In about 2002 I got a call to get some photographs of Sefton Park in the snow as it was supposed to snow the following day and surely enough it did. So armed with a camera (a Contax G1 to be precise) and kitted out for the snow I walked off to Sefton park from my flat at the time which was off Princes Park. I remember it being a very strange morning, the fall wasn’t heavy, but the park still looked quite amazing though it was virtually empty bar me and a couple of cold dog walkers. A few years later and it snowed again only this time very slightly heavier and the park seemed to be full of photographers. Something had happened, the new digital boom was picking up. I’d actually been shooting digital off and on since 2001 but in 2002, when I shot the Palm House in the snow, it was with the Contax and Fuji Velvia. The next snow pics in possibly 2005 were taken with a Nikon D200 and by now the world of Flickr had been born and the number of people getting into photography was growing rapidly. I’ve not been back since, but then I don’t live in the area anymore, so yesterday I got the train through to the deep South of Aigburth (I live in Waterloo) and walked up from St.Michael’s on streets that weren’t easy to walk in. It was well dodgy to say the least and Lark Lane itself was a nightmare to walk down bar the odd shop owner that had a cleared a path in front of their shop. But then when you got to the park it was a proper winter wonderland and the snow was ‘real’ snow and not just ice. The sun was coming up just above the buildings and snow was starting fall from the trees and with the exception of a few snowmen it looked quite perfect in that chocolate box sort of way and so I wondered around the park taking a fair few photos. All digital of course though looking around the park there must have been every camera under the sun being used. It started out quite slow, lots of people out with dogs (but still taking photos on their phones) and a few kids arriving holding anything they could find that might hurl them down snow covered slopes but then within the hour it seemed like every photographer on the planet had descended on Sefton Park and it was quite amazing to see. There was a man with a tripod and a video camera who who would set it up , do a very quick single clip and then move on to another place. There were people with rangefinders, blokes with the biggest amount of kit they could drag through the snow, young kids with old school film slr’s , disposables, lots of compacts and lots of phones and people seemed to be taking photographs everywhere I looked. There were even people hiding behind bushes trying to take photos of other people who were taking photos of their partners so maybe that’s a new form of flashing or just photographic dogging! And then I went to the dell to see what that looked like and there was actually a queue to take photos so I swerved that and wondered up to the Palm House to find Japanese tourists with lots and lots of cameras and after updating my own photos that I’d taken in previous years, I headed off to meet some friends (more about that soon) and take some more photos before getting out of there though I think by the time I left there were officially more photographers in Sefton Park than trees.
Sefton Park in the snow
Sefton Park in the snow
Sefton Park in the snow
Sefton Park in the snow
Haha! More photographers than trees. I had a feeling everyone would flock to the parks. I didn’t see any photographers at all walking around the city. Gotta laugh at the queue. Was there a sign? “Take photo here for Flickr Explore”
I was there Tuesday afternoon after failing miserably to get into work. The snow was really coming down heavy then & apart from a couple of dog walkers & one other photographer, I pretty much had the park to myself. Sounds like a vastly busier affair the next day.
I quite enjoyed the oddness actually! There were other places I could do with getting but it still has to be Sefton Park first for me.
[...] The one advantage of having an impromptu snow day off work was that I was able to grab my camera & head off to Sefton Park to see some of the white stuff from outside the confines of my car. The park was almost deserted with the exception of a few dog walkers & a couple of other photographers & there was the most amazing stillness in the air as the snow began to fall even more heavily. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow fall in such a short space of time in the UK. You can see some great images of the snow in the North West on Matt’s blog & Mark’s blog. [...]