A Summer Palace

 Built as a summer palace for Prince Eugene of Savoy the Belvedere is a complex of baroque palaces, an orangery, stables and parkland. It is now a museum of art, housing world class exhibitions. and it is designated a world heritage site.

At one point the upper Belverdere as seen in these images was the home of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. Following his assassination and the start of the first world war the palace complex was nationalised and became home for collections and exhibitions of modern art.

Christmas at the Dock

 Here's hoping that everyone has had a good Christmas and is looking forward to a happy and successful 2023.

These shots are along the colonnades at Liverpool's Albert Dock (once home to Granada TV studio and the famous floating weather map). Tate Liverpool is also here now along with the Maritime Museum, shops, cafes and bars. Usually it is very busy along here but on a frozen morning, midweek in December there were few people around and it had quite a calm atmosphere.

Love Liverpool

 I have a little more time on my hands now and so there is a very good chance I will be getting out and about a lot more which can only be a good thing.

Earlier this week as the conditions were pretty good I decided to head into Liverpool for a couple of hours to see whether I could capture anything good. As you can see from the pictures above, the sky was crisp and clear, there was ice on the dock and a definite chill in the air (not quite the coldest day of the year but pretty close to it).

I firstly went down to the waterfront to photograph the architecture around the docks before heading back through town where I captured a few shots of people going about their business in the run up to Christmas, so I have a fair bit to work on and to share.

It is a while since I have been down to the waterfront and I had not realised how popular it has become for people to affix padlocks to the chain link fence around the docks. You can see from the above pictures that it has definitely become "a thing" here in Liverpool as it has in other cities all over. For the effect I think I like the locks in the third image as they go all along the riverside where I think the sheer volume of them has more impact. 

However, although there are currently fewer locks along the dockside fences they do create a fantastic frame for the buildings in the background. In these images the main building is the Museum of Liverpool which is itself a stunning building. I will be sharing some more shots of the museum in the coming days.

A Modern Masterpiece

Here are four views of the marvelous Museum of Liverpool. I know that some people really dislike this building but I think it is an amazing structure although it was incredibly expensive and it leaks so there was some problem with the construction if not the design. It sits on the waterfront alongside the Three Graces and it contrasts and complements the historic architecture.

I really like the black and white images the second one is very like a final render from the architects drawings as it would have been presented to city planners.

Because it is a public building I wanted to get some shots with people in but not so  many that there were crowds distracting from the building itself so I waited to snap a single passer by and then in the final shot the three men had waited patiently to one side while I was taking pictures before the climbed the stairs. When they paused half way up I thought it made an excellent shot and I quickly captured the moment. I hope you agree it works really well.

Overflow

This lock is at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port which marks the end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it joins the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey.

In the original image the principal colour is green and it sort of takes over. Converting it to monochrome and adding some coloured hues ensures the main focus in the image is the lock gates (at each end of the lock) and the flowing water.

Now let's get this thing straight

Today we went to the Tank  Museum at Bovington in Dorset.  The picture I've posted is the only one I took at the museum and is of the rifling in the barrel of a Howitzer, I can't remember the size but I think it was 150mm diameter.  Whatever it was it would have packed a heckler of a punch...