Life on Mars, a photo from Lancashire, England

Photographer's Note

Morecambe, North of Blackpool, sits at the foot of the Cumbrian Lake District. It was once the home of a theme park. Frontierland Western Theme Park was a theme park which operated from circa 1909 to 1999. The park was called West End Amusement Park and later called Morecambe Pleasure Park until it was transformed into a wild west themed park and renamed Frontierland in 1987.
The days of the working classes flocking to the seaside resorts was dwindling, and from the 60’s onward, with the boom in air travel to foreign shores, it has seen these parks receive less and less visitors.
Attractions at the park included the Cyclone roller coaster, Wild Mouse, log flume (which is still standing) Polo Tower (also still standing as seen here) Noah’s Ark, Ghost train and a Fun House.
In 2000 most of the rides were demolished and the former park site is now the home to a Morrisons supermarket, while the rest of the ground remains waste ground.
I wanted to get a shot of the Polo tower but a tall thin structure is not the easiest thing to take. So to compromise I wanted to get a feeling that was to suggest how it was a forgotten and a crumbling relic by taking the shot as a reflection. It includes the elements of decay, filth and even the man with a Morrisons shopping bag. A sad reminder to the days gone by.

bodoque, TheG1, dougie, Photo65Net has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

bodoque (330) 2006-11-27 4:20

Hi Mark.
Great exercice of POV in your shoot. The reflection is Great! Also your composition works fine with the image, very subrealistic.

The bottom of the shoot is a little overexposed and out of focus, but even this it´s a very interesting picture.

I´d liked it a lot.

Congratulations and keep sharing.

TheG1 (1509) 2006-11-27 5:13

Hi Mark
This is great, the reflection is beautiful and it really looks like another world.

Amir

mdetay (4929) 2006-11-27 5:51

Hi Mark,
Nice picture of the life on Mars.
Great composition and colors.
Well done. Great capture. Good idea.
Cheers from Hong Kong.
Michel

delnaja (2056) 2006-11-27 5:59

Hi Mark,
excellent image!
The tilt is perfect here and I love that the dark blue is on the top and become more white on the bottom.
Bravo!
Fred

bantonbuju (51815) 2006-11-27 6:01

hi mark,
smart take, with even smarter title :-))
took me a while to figure out how possibely you took this photo,
very creative and definitely "a different" pov :-)
bw, j.

voightlanderfan (0) 2006-11-27 6:20

Hi Mark,
this is just an exellent shot! Great composition and POV.
Very well seen.

Steph.

dougie (2523) 2006-11-27 8:42

Hi,
First class shot Mark. Clever technique well used to great effect. Thanks.
Dougie.

KevRyan (22956) 2006-11-27 16:09

A really nice vertical flip here Mark - the reflection colour is really strong - the lines of converbgence on the figure afre really effective and it's a wonderful point of view on the guy when turned - I'm not sure about the lamp-post - normally I would have a problem with this - but it just adds to the strangeness with the other structures....

best wishes Kev

jinju (14265) 2006-12-01 0:38

Hey Mark,

damn, I missed this one! I cant believe it. The reflection is so good. I dont know what those lines are but they look like the sort of things you see drawn in comics when an explosion takes place. This photo is full of energy and is in a way very explosive. I would howver crop it to just below the point where the outside of the left leg at the bottom meets the corner of the frame as it has been said theres a bit f OE there.

Photo65Net (43144) 2006-12-05 12:49

Hi Mark,
A great impact pic !
You played well with this original scene.
I like that a lot, it's dramatic.
Very nice,
JB.

marietom (34611) 2007-01-08 13:33

elle fait très science fiction, cette photo, bien vue !
Marie

pastadog (13111) 2007-01-22 16:49

Hi Mark... it looks that you were really exploiting the possibilities of this puddle, in this case it's great you caught a "daily life" "down there", and it's good you include his real legs in the frame, that's surreal and we can also appreciate the difference in exposure, really enjoyable and well seen! Daniel

kiks (12805) 2008-03-07 5:33

Hi Mark, i like the result of this rotated reflection. Your turn a very simple daily scene in a interesting shot. Good choice to use diagonal perspective on it.
TFS
KIKs