Looking back on the Farnborough Photowalk 27/11/21
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday. We will do this again, for those who had to pull out. I hope to arrange other events in association with this blog in the future - in various parts of the South of England!
In many ways this part of Farnborough could be considered the heart of the town, as for many years the majority of people who live here and have lived here before us, would have had some involvement with the RAE. It was partly why I chose this location for the event, which we ran in conjunction with local community group “The Heart of Farnborough”.
A lot of interesting conversations were had on the way round. I learn’t a lot from my guests and in some ways the walk was more of a history walk than a photographic one. I now know that we have a Centrifuge building and a lot more about the wind tunnels. We rounded off the walk at the FAST Museum.
Let me share the photos I took on the day and I would love to either update this post or create a new one to showcase your (the people who came along on the day that is) images too. You know my email address ;-) Don’t be shy!
The light on the day was very diffuse should we say. I know many of the people who came along would have preferred blue skies and brilliant sunshine, which would have been nice. However overcast days are the photographer’s friend.
In the photo above you can see how this old building has aged, it’s gritty, almost stark. It’s home to the largest wind-tunnel, which people can visit at certain times of the year. I’ve never been in there and I will try next year to book a visit.
Here I’ve gone for that stark look, yes the light was really like that and when processing the image I refrained from hitting the exposure correction button, as I felt that would ruin the image. Film Directors do this all of the time, to create a mood, check out any “film-noir” movie and you’ll know what I mean.
One member of the group wondered why I was taking a photo of a broken window. Fair question! I am drawn to gritty stuff in towns and cities. It’s fascinating to explore how buildings have aged, the non-healing scars that they show, the passage of time.
I start to ponder who may have worked in the laboratory behind that frosted glass? What work did they do? A lot of it would have been a closely guarded secret at the time.
Last of all I like to explore simple graphical elements in an image. “Less is more” being the mantra of this approach.
“…and now for something completely different!”, as the Pythons used to say!
Bad weather hadn’t put off the Christmas decorations team at the Balloon Hangar.
and the Hangar itself on a very gloomy day. Looks great in moody black and white!
I didn’t take this photo on the walk but wanted to share it, as we were talking about photographing “street furniture”, this is one I took some time ago. Does anyone know what the R52 building was used for? Answer in the comments below - thanks!
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