www.beardchops.com
Firstly, a little background, lifted directly from Wikipedia as I am not ashamed to admit that I know very little about this place that isn’t already documented elsewhere…
After attempting 2 other places today and being presented with a building site and a large expanse of rubble we decided to head to this wonderful building. The odd sign here and there showed us what some of the rooms had previously been used for and the odd part was damaged by the infamous fire (which didn’t actually seem to have destroyed much in my eyes).
Lungs full of asbestos but happy as pigs in shit, goes to show that there actually is something worth seeing in Belper besides awesome deals on tasty meat!
A few weeks back, on a random drive out (let’s see what’s down here) we happened to see a bunch of old cooling towers appearing over the horizon. Upon closer inspection we noticed that what would have once been buildings next to the towers were now rubble so we decided to have a nosey.
A little bit of history about the place (stolen from Wikipedia)…
In the 1950s, two coal-fired power stations were built on a site off Twyford Road, between Willington and Findern. The stations were privatised and sold to National Power in the early 1990s and eventually closed in the mid-1990s. Although most of the stations were demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area. The site[9] is earmarked for a large residential development, pending the results of a public inquiry. The construction plans have been met with local opposition, perhaps due to the site’s proximity to the River Trent’s flood plain.
In the mid-1990s a pair of peregrine falcons nested in one of the site’s huge cooling towers. Unlike many bird of prey breeding sites, this was widely publicised because of its impregnable location.
All in all, a very nice afternoon’s exploration, the resulting pictures are here…
So the Central Beardsmen had their first meet, here’s the photographic results that I’ve collated so far. Top bunch, had a really good laugh.
Don’t think Ripley knew what had hit it.
Beard on Mofos!
=|:)>
I’m rather convinced that the Reef gig last week has broken me. I’m still buzzing from it 4 days later and I’ve not listened to another band since. Furthermore it’s left me contemplating whether I actually enjoy seeing metal bands live any more as they just don’t give me the same feeling as that gig did.
It was recently brought to my attention by my friend Andy (Mr. Blessed) that he had met a Mr. Michael Wallage who had informed him of an event happening in Scarborough where bearded gentlemen such as ourselves gather and hold a competition to judge who has the most splendid facial fur in all the land. I could not resist and so off we headed for sunny Scarborough.
No, not the car manufacturer, an actual ford. I’m so glad that I finally found someone who has a similar sense of adventure as me. One minute you’re driving through a ford, the next minute you realise that you have wellies in the boot of the car! We had fun!
only having 30 minutes for my dinner break each day it’s difficult to fit much in besides eating and vaping. Today however I decided to throw caution to the wind and nip down to one of my favourite spots. Not much water (probably due to the recent heat wave) but a gorgeous place none the less.
A term that friend of mine (Mr. Mike Holmes) coined last year, I have to say that he hit the nail on the head superbly.
The new fad of instagram is slowly driving me insane, photographic filters are not new, they’ve been around since forever. The art of tastefully washing out elements of an image, enhancing certain colours, cropping an image for the best composition are as I suggested, an art-form.
This latest craze reminds me of the stereos that come with pre-defined graphic equalizers, 99% of people would simply set them to ‘Rock’ so that the display has the word Rock across the front of it as though without it you could only listen to pop or classical music. The choice bore no relevance on the enhancements being made to the sound based upon the shortcomings of the speakers/amplifier/room acoustics which is what graphic equalisers were designed to compensate for.
Back to the subject… Making your images look like every other image on instagram makes you about as unique or a talented photographer/image manipulator as an iSheep. Gain some individuality people, it’s not hard or expensive to begin learning to this properly, have a look at GIMP, read some of the tutorials and have some creative fun that may just expand your horizons.
Rant over, go and play.