On with the old, and In with the new

The frantic mix of obligations, work and volunteering has clobbered me for the last few days. I was up till 2-30am this morning designing six slideshows for the Stroud Preservation Trust's AGM this afternoon. This meeting also coincided with us revealing the results of our recent regeneration work on the Stroud Brunel Goods Shed, a Grade 2* listed building which we are responsible for.

I will show this fine building's wonders here in due course. It is the last existing un-rebuilt railway Goods Shed, part of Brunel's singular vision for his transport systems. Built in 1846, adjacent to Stroud Station, it has not been altered since it was closed in 1965. That is until now. We have just spent about £100,000 pounds to secure it against weather and vandals, whilst trying to move it forward into a new usage, hopefully for the benefit of the local community.

The doors were open to the public and in walked Mrs Barbara C. and her daughter Elizabeth. I have now arranged to meet Barbara, to record her reminiscences of the Shed and the railway. They were delightful and I tried to take their portraits, possibly for use here, but sadly they were pretty poor. I have a lot to learn, when conditions are not on my side.

Then we went to have our AGM at the Imperial Hotel, built to service the clientele of the Victorian Station, whilst still acting as a coaching centre. It has been revitalised in recent years too. At the end of business, I played the various slideshows I'd knocked up in Aperture last night. One showed archive images, whilst another was my own recent pictorial record of the building prior to the new works!

In November 2009, I'd invited a few local photographers to individually record their own views of the Goods Shed, with the possibility that they might return to do it again after the new building works were finished. So I showed the Trust members samples of the work they had done up till now. We hope we to make a gallery space within the Shed next summer to exhibit all these works in print. I am pleased that we have made a small contribution both to the archive and to the creative output of local artists. I've also enjoyed slapping the images together into slideshows; it has given me a lot of ideas for how we can present images and sound, quite simply.

In the end, my blip was what I thought would be a bit of a throw-away shot. But I liked it and the others were even more rubbish. It is the corner of the new railings, which edge the steps up to the new external platform, at the east end of the Shed. I just like where my eye is taken.

ps
After excellent advice, I am practising what the title suggests. Here is a new version, B+W with vignette. Ta, @horrigans. I don't know whether I can handle all this innovation.