Category Archives: Architecture

Lumia Architecture

Through work I do a monthly photographic submission to our corporate newsletter, which I follow a set theme of looking at Architecture from a ‘non-architectural’ perspective. Also it has to be one of the buildings designed by the Architectural division within the design company I work for, one of the months I chose their award-winning educational building called Stage@Leeds, part of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries situated within the University of Leeds.

But that month, rather than use the trusty camera, I turned to the Nokia Lumia 925 again, which I’d used on a previous post called Lumia Landscapes that got me featured on Nokia’s website. For this venture I decided to use the new photo app called ‘Oggl’ from the same people who developed Hipstamatic Classic, similarly like that one, you can choose from lots of various creative film stocks and lens/photographic paper styles which can create endless possibilities.

…it’s a bit like Instagram, but with a more photographic twist…

I visited to the Stage@Leeds over various days and captured countless images using lots of styles until I found one which I felt captured my ‘non-architectural’ criteria, it was an infra-red film stock called Alfred lens called Jimmy.

I only submitted the small square of nine images on the lower right hand side for the newsletter, but I thought I’d share with you all the others I’d taken, as some of them appeal to me far more now than those original nine.

..especially the mini Death Star 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Grand

eaOne of the very first WordPress Photo Challenge I ever participated in was Big” so it seems quite fitting I start doing the Photo Challenges again after nearly a 4 month break with the theme GRAND”. The photo’s I’m submitting is of the Leeds Skyline on a very cold night.

I’d managed to sweet talk the security team looking after the City Island residential scheme, on the edge of the city to let me use one their apartments for some night photography. Amazingly he gave me the keys to the empty Penthouse suite ‘Room 102’ on the 19th floor, not ideal for those afraid of heights like me, but I was prepared to overcome this fear in the faint hope of getting some nice shots of the city at night.

This long panorama included the Crescent Moon on the far right with a lovely glint of Earth Shine.

Had to include a B/W shot, as it makes the city lights look so sharp.

I’ve made ALL the images a Gallery Link, so you can see the detail better.

Hope you like them 🙂

The Clock Tower Trilogy

Part 1: Leeds Town Hall

The Leeds Town Hall 29 © Carl Milner 2012I’ve recently managed to photograph two amazing clock towers and with a third one in the pipeline I thought I’d share them in a trilogy format of photo-blogs. The first in this series is Cuthbert Brodrick’s Town Hall which is truly one of the finest jewels of Victorian architecture at the heart of Leeds in my opinion. So when I noticed a ‘one-off’ tour was part of the Leeds Light Night festival recently it was our first port of call, but sadly this un-bookable event was already booked up when we arrived, but!!! to my delight a phone number was left for a catch-up tour for a few weeks later, so a quick call and our places were booked, and I’d finally get to see the hidden, secret side to this wonderful building.

On a glorious sunny Saturday morning with ❤Wifey on my arm and the trusty camera on the other, the Town Hall Clock Tower was our first port of call, the assent to the tower was by stairs (203 of them) and not for the faint hearted. Throughout the 90 minute tour our guide was Dr Kate Vigurs, an experienced and engaging historian who was very knowledgeable about the whole workings of the Town Hall clock; she also gives some quite insightful stories about the whole building, especially its courtroom and the characters of old that once stood in the dock.

It seem after that mornings tour of the historic clock tower, it’s now to become a permanent Saturday fixture in 2013, so with or without a camera I’d highly recommend this tour…but if you don’t take one, you’ll wish you had when you get out onto the parapets around the clock tower and witness the amazing vistas of Leeds that await you.

I hope you enjoy the gallery…I’ve also added some really interesting ‘Did you know’ facts about the Town Hall within each ones description… just click on any image to launch the Image Carousel 🙂

…..The next two in the Clock Tower Trilogy are both ‘No Public Allowed’ photo-tours.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

Bridgewater PlaceGeometry of Architecture

I’ve gone down the Architectural route with for this weeks WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge : Geometry as I feel it’s the one true profession that begins with geometry and since earliest times, architects have relied on these mathematical principles. Even the famous Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius believed that builders should always use precise ratios when constructing temples. “For without symmetry and proportion no temple can have a regular plan,” Vitruvius wrote in his famous Ten Books on Architecture. These proportions Vitruvius recommended were modelled after the human bodies precise ratio of – 1 to PHI (1.618) – which exists in every part of nature, from Jack Russell’s to the Moon. This divine geometric ratio, or divine proportion, has been called the building block of all life.

These sacred principles of geometry are not only confined to great temples and monuments, geometry shapes all buildings, particularly in these geometric forms that grace the skyline of my home town of Leeds. There’s the old Leeds Corn Exchange using draftsman geometric skills of ages-past, to the new Broadcasting House lovingly nicknamed The Rusty Nail which was designed using the latest geometric Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques with Revit software, either way their foundations start with Geometry… I hope you enjoy all my photography of them…I do 🙂