Temple Meads

After a pretty chilled Christmas and new year with my lady and my baby, I managed to sneak out for an hour or two yesterday whilst they were afternoon napping...

:-)

I'd had it in my mind to do some night shots at Temple Meads for a while now, although these were taken between 5 and 6pm. I remember way back to 1996 when I was half way through the BTEC Photography course I started just after leaving school, being set an assignment to capture candid portraits at Temple Meads. One of the tutors who I remember to be particularly keen on portraiture asked the whole group to meet at the entrance to the station one cold afternoon, kitted up with telephoto lenses and 1600 iso black and white film for our college issued Pentax K1000's (with exception of a few rich kids with their Olympus OM1's).

I couldn't believe the freedom I was being given as part of my further education - to literally wander around Temple Meads spying on people, discreetly snapping images of them. It was a fantastic feeling to have dragged myself through the pain that was the last year of GCSE's and come out the other end with an inspiring and challenging photography course that fed my appetite for creativity.

Anyway...

Sunday proved to be a good day for photography as it was relatively quite at the station and no one got in my way, although it was quite literally freezing. I was pleased to find that taking photos there is still as acceptable as it was 13 years ago, especially when you keep hearing about the 'Photography bans' at Circusmead just around the corner. I spoke to the barrier attendant who pointed me in direction of the customer service counter on platform 3. I told the guys there that i just wanted to grab a couple of long exposure shots of the trains and they told me, 'No problem - enjoy yourself! Just keep away from the edge for the platforms and dont blind the drivers with any flashes please...'

Fair enough!