Bridges, bridges and more bridges

No one would be surprised to hear that Great Yarmouth in Norfolk is situated at the mouth of a river although the main river is the Yare rather than the Yar (I wonder where it picked up the letter e, maybe it is the rich Norfolk accent that lead to to its inclusion)

Not surprisingly for a large town with its historically important port at the mouth of a river there have always been issues with moving people and goods from one side of the river to the other.

Until 1427 the only way across was to use one of  a number of ferries for people and cattle, but that year saw the building of the 1st bridge very close to where the current Haven bridge is sited, in fact the current bridge when it was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1930 was the 7th bridge across the Yare.

The current bridge was constructed by Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd whose portfolio also included the Forth Rail Bridge in 1890, Tower Bridge in 1894 and the Nile Bridge at Cairo in 1908. They also built the Middlesborough Transporter bridge 19911 (made famous in on TV by Auf Wiedersehen, Pet), The Forth Road Bridge 1964 , The Severn Bridge 1966 and the Humber Bridge 1981 (and was the longest suspension bridge in the world from 1981 to 1998 and is still the 5th largest suspension bridge in the world) so these guys seem to the ones to go to if you want a great bridge built

The 650 ton lifting arms are raised electrically, although can be operated manually in the event of a power failure - blimey that'd take a long time to raise 2 times 650 tons using muscle power alone.

The last ferry stopped working in the early 1990's

In 1845 the Yarmouth Suspension Bridge disaster took place when about 80 people were drowned, mainly children. They had crowded onto the suspension bridge over the river Bure (a tributary of the Ware) to see a circus clown go down the river in a barrel pulled by geese.  The tombstone of George Beloe (aged nine) in St Nicholas' churchyard depicts the bridge collapsing.

The coming of the railways also meant that a swing railway bridge was built to take the direct line from London & Lowestoft over the river. The river traffic was given priority over the trains. The second span on the Cobholm side pivotted on its axis to allow large ships through. In strong winds it could take up to 10 minutes for the operation of the bridge. The bridge was closed to traffic in the 1950's and was demolished in 1962 so it didn't even make it as far as being axed by Dr Beeching


As road traffic around Great Yarmouth and Gorleston increased during the 1970s, the area began to suffer severe congestion problems with long queues of vehicles building up at peak periods. The construction of a new road bridge crossing Breydon Water began in 1984 as part of the Great Yarmouth A12 western bypass and the Gorleston inner relief road. The new bridge was supplied and erected by Cleveland Bridge Ltd. of County Durham and, although completed in 1985, it was not officially opened to road traffic until early in 1986 when the rest of the bypass had been finished. The bridge closely follows the line of the old rail viaduct and, during construction the original pilings were finally removed to make way for the new bridge. The lifting arm weighs around 500 tons and is raised by hydraulics, taking just 90 seconds to open fully. A standby generator was installed as a back up in case of power failure. I believe that it is still be biggest single lifting bascule bridge in the UK luckily without the need for manual backup

The bridge is operated by The Great Yarmouth Port Company

There are now proposed  plans for a third river crossing in Great Yarmouth but in the current economic climate I can't really see these coming to fruition in the foreseeable future

Coming soon ?

Sometimes you expect something to happen soon and then it all goes wrong

In the case of this building in Norwich which looks like it was scheduled for redevelopment into residential use it was probably the down turn in property values that caused it to be left in limbo for so long that half of the sign has fallen down (I wouldn't have been too keen to have been walking underneath when it came down)

For me it's been a broadband issue

What things have you hoped would happen ?



Paul Davis Photography

Is it Christmas yet ?

I really do love Christmas, I love buying the tree and helping my son decorate it, I love buying presents and I love Christmas day itself. It's much of the other stuff that goes with it that I find goes on for so long it becomes tedious.

And anyway I don't think it can be Christmas yet especially as so far  I've not bought a single present and I really must buy some mince pies

Perhaps I should fire up a few shopping sites this evening and get shopping meanwhile I can think of warmer summer days and the wide open skies of East Anglia

Sometimes your tongue is an important aid to concentration

Photography is often used to capture an expression, usually that expression is either a smile of some sort of candid (subject didn't know the camera was there) shot.

There are other times when the image captures the huge mental effort that is required to be successful particularly in certain sports

These images were captured last year at Blaxhall in Suffolk during a Trials riding event run by the Woodbridge & DMCC & CC. In a trials competition the riders gain points for amongst other things for putting a foot down (or dabbing as it is known) with the rider with the lowest points score being the winner, so these competitors are trying their hardest to keep their balance and not dab

Out comes the tongue as an aid to concentration 

 There it is again

 Face in neutral

Love that expression

 Easy, done this before

 ooooh, eeeek

 I will not put a foot down, I will not put a foot down

Not sure what this expression is but it's not a happy one

I'm available to come along to any sort of motorsport or in fact for any sort of sport to capture the action. Please get in touch if you have an event coming up.

Via the webiste at www.pauldavisphotography.co.uk or on 07866 719730

What do you think, Tom, Dick & Harry perhaps ?

I spotted this at an auto jumble back in the summer

For those that don't know an auto jumble is like a jumble sale for car bits. You can find people selling all sorts of stuff from piles of rusty rubbish through to precious parts that are just what someone needs to complete the restoration of their 4-wheeled pride & joy.

I started my photographic career as a media accredited motorsports photographer and cars still form a major subject for me and my work hence my love of events like auto jumbles and the strange sights you can sometimes find.

