Tuesday, 24 August 2021

A BENCH-MARK IN TECHNOLOGY? OR JUST A TERRIBLE PUN...? (UPDATED)

Between my house and the main shopping centre in town is a park, and though I usually jump in a taxi these days, I often used to avail myself of a bench there for a few minutes on the way home, as it's all uphill.  (Not as young or as fit as I was, so when laden with heavy bags of shopping, a wee rest was a welcome respite.)  The above photo is one from the '70s (I guess) that I saw online somewhere, so I copied it as that's the original bench in the pic, not the one that's there today.

Anyway, I straightened the angle in the second version, then decided to enhance the image, which you can see in the third picture, below.  Isn't technology wonderful?!  Just thought you might like to see them while I'm pondering what comics-related post I'm going to publish for your entertainment and enjoyment.  (So yes - it's a 'filler'.)  Hopefully the photo's owner gets to see it so that they can copy the 'improved' version.  So - whaddya think?


And below is how the same place appears today - different bench, and a bit more shrubbery and few more trees in the background.  (Since I typed the preceding sentence, I've replaced the photo with another one, and the high-rise flats mentioned in the comments section are no longer visible.)

11 comments:

  1. Nice. I saw an amazing bit of technology recently that also involved old photos. The photos were 19th-Century sepia portraits but the modern tech colourised them and even added a 3D effect, making them seem alive and making the eyes blink and the lips move.

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  2. You mean like the original Captain Pugwash cartoons, CJ? Only kidding. I'd love to be able to do 3D and add colour to old photos. All I can do at the moment is change colour photos into black and white or sepia.

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  3. You should add a photo taken today in the same spot. Seeing how much has changed over the last 40 years would be interesting.

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  4. From that angle, things wouldn't look too different - most of the changes have been to the town centre, out of sight in the background. However, it's a good idea so I'll try and get a photo in the next few days, LH.

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  5. The effects I mentioned above were also applied to paintings going back centuries so you could see somebody like Elizabeth I brought to life almost - assuming that the paintings actually looked like the people they were representing of course!

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  6. I've seen those effects applied to various things, CJ, and they're really quite 'effective'. (See what I did there?)

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  7. There you are, LH - modern photo now added.

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  8. It's changed which is expected. A big highrise at the right back. A new path. It still looks a nice place. It's good to see some greenery. Thanks for posting the photo.

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  9. The high-rise flats may've been there at the time, LH, but just 'off-camera' as it were. Also, I've no idea whether the bench is exactly in the same spot, the new one may be a foot or two either way from where the original was (and then again, may not).

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  10. For forty years it really hasn't changed much at all. A paint job. New seat new path . It's good to see the green grass still. I was actually expecting some sort of construction in its place.

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  11. That's my fear of what will eventually happen, LH. Other grassy areas in the town have succumbed to the march of houses, flats, and amenity homes for the elderly. The grassy areas were deliberate attempts to provide a bit of greenery within the new town, but have since been re-categorised as 'underdeveloped' land.

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