Derelict Thursday - The Old Post Office Buildings

DERELICT THURSDAY Challenge Week #4

Please tag all entries 'derelict Thursday' (without inverted commas)

Entries received so far are:

Rainie
Megl
Beckett
hobbs
Found Moments
BikerBear
TeeJay
Miffy
Mario
trisharooni
JennyD
TMLHereAndThere
BoHingles
jensphotos
DavidKeith
Timmynomates
funnyfaces
sdg92
Freyjad
tedwin
lynnfot
shotfromacanon
Himself
Veronica
Anegel'sShare
KF
RockArea
Susanna
13south
MaybeDailyBob
LesleyAlsford
BobsBlips
ElectricFish
freespiral
osuzanna
jophreeves
martindawe
JenMoor64
nanou
Paola
Kit267
Apothercary7
davidd
ECameron12309
Kd
dollydoug
lippingfou
wal234
winchwench
RaspberryJefe
DoingOK
SherriM
Shuttersister
Dotsnaps
o1737k
DollyGray
RuralDave
LizMBPics
Inverculain
FourSeasoned
Fluffikens
journeysprocess
mcclure
ArtistAnnie
mydartmoorwalks

Week #1
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ALL entries HERE

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After traipsing out for a few hours last night, getting my Moonlit Cemetery Blip, I thought a mega quick nip down the road at midnight for mine this week.

Salisbury's old Post Office is a long-standing eyesore and bit of a bad joke. I've blipped it before, with a fisheye. The actual post office now only takes up a fraction of the entire building, which is all listed. As digital and optic fibre technology has taken over from the old exchange that used to take up so much space, it awaits development and all that.

There was talk of Salisbury's first ever 5 star hotel (this isn't it!!) but of course hard economic times soon made that a non-starter.

There was no way that I could get a tripod shot of this over-painted and flaking wrought-iron adornment, as it is high above my 6ft 2" head and I wanted an ultrawideangle shot of it, looking up, to include the background.

The original was flat yellow, from streetlights. Manual black and white conversion only responded to red and yellow sliders but still looked flat and horrible or just plain horrible. Much editing, using as much of my Photoshop skill I could muster, allowed this reasonable result - contrast (that wasn't there) on the main subject but the rest of the background quite flat and with tonal detail throughout.

The rope bits are actual remnants of the what the local yarnbombers heroically decorated this eyesore with, with lots of coloured wool. I know this underground gang and like me, they work at night! After about 12 hours of local publicity (the wool, not the group) it was all pulled down. Who by?? Vandals? No. Disgusted blue-rinse brigade locals? NO! It was considered a fire-risk. Even after it had rained and had the flammability of water itself....

Lens is Nikkor D 17-35mm f2.8

Glad to say that I will be taking delivery, on Friday, of a near-mint condition pre-owned Sigma EX 105mm f2,8 macro lens, with OS stabilisation, and all that jazz. It's from a reputable online firm with 6 month warranty, not a blind "bargain" from Ebay.

My very old Tamron 90mm is an old diesel tractor in comparison and frankly, a pain to use, despite its very good optical sharpness. The Sigma has cost me a lot and so a month of going nowhere and doing nothing awaits....