Restored Andrew Handyside Fountain in Australia. Makes you proud to be from Derby.

You may not know this but Friar gate Bridge was made by the company Andrew Handyside who's iron work during the Victorian era was very much in demand due to its high quality and fine workmanship.

The company produced many ornate fountains around the globe and I would like to tell you about one such fountain that is celebrating its first years anniversary after restoration on 28th May 2011.
The restored fountain is located in the grounds of Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, Australia.

This fountain has a commemorative plaque on the front of it and shows just how proud they are of this fountain that was made in humble old Derby.

Would you like to know more about this?
Have a look at my Andrew Handyside blog about the Prince Alfred College fountain.

Photograph of the plaque :


The restored fountain in all its glory :


If you have never heard of Andrew Handyside then head over to my other blog - Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby and London.

I hope that reading about this fountain has made you feel proud to be from Derby.
Thanks
Andy

Video - Driving around Derby, Allenton to Derby City Centre August 2009

Here is a video I have recently uploaded to my YouTube channel.
I drove this route on Sunday 9th August 2009 starting at 2pm.
It starts in Allenton, Derby and goes under Spider Bridge along Osmaston Road all the way to the Town Centre and back out again.
I just found this footage in my collection and realised that I had forgot to upload it two years ago!
I thought I would get it online as it features some areas I've not yet covered in my Derby streets by car collection.

Watching this now it makes you realise just how much has changed in Derby in just a short amount of time.
For instance at 04:18 Lara Croft Way was only half open at this time.
At 05:30 you can see Derby Bus Station being built.
At 05:39 all the Morledge area looks old and dated in this footage.
At 06:51 Feels wrong going to the right of the pub here instead of going along the new "Quaker Way" but of course that new bit of road was not built back then.

This video is slightly faster than realtime, I have edited out the longer periods of waiting at traffic lights.

Music :
The music I have selected for my video is used under Creative Commons Licence :
Queenie's Dream of Flight Remix by Platinium Butterfly
http://ccmixter.org/files/F_Fact/30979

The video : 
Watch in FULL SCREEN mode! at 720p for best view.


Thanks
Andy

BBC Radio Derby Tour with Anthony Isaacs and Aleena Naylor.

On Sunday I went on one of the free tours around BBC Radio Derby they they had organised to celebrate their 40th anniversary. The tour lasted over an hour with a group of about 15 people, the tour was led by Anthony Isaacs, the promotions editor.

The tour was really interesting, it started in Radio Derby reception area and then into the office area where we watched a short DVD telling you about what goes on behind the scenes. We were told who sat at each desk including the sports desk, The BBC big screen and even where East Midlands Today sat to do their editing.

We say how technology had changed over the years with regard to recording interviews in the field, starting with large tape reel recorders, minidisc recorder, digital recorder and finally a “FlashMic” which is just a microphone with built-in flash memory recorder.

After the office area we moved into a room between two studios, one had Jeff Harris who was broadcasting live at the time and in the other studio was Aleena Naylor who spent quite some time showing how her show is planned out and how all the equipment works.
Aleena Naylor posing for photograph for me.


After the tour we were invited outside to the BBC Bus for a detailed talk on the digital switchover.
Did you go on one of the tours that were over the weekend?

Thanks
Andy

Derby to Tansley Car Boot, A driving time-lapse video.

I have just uploaded my latest video. Filmed last Sunday, its a time-lapse driving video. The video starts in Derby and ends at Tansley Car Boot. Its not the most direct route by the way, Yes I know I could do it quicker !

I'm sure if you are into local car boots then you will have heard of Tansley car boot as its the largest one I know of in Derbyshire, If you would like to know more about this car boot such as an accurate map location then have a look at my Tansley Car Boot Sale page.

At 03:12 in the video I have highlighted the current cost of fuel as I think in years to come we will look back on this and be amazed at how cheap it used to!!!


My video of Derby to Tansley Car Boot Sale:


This time-lapse video is made from 2429 photographs.
First photograph taken at 8.14 (Derby)
Last photograph taken at 9.03 (Tansley)
---------------------------
Camera used:
Hardware Modified Canon Ixus 430
Photographs taken at 1600x1200 pixels
The jpeg files sizes are between 69Kb to 407Kb, image size varies depending on brightness and complexity of the image.
The 2429 Photographs were 526Mb in total
Stored onto a Sandisk Ultra III 8Gb SD Card

---------------------------
Software Editing:
I processed the photographs in Corel Paint Shop Pro v11 using a recorded script combined with the Batch Process function as I have described in my blog:
http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.com/2009/10/script-recording-and-batch-processing.html

Once all the images were processed I used Sony Vegas 9 Pro to edit this video. I used the "Import Image Sequence" facility that is available in the Import Media panel.

Hope you like the drive.

Thanks
Andy