If you or your other-half love a piece of machinery that you would like photographed so it can be proudly displayed on the wall or on the desk at work please do get in touch with me via my website Paul Davis Photography or on 07866 719730

So what do people think, do spanners always have boys names ?

Do Smiley's People live here

Every photograph can tell a story, it is the job of the photographer to see that story in their minds-eye and to set about capturing it. The story could be about a 1st day at school, it could be the start of a happy married life through to being a story about why the consumer should buy your product be it a tin of delicious baked beans through to a tower crane.

Sometimes the story in the picture isn't complete and leaves the viewer wondering what is just out of shot or perhaps what they would look like if they lived in that luxury home.

Just what goes into that bottom letter box ? Maybe it is a dead letter drop for a spy, letters containing the details of the next assassination victim on the other side of the world who will be bumped off using some ingenious weapon dreamed up by Q and his team or could be it be as simple as a brass letter G not being available and it's just the usual junk mail & gas bills ?

Will we ever know ? probably not

Photography can tell your story, it can help you sell your product or help to capture precious memories - the story is up to you 

Memories la la la

Memories,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were

Much of photography is about memories, we can look at dusty pictures of our great grandparents and spot how our children really have inherited the "family" nose. But we can often look at these pictures and wonder who the person in the background is or perhaps what the special occasion was that made them go out and spend their hard earned cash to get a photographer to capture the moment.


Yes photography can bring the past to life but it can also leave questions unanswered, questions that would have been answered if more photographs were available to complete the story.


The image above was taken this year in Great Yarmouth and is a relic of the days 20 years ago when Yarmouth harbour provided a car ferry service to Europe , the sign remains, unloved but still a living museum piece.


A new outer harbour was completed at Yarmouth this year and was furnished with 2 £7 million container cranes and some hinted promise of a new Ro-Ro (roll on, roll off) car ferry service to the Netherlands. But now less than a year later the cranes are going and the ferry service idea has been put on hold as the Great Yarmouth outer harbour concentrates on servicing the renewable energy sectors with the older parts of Yarmouth harbour providing extensive support for the southern North Sea oil & gas industry.


Photography can be used to capture the story but of course the story changes especially in business as the economic climate changes. If you are in business you should always ensure that you are recording your history and also presenting your future to your customers & stakeholders


If you would like to discuss your photography requirements with Paul Davis Photography please call me on 07866 719730 or email on contact@pauldavisphotography.co.uk

Song Credits: Bergman, Alan (Songwriter); Bergman, Marilyn (Songwriter); Hamlisch, Marvin (Songwriter); COLGEMS-EMI MUSIC INC (Publisher)

So photography is like loitering & sketching ?

There have been plenty of news reports over the last couple of years of photographers being hassled by security guards or even being arrested by the police just for attempting to take pictures in a public place

Generally it is perfectly legal to take pictures of anyone or anything in a public place and recently the police in many areas have had additional guidance issued to them about how they should operate when they come across a photographer at work out on the streets. Several photography trade bodies & publications also issued copies of the guidelines for journalistic photographers to carry with them

But there are some places where photography is banned these include locations that are subject to the Official Secrets Acts 1911-1939 as Ministry of Defence Prohibited Places, they have signs on them with the rather quaint wording

"Prohibited place within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act. Loitering, photography, sketching forbidden."

and in fact Google Streetview fell foul of these restrictions and had to remove images of many MOD and MI5 locations from its service but I'm not aware of anyone being pounced on for getting out a sketch pad

I do hope I don't get a knock on the door (or worse) for publishing this image from a now defunct military establishment somewhere in England

Christmas WiRE

My partner Antonella is a member of the WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) networking organisation. WiRE is the only organisation offering support to businesswomen in rural areas although the term rural does seem to include towns

On Tuesday this week the West Suffolk WiRE network held its Christmas Bazaar at the lovely The Grange Hotel in Thurston near Bury St Edmunds and Antonella was exhibiting to showcase her boudoir and portraiture services. As the weather wasn't looking too promising we left loads of time to travel to the hotel but it turned out to be an easy journey and we arrived rather early. This did offer us the time for a nice relaxed lunch, the menu was one of those that made it very difficult to make a choice as it all sounded so wonderful, in the end we both went for a club sandwich which was a great choice as it turned out to be the best club sandwich either of us had ever had.

After lunch we set up Antonella's stand and had a good look around at the stands of the other exhibitors which included every variety of craft from jewellery to handbags & from painting to artisan soft drinks. Everything you could want to get your Christmas shopping off to a flying start including a boudoir photo shoot for your loved one by Antonella

Antonella together with another local business woman, Maureen Chadwick of Painted Tree bespoke furniture has set-up an East of Norfolk WiRE network which will be holding its 1st meeting in February 2010 in the Great Yarmouth area. So I'm sure you'll be reading more about that over at Antonella's blog in the coming weeks

Warmth in the winter

Well finally my heating is working properly again (after 3 visits from the heating engineer and many cups of tea)

So finally I can start my photo a day blogging

The 1st image I bring to you is of the Platform Supply Vessel MV Sophie Siem at work in Great Yarmouth harbour in Norfolk UK

The vessel belongs to the Norwegian company, Siem Offshore and was built in 2006. Interestingly Siem Offshore is based in Kristiansand in Norway which is twinned with Letchworth which is the town next to my home town of Hitchin in Herts UK


The vessel is a Platform Supply Vessel designed to carry out regular supply functions and cargo transport for
the oil industry as well as Standby functions. The vessel is designed with a well deck for maximum protection
for cargo and crew.

If your business needs images to promote its activities especially in the marine sector please do get in touch to discuss your requirements