David Simper followed on from his visit to the new Grundy Art Gallery exhibition, with a stroll over to the Tea Amantes cafe and art gallery, to catch the members of StreetSnappers North West for a photographic walk round the town centre.
I had previously reviewed Stan Crook’s solo exhibition at Tea Amantes and then the recent StreetSnappers show at the same venue, which was still on the walls when this event took place. I was keen to turn out for what had been the second photowalk organised. As I was quite early, there was time for a refreshing coffee.
A sizeable group gathered and then, cameras hand, issued out into the mean streets of Blackpool. We worked our way up Coronation Street towards the new cinema, its architecture contrasting with the Winter Gardens just across the road. At the junction with Church Street we had fun watching a Civil Enforcement Officer ticketing a car; the double yellow lines are quite clear, maybe the driver didn’t think they applied to them.
Church Street was busy providing a constantly changing scene to be photographed. There are also two Elmer the elephants, with people clustered round them. A chap with his face tattooed blue turned up and was immediately grabbed for an impromptu photo session. I’m too shy with people for that kind of thing and the blue face wouldn’t have turned out particularly strikingly on my black and white film, so I kept out of this.
We worked our way into Corporation Street and encountered a curious lady with two cute little dogs, who wanted to know about our group. The dogs got photographed.
Then we turned into Back Church Street for some nice shots around the Dirty Blondes bar and then of some interesting graffiti. Someone appeared out of the back of a cafe and asked for any photos of her to be deleted, but no one had photographed her. Exiting Back Church Street we were well placed for people’s shots in St John’s Square.
I used Kentmere 400 film in my Yashica 35mm rangefinder camera with its 45mm lens, which I set to f5.6, giving adequate depth of field with a fast shutter speed, ideal for this kind of grab photography.
Later we rendezvoued back at Tea Amantes for drinks and snacks. My salmon wrap was particularly delicious. Naturally the conversation was particularly photographic.
I’ll certainly be turning out for another photowalk, of course using a different route.
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