Roam if you want to

A slight change in the air this week as the World Cup excitement came to an abrupt stop followed by something currently very unfamiliar falling from the sky! Was this the end of this glorious summer? Thankfully, well I think thankfully (I would really, really like a good night’s sleep) the rain passed over rapidly (and heavily) and normal service was quickly resumed – blue skies, high temperatures and everyone out in their shorts!

We’ve been photographically blessed this year with spectacular sunsets every night and have spent many a recent evening sat on tops of hills or overlooking fields watching the sun go down behind purple, yellow and red clouds. Social media loves a sunset. Visit Twitter and you will find thousands of users who post nothing but sunset pictures.  In fact, our most successful Tweets have all involved different elements of a setting sun across the country and if we were just focused on ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ we could probably post a different sunset every night and feel we were becoming ‘successful’.

For us though it is not all about the ‘likes’. We post the pictures we have taken, which we personally love. Not everyone else will love them all, but we want our accounts to have variety, accounts which reflect the way we live our lives and the things we like to do together. You will find the occasional sunset – after all they make truly beautiful photographs, but you’ll also find photos of pink feathers and barrels of whiskey, bison’s eyes and fairground horses, buildings, coastlines and lots of trees.

We try to keep our content recent and relevant so, as we felt we were slipping into sunset territory, it was time to take a trip to the city for some urban relief!

No matter how many times we visit Manchester there is always something new to photograph. Street art constantly changing in the Northern Quarter, routes you haven’t taken yet, festivals to visit and surprises around every corner. Its hard to believe in the past 50 years (Oh how old does that make me feel!) neither of us have ever been to the giant Vimto bottle, visited the roman ruins or found the Space Invaders painted on walls around the city.

Walking almost 10k around the city with three cameras and a very large battery pack for our mobiles (we really need a smaller one) in blistering hot temperatures was much more enjoyable than it sounds. It is a hobby we both love. It is very apparent how popular a hobby photography is becoming – cameras on every corner jostling for the best spot and the whole thing almost feeling like a ‘twitch’ (bird watching term – google it!). In a much-photographed place it is increasingly hard to find the shot that no one else has taken and watch out for your fellow photographers coming to see what you are taking!

Three hours together discussing all the things we never have time to say during busy working weeks, spending time outdoors in glorious weather and learning new things about a city we love, memory cards full of photos to stock our social media accounts and to finish off a visit to the Festa Italiana and our first try of Pizza Fritters! What a delight they were – freshly baked as you watch and delicious, San Pellegrino Limonata to drink and a traditional cannoli to finish all for under £18!

Can we get through a week without posting another sunset photograph? Let’s see…
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You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter @mwgu50 and @imageshop1803 if you want to have a look!