid-o-clock in a field for 3 hours. Last nights sky went from being very overcast to incredibly clear in the matter of an hour so I grabbed my mate Darryl straight after work and headed out to an area we had checked out the week before.

Star trails above Perth

Darryl shoots with an old 35mm Olympus OM10 (brilliant piece of kit) and I was out with the D200. He borrowed my old tripod with one wonky leg but it still works a treat.

We were both using BULB mode in order to keep the shutter open as long as we wanted and used my watch to keep tabs on the length of the exposures. The major benefit of Darryl’s camera is that it doesn’t need battery power to operate, and after an hour my 1st battery had died on me.

The hardest part of this whole affair is composing a shot in complete darkness so it’s best to let your eyes adjust to your surroundings before starting.

For me the most surprising factor was how little noise my camera gave off considering the lack of light and the length of time the shutter was open. This almost makes up for how crap the D200 is at Infrared shots (grrrr @ Nikon).

Camera settings (pic on right):
ISO: 100
Aperture: F11
Shutter: 15mins
Manual focus

There is a great guide to taking these shot at THIS WEBSITE.

We will be going out again when we get the opportunity with a better foreground setting – watch this space!

Location:- Perth  Time:- 1500ish 1.04.10

I was off of work and the sun had finally managed to peek through the clouds so I decided to have another wee solo mission and get some shots of the urban glory of the city (well not actually a city) of Perth.

Quick history Lesson. Perth in now 800 years old and has never been given city status. There are a few theories why this is one is that after the assassination of king James the 1st of Scotland at Scone palace (on the outskirts of Perth) on 21st February 1437 that the official royal line which later on became the modern day royal family got a little annoyed at Perth as they felt that it’s lords, in particular Sir Robert Graham were to blame for the whole business. So after all the extra executions of the secondary royal line which could of had a claim to the throne they decided to never give Perth City status as some kind of punishment.   Another theory is that as all the Scottish kings were crowned at Scone Palace, that when the royal family merged with England the English ancestors felt that they should not give Perth city status so that those pesky Scottish relatives wouldn’t get ideas of being important and try and take the crown. Also they took our stone of destiny which originally sat at the chapel at scone which is built on a mound that is said to be made from handfuls of soil from all over Scotland as all the lords brought soil from their fiefdom to honour the 1st king of Scotland.  Got all that?

Courtyard at back of flats

Anyway this year is the 800 year anniversary and Perth is pushing for city status, even though everyone thinks it is a city anyway and has been called the “fair city” for years, and we don’t really care. But all in all it did inspire me to go out and find glimpses of Perth’s past. I started with me own close (that’s a part of a tenement building  for those non-Scottish amongst you) This building was built in about 1888 and has been modernised through the years but the exterior still has a lot of the original tenement in it. I couldn’t be bothered with a big heavy bag so just took the wide angled lens on the camera. On full wide this gave me a good shot of the plettie (dundonian for communal landing) which really has not changed over the years, apart from the toilet block no longer have toilets in them, just our junk! I was lucky enough to capture the sun sneaking into the dark stairwell and stood for a while on the stairs trying to get the exposure right with the bright sun against the dark stairs and wall, but think I got it in the end.

After exploring my courtyard which again hasn’t changed much since 1888, apart from the big bins and the bricking up of the old gateway through to the inns courtyard, I headed in to the city (sorry town) itself. I wandered through the Whitefriars graveyard which I think is the oldest one in Perth and down to Tay, but found nothing that moved me. I daundered around the oldest tenements built by the church, but a lot of this was being worked on so was just covered with scaffolding which was not very pretty. I walked back into town and although there are a lot of lovely buildings the place was so busy with people and cars everywhere, it was school run time. Why can’t people walk with their children or get the bus instead of polluting the place with their big 4×4 cars?! almost fed up with the city I headed to the new concert hall and the fair maids house which is the oldest building in Perth and used to sit just outside the city walls. This fair maid was legendised by Sir Walter Scott who wrote the “fair maid of Perth” novel after being inspired by the story of the battle of the clans which took place on the North Inch in Perth in 1396. The flag stone for one of the clans flag can still be found under an oak tree beside the practice green on the Inch. Anyway the house built in 1393 is still standing proud and is a tourist attraction though must admit I have never been in it, but then again I’ve never seen it open. This was perfect for the wide angled though as the road runs pretty close to it and as much as I wanted to stand a little further back, the cars seemed to complain at this! The street is still cobbled and I found getting low gave  a great perspective with the cobbles in the foreground. However looking one way I couldn’t help but get the ugly new multi-story car park in the shot. How annoying! only good thing about that car park is that it is on Curfew Lane which is such a cool name for the little vennel (ally or lane between buildings).

Fair maids house, oldest building in Perth

Until recently the most popular night club in Perth

Once I had got a few shots of the old house I headed down the South Inch (Inch by the way means low lying marshy flood plain- in Perth the 2 inches have been made into parks and were gifted to the town by the Mercer family a few generations ago). Although the sun was out the Inch was a bit boring as the trees were still bare and only the bravest of flowers had attempted to bloom. I did wander down to the back of the Ice Factory night club which used to be the premiere club in Perth (yes we have more than one!) until it closed on Halloween last year. Now it just looks sad and manky, another bit of Urban degradation brought on by the credit crunch. It did photograph well though. It was originally a cold storage warehouse and slaughter yard, but guess ‘The Slaughter House’ didn’t have the same ring to it for a night club!! By this point the temperature was dropping again and it was pretty chilly out of the sun, I was also well annoyed by the busyness of Perth so I headed home, which fortunately was just around the corner.

Not a bad little trip and it did remind me that Perth has a lot of lovely buildings and history, they’re just not easy to see behind all the people and cars. Somewhere along the line people stopped looking around themselves and forgot about everything but the rush to be somewhere else. May try to photo Perth again but take someone with me to move everyone out the way! My very own photo bouncer, fabulous!!!