VULCAN XM603 & CLIMBING SNOWDON

VULCAN XM603

On Friday I drove to Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales, while sitting in the pub that evening my boyfriend suddenly recalled that I had recently mentioned that there was a white Vulcan in the Manchester area, which is (by my standards) within a reasonable driving distance from North Wales. We dug around on Google and found that the Vulcan I had been talking about was XM603 and is on display at the Avro Heritage Museum in Woodford, Stockport. 

The Avro Heritage Museum opened to the public on November 13th therefore is a very new establishment, the museum has a large collection of Avro artefacts including prototypes, instrument panels and photographs. Around the edge of the museum is a timeline showing the duration of service of each aircraft, the museum was structured around the timeline from oldest to newest or vice versa depending on which way you walk around the room. I was also impressed with how friendly and knowledgeable the staff were. 

XM603 is on display outside and was naturally my first port of call, I was as happy as Larry out there with my camera despite the bitterly cold winds! Compared to XL426, XM603 has a lot of wear and tear and is in need of some TLC, however she seems to be in the best hands and I have no doubt that a repaint is on the agenda. 

I can now tick seeing a white Vulcan off the bucket list and I have another point of interest to add to my Final Major Project research map!

Rare shot of me and the Vulcan!

CLIMBING SNOWDON

On Sunday I trekked up Snowdon. Mountain walking is not something to be taken lightly and even with my relatively good level of fitness I did not want to take chances as it has been a fair few years since I last trekked up a mountain, I also had to take my boyfriends flat footedness into account! I chose the Snowdon Ranger path as this seemed quite moderate yet slightly more challenging than the touristy Llanberis path which is the easiest of them all. 

It was a steep walk which turned into more of a climb at various points, there aren't many hills around where I live so it was a shock to the calve muscles to begin with, I hit a wall very early however I persevered and found it quite easy after my legs were over the initial trauma.

Another reason I chose the Ranger path was that I had read that the views are spectacular, they were not wrong there!

It was an amazing feeling to sit just under the cloud near the summit of Snowdon and take in the views knowing that I had achieved what I had set out to do, the trouble is that this has got the adrenaline pumping and I am now itching to find a new adventure! 

CAERNARFON

On our way home I drove to Caernarfon to catch one last glimpse of the Irish Sea and Yr Eifl which is another mountain on my "to do" list.

I am planning to go back in the spring to trek back up Snowdon to hopefully get a clearer view from the summit.

(Originally posted as just XM603 before Snowdon and Caerfarfon were bolted on which will explain the confusing post date.)

DISSERTATION PRESENTATION

In September, during a lecture with all third year students of all of the degrees which come under the art and design spectrum, we were asked to write our dissertation subject onto a piece of paper, the paper was then passed around the room where other students wrote words which they associated the topic with.

It was fairly clear by mine that none of the students knew what reconnaissance meant, in fact a few even seemed to mistake it for the Renaissance! 

I faced a big problem because as part of the dissertation I had to do a presentation on my methodology. I could talk about reconnaissance all day long, however for this presentation I only had 10 minutes. I therefore needed a quick and simple way to help the other students to grasp my topic, and to hopefully catch their attention. 

At the end of the presentation I decided to turn the other students and tutors into makeshift Photographic Interpreters, they each received a letter from RAF Medmenham with an attached reconnaissance photograph and were asked to spot the v-weapon. In the letter I also gave tips about how the PI's used shadows and interpreted the normal before the unusual as strategies to determine objects on the ground. 

This presentation group consisted of 6 fashion students and 2 photography students including myself, the group were lovely and supportive. I was happy with this arrangement being interested in fashion myself, however after sitting through 6 presentations by this point, by my turn there were a lot of bored faces in the room - which is understandable!

I felt the presentation went very well, but as soon as I set them the v-weapon task there was a sudden buzz in the room, my tutors especially became very excited and refused to let me reveal the final slide (which contained the answer) until they had exhausted all possibilities. Nobody spotted it and one tutor walked into the trap by saying that she would never have known what to look for - which was the point of the exercise, the P.I's did not know what a v-weapon looked like to begin with either!

