Recently I found myself down in deepest, darkest England. Specifically the bustling streets of London and Manchester.
I was only in the Big Smoke for a couple of days, and most of that time was spent inside the generic basement of some hotel for a conference. That meant that there wasn’t much room in the schedule to mill about and take pictures, but I did my best to make the most of the opportunities that I did have.
Perhaps foolishly, I decided that this trip would be a great time to road-test one of the weirder cameras in my collection – the DxO One. This is a tiny, palm-sized device from 2015, which was originally designed to clip onto an iPhone. The manual controls are basically non-existent, and I almost immediately regretted it, when I realised just how much there was to take pictures of.
To be fair, there was some logic to my madness. I didn’t have a huge amount of space in my bag, and had already packed a Super 8 film camera, and a bulky Sony A7 IV (for reasons that will become clear shortly). Chucking the teensy DxO in there seemed eminently sensible at the time, and I actually managed to get a few pictures that I didn’t think were completely pish at least. So that’s something of a victory.
I have something of a love-hate relationship with London. Every time the train pulls into Euston from Glasgow, I immediately feel overwhelmed by the number of people, and their seeming indifference to everybody else around them. Squashing into overcrowded trains, the pervasive impersonal nature, and a sense that you have no choice but to get swept along with the perpetually manic rush all wears on the soul. However, once the initial shock dissipates, I remember a lot of the things that I do like about the city. The sights you come across. The quirks and idiosyncracies around every corner.
One of the things I like about going to London is the chance to see friends, and I took the chance to do as much of that as I could: Drinking Guinness on floating pubs; eating gluten free dumplings; accidentally getting a bit pished on wine.
The less said about this painting, the better, probably.
Once my time in London came to a close, I caught the train North to Manchester – a city that I’ve only visited a few times before. All of those occasions have always come about while I was on tour with my old band Closet Organ. As a result, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to explore the city (too busy being a rock star duh), but I remember being impressed with how lively it felt in comparison to Glasgow.
The Northern Quarter in particular definitely has something about it, with lots of smaller independent shops and bars that spill out onto the streets.
I particularly enjoy a proper Chinatown – no matter how small it might be. We found ourselves here late one night, ordering far too much spicy beef.
We ate delicious cheesecakes and drank nice coffee, thanks to recommendations from friends.
and overall, it was just a pleasant time.
I had specifically come to the city to see one of my favourite bands – Mass of the Fermenting Dregs – who were on their first ever tour of the UK from Japan. As it happens, I ended up as the photographer for the gig, and I’ve posted a bunch of shots over here.
I spotted this guy sitting with his dog in the rain, and had to ask if I could get their picture, praying that the stupid wee DXO One would actually get something usable.
and it did, as it happens.
We were only in Manchester for two nights, and it felt like an incredibly short trip – but accommodation was expensive, as was sending our own dog off over that period. It was good to get out and about though. I’m sure I’ll be back, and hey – the DXO One wasn’t a total disaster.
