Manchester: Autumn inertia

October 19, 2025October 17, 2025 / mikeosbornphoto / 4 Comments

An endless blanket of thick grey cloud. Barely a breath of wind. Nothing moves or changes.

This is the weather we’ve had on repeat in Manchester and much of the UK recently, as a vast autumn anticyclone settled over us.

Sluggish grey skies tend to put a downer on capturing colourful, active photographs.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. In my Castlefield neighbourhood, the waterways were so still that reflections were solid and dynamic. Autumn leaves hadn’t been strewn about in the wind.

One morning the gloom descended deeper in the guise of fog, making the local skyscrapers shrouded and eerie.

Do you like the dull calm or prefer your weather to move faster?

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Photographer Mike Osborn flat on the pavement capturing Manchester's skyscrapers.

I lay flat on the ground to see foggy skyscrapers!

Astana: Pride of Kazakhstan

June 29, 2025June 29, 2025 / mikeosbornphoto / 6 Comments

After a 15-hour journey from my home in Manchester, I arrived in Astana, the shiny purpose-built capital of Kazakhstan.

This first taste of Central Asia promised to be far from the myths created by Borat.

Astana became the Kazakh capital and seat of government in 1997, a thousand miles north of biggest city Almaty.

It bristles with tall, ambitious landmark buildings and wide avenues. Is Astana a strange folly or an architecture fan’s wet dream? CONTINUE READING BELOW

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My initial impression of Astana was like any other big city – snarled up with traffic. A light monorail is being built to take some pressure off the roads.

Some of Astana’s landmarks loomed large on the drive to the hotel, including the huge gold orb of the totemic Bayterek Tower.

My first little trip out with my camera ended stickily. I was photographing the blue dome of the Presidential Palace and was promptly apprehended by a police officer, asked for my passport and told to delete the image.

Nur-Astana mosque has to be visited

But me and my camera were never questioned again, which was welcome in this sparklingly photogenic new capital city.

It’s hard to walk around Astana without looking up at the vast collection of lofty architecture, from the symbolic to government ministries and very large modern apartment blocks.

Meanwhile, a visit to Nur-Astana mosque outside of the centre is a must with its many domes, palatial hallways and an awe-inspiring prayer room prompting more looking up.

Mike Osborn in Independence Square in Kazakhstan's capital Astana.

Independence Square is a place for peering up

Astana may seem like an architectural playground, but is the heart of Kazakhstan’s government and the people who keep it running and live there.

There are plenty of restaurants and cultural amenities to visit in the evening, while the city is fond of its caffeine with coffee shops in abundance. It’s a fully fledged metropolis less than 25 years after it took shape.

As a visitor it feels fresh, new and exciting. But it has some big distances which you might prefer to cover with a trusty taxi app. Worth the lengthy journey to get to this capital city on the steppes? That’s a yes from me.

Manchester’s new skyscraper estate

October 22, 2023October 19, 2023 / mikeosbornphoto / 9 Comments

My Manchester apartment sits on the second floor of a low rise building. But very close by a new skyscraper neighbourhood is making rapid progress.

Here are some photographs of the newest towers which I finally got close to recently. What do you think of living in the sky? READ MORE BELOW

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The New Jackson neighbourhood links together the four more recent skyscrapers – the slim Blade, rotund Three60, broad Elizabeth Tower and squat Victoria Residence – with the existing Deansgate Square towers.

This crop of four high rises have dominated the local skyline for a few years now and regularly feature in my photographs.

With thousands of new homes and people moving to this part of Manchester city centre, amenities including a primary school and medical centre are being placed on site.

But is this enough along with these sparkling, sky-touching new buildings?

Life in the city centre can favour younger people, who in my own experience may be less likely to connect with neighbours and their local community. Apartment living makes it easier to close the door behind you and forget those around you.

One thing is clear – the local skyline has changed for good. Is it progress for the better?…

The skyscrapers of New Jackson, Manchester, as seen from a roof garden.

New Jackson (right) as seen from a Manchester roof garden

Manchester summer

July 30, 2023July 30, 2023 / mikeosbornphoto / 4 Comments

July. While southern Europe battled wildfires in intense heat, Manchester and the UK were stuck in a rut of cool temperatures and torrential rain.

Here’s an ode to June, when dry and sunny weather graced this city.

It was an era of warm photography walks in my neighbourhood of Castlefield.

Wearing shorts was the norm, local waterways were still, and the colours on new apartment blocks pinged deep into the long evenings.

What will August bring? Inevitably more worrying signs of climate change which are a huge deal for us all.

How has the weather been with you? It’s less of a banal question these days…

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Arctic Manchester

January 15, 2023January 15, 2023 / mikeosbornphoto / 2 Comments

How’s the weather where you live today? January has been mostly grey, miserable and sodden here in Manchester.

But in December there was a prolonged blast of frozen weather with bone-bitingly chilly temperatures.

The city turned into a different place, with stellar light throwing out glossy blues, industrial plumes of steam and strong reflections in still waters.

I spent a day with photographer William Perugini on his first visit to Manchester. It was a very cold, productive day filled with Arctic magic.