I’d never spent any time in Liverpool until this past week, I had a week off for my birthday and both my wife and I decided to spend the week in the city of Liverpool, why you might be asking well our son has been living there for the past year attending John Moores University. (At this point I’d like to apologise to the people of the world for getting the name of son’s university wrong, it wasn’t St John’s)
A fresh city, fresh eyes and the perfect place for street photography or at least that’s what I was hoping for, I was also hoping for warm sunny weather, what I got was sun, rain and wind the holy trinity for street photography I was on fire and having a blast, I think my wife and son might have been thinking not for us and why the hell are we following him about.
Now like I said I’d never spent any time here apart from a few hours when we brought our son up last year, so I never got to see much of the city and I was excited to explore however Liverpool is the birthplace of one of the most overrated boy bands the world has ever seen the beatles and bloody hell this city exploits this awful boy band, my son is convinced that I’ll get stabbed as I keep telling people that the beatles suck lol I can’t help myself.
The first plan of action upon arriving in the city was coffee, I needed to find the perfect coffee house and it took a few days before I found the ideal place in fact I’m sitting in there as I start writing this blog, Bean coffee roasters and if you visit the city I highly recommend you check them out.
From the moment I arrived at the train station I was shooting for the past few months, I’ve been struggling with my street photography and I had faith that a fresh area would reignite my focus and boy did it, its been 4 days (so far) and I haven’t stopped shooting, I’ve been more focused on the streets and street photography has started feeling new to me, I now know that I want to move to Liverpool being here is going to jump-start my photography.
Nighttime in Liverpool the darkness, the colours and when it rains the reflections its a dream come true for me and my camera, I found this area (Above) right in the centre and wow, now I know I can get better photos from this spot I just need to work the scene and herein lies the problem, I don’t have the time on this trip as my poor wife is just standing around watching me, not fun for her. I could work on this scene for months without getting bored and I know I’d produce good work, the modern architecture of Liverpool’s city centre is unreal its like looking at a real-life M.C. Escher painting again this is just perfect for me and my work, I just wished I had more time to explore.
Liverpool has so many wonderful areas to explore including the seaside, we decided to take a day trip to the seaside and it just happened to be a nice hot sunny day, the area was amazingly perfect for a relaxing afternoon in the sun even better when armed with a camera. I love being by the coast and ever since I was young I’ve wanted to live by the sea and visiting Liverpool cemented mine and my wife’s decision to move from Suffolk to Liverpool. The transportation links in the city will open up a new world of opportunities for my photography, it’ll also give both myself and my wife way more to do in the evening which is just what we’ve been looking for.
One of the best things about shooting here was the absence of other street photographers, I saw a few landscape photographers and that was it, I’d have the whole city to myself, let me tell you after shooting in London, Cambridge etc that will be a welcome relief.
I can’t wait to move to Liverpool and start a new life.
