Visiting Blackpool for the day with a close friend was a very memorable first time for me. I've never been to Blackpool before, so I was really excited to photograph the famous tower, promenade and surrounding areas - I took both my digital camera and a Nikon F50 with expired colour film. I went along with a close friend of mine, who has relatives that live in the area so she knows Blackpool well and was good at pointing out places that we should visit on our next trip.
We decided to set off from Birmingham just after 8am to drive up, which only took just over 2 hours, and despite the humidity the views weren't so bad! After arriving in Blackpool, we decided to fuel up on the promenade before exploring the area. It was partly cloudy, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the views and grabbing photos. It's also the first time in a while that I've used a film camera (I'm going to try and use it a bit more regularly and I want to shoot on black and white film somewhere in the next few weeks), specifically my F50 and it's also the first time that I've used this particular brand of film so I'm really hoping that I get a few good photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't fully organised and prepared - my digital camera had a small speck of dust in the sensor again which affected how my images came out after clicking the shutter release button so I did give up on using that camera and instead resorted to using my phone again..
Me and my friend only managed to walk on two of the piers; the Central Pier which partially caught fire only a few weeks ago, and the South Pier. Even though it was cloudy but still muggy during the middle of the day, the views were still great. It did frighted up later on in the day and became warmer. It was also fairly busy and it almost felt and looked like there isn't a global pandemic happening at the moment - people were enjoying the sun and spending time with their family and friends, going on rides and spending time on the beach.
We decided to head back later on in the afternoon, not realising that the miles-long queue that we saw on the way up was still in effect, so our 2-3 journey ended up being almost 6 hours long due to a lorry fuel spillage and an accident (luckily no-one was injured)...however, I do still want to go back to Blackpool sometime in the future and explore it a little bit more, mainly the inner parts of the town where there area a lot less people, as well as a thorough visit to the famous arcades and going on the rides.
Update: I'm also hoping to venture out to Birmingham city centre, where I might shoot a black and white roll of HP5. Birmingham City Centre has seen major renovations in the past year, and I'm still yet to see the new look of the area outside Birmingham Library - the last time I saw it was most likely sometime mid-last year, and I've been inspired by a lot of photographs that have been taken in the area during this Covid-19 Pandemic - a lot of them are in black and white too!
See the developed film that I took in Blackpool here.
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