PROGRESS #1

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

- A photograph of mine will be featured in an airlines safety training course.

- I volunteered to be the student representative for my year meaning lots of meetings and I love it, coming from a working background I've missed the formalities of a real working environment, meetings being one of them. It's interesting to hear how students on the other degree courses are doing and to also have a say in areas that need improvement.

PLACES VISITED

Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire

Imperial War Museum, London

Combined Military Services Museum, Essex

Museum of Power, Essex

Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, Essex

PLAN FOR THE NEXT MONTH

- I have brainstormed so many ideas for my Final Major Project and hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will have refined it all down to one idea.

- Towards the end of November I have my dissertation methodology presentation, therefore I plan to be well underway with writing it by that stage.

- My boyfriend asked me what I want to do for my birthday and I instantly replied with "climb a mountain", so that's that, we're going to Snowdon next month (okay, so it's not exactly Everest but it's a start!). I am hoping there will be a few museums along the way!

TWO THIRDS!

So this is it, the third and final year of my degree. The last 2 years have flown by!

Highlights of the last 2 years;

- Shadowing and assisting photographers at the Imperial War Museum in London.

- Interviewing some wonderful photographers in the aviation industry.

- An especially inspiring interview with Pete Lawrence of the BBC's Sky at Night.

- Shooting Vulcan XL 426.

- Seeing Vulcan XH 558 in flight one final time (click for video).

- Making the guest list of the cast and crew screening of the film AmStarDam in London.

- Meeting/seeing astronaut Chris Hadfield, photographer Tom Hunter, Phil Jupitus, musician Freddie Notes, Rhoda Dakar of The Bodysnatchers and Neville Staple of The Specials.

- Flying on the top deck of a Boeing 747 (life goal!).

- Seeing space shuttle Atlantis in exhibition at the Kennedy Space Centre (I was at KSC for the launch of STS-132 in 2010 so it was great to see Atlantis up close).

- Taking a tour of NASA's Launch Control Centre and Firing Room 4.

- Clearwater Beach and Disney World.
- Finally seeing The Skatalites (and for free!).

- Guest DJ'ing at a local funk soul night.

Since starting the degree I have learned so much about myself, what I am capable of and where I want to be career-wise. I could not have asked for a better group of peers and lecturers to share this experience with, I look very forward to finding out what year three has in store!

Here are some pano iPhone shots from my trip to Florida;

NASA Firing Room 4

Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Centre

Clearwater Beach Pier 60

VULCAN XL426

End of year exhibition 2015, printed onto Kodak Metallic paper double mounted on a sheet of aluminium 

I have vague memories of my Dad photographing me as a toddler in the early 90's as I sat inside the cockpit of Vulcan XL426 which has been based over at Southend Airport since 1986. As I grew up I started to take the train to Southend to meet friends and would deliberately sit to the right side of the train to catch a glimpse of 'that really cool plane'. It wasn't until my mid teens that I started to learn more about the Vulcan, needless to say I developed quite a soft spot for it!

I refused to watch videos of the Vulcan in flight as I knew that nothing would beat seeing it with my own eyes, in 2011 XH558 made an appearance at Southend Airshow where it pretty much exceeded all expectations - it had the bulk of a bomber yet it also had the power of a fighter jet, it was the perfect combination.

Earlier this year I contacted the Vulcan Restoration Trust (VRT) to enquire about photographing XL426 who welcomed me along for a tour of the aircraft which was a great experience. The VRT are a registered charity dedicated to keeping XL426 ticking over, although the aircraft is no longer airworthy she can still perform fast taxi runs. The VRT host open days allowing members of the public to get up close to the Vulcan, including tours of the cockpit.

As XH558 is currently making its final tour of the UK - and as it also is my favourite aircraft - I wanted to pay homage to the Vulcan and create a piece of artwork as opposed to my usual documentary-style photographs, and saw this as a great opportunity to execute an idea I'd had in mind.

I took a 'then and now' approach, combining the images with a blueprint-like design. Within the same image you see the Vulcan both represented as a blueprint and as it currently stands as a fully accomplished and retired aircraft.

All images subject to copyright.