Manchester

I have been very busy and not around a laptop for days. That’s my excuse. On the other hand, who wouldn’t want to look at the Bill Poster for the rest of the year.

The joy of working in the fresh air: you get a tan. I have taken hundreds of photos of people working in the rail environment. Train drivers in their train, conductors, cleaners, fitters, shunters – you name it. I have shot smoke filled trains (emergency training), people stopping a train and probably the most exciting one: how to warn a train driver by putting detonators on the line.

Imagine this: a driver driving his train over a piece of closed off track, and on that track a small piece of explosive. The driver would then drive over the explosive with his train, it would give a big bang which would warn the driver after which he would apply the emergency brakes and stop the train. Quite a cool sequence; we were going to film this and we would be recording sound. I was looking forward to it.

It went well, the train made the detonators explode, and when I saw that I was impressed. So impressed that I couldn’t stop my self from shouting “WOW!”. It was a very genuine and uncontrolled WOW, because it was a big bang and it looked cool! But my “WOW” made the complete sound recording useless, and therefor the whole sequence had to be redone. The train driver had to drive the train all the way back, new detonators had to be placed on the track, a new explosion, and me wanting to vaporize of embarrassment.

This weekend and I am one a 2 day full time photography course both today and tomorrow. A bit tough after having been away from home for three days, but also very interesting.

Day 1 has been done, I am very very tired, so how nice that the BBC is transmitting 1.5 hour about the history of the British romantic comedy: from Brief Encounter to Richard Curtis, opening with Billy Mack performing his Christmas is all around. Pure indulgence, just what I need.