Photo of the Week: A view of Blackpool from the North Pier

©Anne-Marie Marshall 2013 

This is one of my favourite photos.  I took it on a wet and windy day in June 2013 on a trip to Blackpool.  It was blowing a gale and walking down the North Pier wasn't a pleasant stroll, but a test of endurance.  On the way back down the pier I took this picture. 

I double filtered it with Lo-fi.  The thing I like about Lo-fi is the way it intensifies the colour.  Whilst this picture's colour palette is predominantly blue, grey and black, I love how the red rubbish bin pops out of the picture.  The rainwater on the wooden pier helps to reflect the light, which makes the picture brighter that it would normally be.  I also like how some elements like the lamp posts, dome and church are almost in silhouette. The brooding darkness of the clouds completes this dramatic photo.

I just love this picture!

All images the work of Anne-Marie Marshall.

Photo of the Week: Leyland United Reform Church

©Anne-Marie Marshall 2013 

This week as part of the Life in Northern Towns blog we look a trip into Lancashire and went to Leyland.  This picture is what I call a happy accident.  The original picture was not very exciting until I whizzed it twice through Instagram - I think I probably used Amaro to lighten detail of the church and then lo-fi to intensify the colour.  I love how the sky is really dramatic and almost biblical in tone.  In addition I like how the red really pops out of the picture.  I'm quite a fan of almost monochromatic pictures which are punctured with a dash of primary colour.  If you want to follow on me on Instagram search for my user name: angelickittycat.  This is also the same name I use for Twitter.

All images the work of Anne-Marie Marshall.

Photo of the Week: The Manchester Civil Justice Centre

©Anne-Marie Marshall 2013 

One of my favourite hobbies as a teenager was photography.  I got my first half decent camera when I was 15 and when I was 22 I got a Canon SLR.  Sometimes hobbies fade in and out of your life and it certainly faded out of my life for the past 10 years or so.  So when I got my iPhone 4S at last I had something I could carry everywhere that took decent pictures.  Then I found the Instagram app - I was well and truly hooked again.

If you are on Instagram you can find my growing gallery by searching for the user name Angelickittycat.  Or if you want to see my Life in Northern Towns page on Pinterest where I post all my pictures of towns follow this link.  I can even be found on Instacanvas too.

The image above is of the Manchester Civil Justice Centre.  It's one of Manchester's most original and striking buildings built in the past ten years.  I truly love this building and how it changes in the Manchester light.  This was took on a sunny June evening and I double filtered it through Instagram with added brightness.  I really need to remember what I used - probably lo-fi and hefe, which are my usual suspects when filtering.

All images the work of Anne-Marie Marshall.

Hello world!!!

I've been writing Life in Northern Towns for over four years now and I really enjoy writing it.  However as it's a travel blog and I want to keep it that way.  That means I need another outlet for my off topic blogging.  So I've set up www.annemariemarshall.com as a place for my thoughts, ideas, projects, photos and links to my other web stuff.  I really love writing and expressing myself, so I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I enjoy doing it.