Posts from April 2013
Jonathan Henry Conville
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“Let me go climb these virgin snows,Leave the dark stain of man behind.Let me adventure and heaven knows,Grateful shall be my quiet mind.” Jonathan Conville A memorial stone in the grounds of the St Peter’s Church (“The English Church”) in Zermatt. Jonathan Conville was originally from Odiham in Hampshire, near where I grew up.
Major Oak, Sherwood Forest
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As I was running ahead of time when returning to the airport after my recent trip to Yorkshire, I decided to take a break in my journey at an interesting spot en route. Seeing the signs from the motorway to Sherwood Forest, I decided to divert to the visitor centre, take a stroll through the…
Over the sky to Skye
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…and Mull, and Glencoe, and Cromarty… I’m exceptionally looking forward to flying to Scotland soon, for a holiday during which Jo and I will get to see the west coast of Scotland and the “Western Isles” again. It’s been getting on for three years since we were last on the west coast, and a full…
Photographic memories
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I wrote only recently about how photography is an aide-memoire for me and the point was proven this afternoon, when I was instantly reminded by the photograph on a shopping bag of trips to Sicily. “Hang on!” I said, and both Jo and I instantly recognized the street lamp and tiled square in Taormina, from…
Travelling light
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I was planning on writing a nice, long blog post when I returned from Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago about travelling light as a photographer. Despite the fact that David beat me to it when he got back from Cuba, I’ll add my own thoughts. I now honestly feel for the people I see lugging…
There’s a lot of criticism in the world of photography. Not just the personal opinion of someone who likes or dislikes your photo, but also more general criticism on the subject of such things as originality and inspiration, equipment, or what makes a “photograph” as opposed to an creative image. The biggest argument used to…
The coastal erosion of East Riding
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The sandy coastline at East Riding in Yorkshire, on the east coast of northern England, has the unfortunate designation of being the most heavily eroding piece of coastline in Europe. That meant that when I found Neil White’s photos shortly before an upcoming visit to Yorkshire, I knew that I had to plan in a trip to…
The Bigger View
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A trend I’ve noticed in the past couple of years, particularly when travelling or photographing weddings, is the ubiquity of the iPad as a camera. It took me aback a little the first time I saw an iPad in the wild, but the more often I see it, the more it makes sense. For many…
I’m annoyed and disappointed by the fact that a travel website from the USA has decided to augment and support its business by taking images from various online sources – including Flickr – and using them in contravention of the photos’ licensing terms. I’ve written the following email to the administrators of the website and…
How to keep you interested
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With such a plethora of photographic websites online, both good and not so good, it’s increasingly difficult to gain a reasonable readership of a blog. Blogs have been historically prone to their authors over-thinking their purpose, and aiming for a much wider audience than they are realistically going to achieve. Most blogs have a small…
Rest In Peace Ianto Jones
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Ianto Jones was a character in the BBC sci-fi series Torchwood, who was killed off during the mini-series “Children of Earth” in 2009. This gated area on the shoreline at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay was used as one of the entrances to the secret Torchwood headquarters; when I visited in 2011, this array of…
Up the Aisle
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A few selected images from my ever-expanding collection of aisles in places of worship.
Breaking the mould for website navigation
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The British Design Museum has announced its nominations for the 2013 Design Awards, amongst them the fascinating Rain Room und the latest Windows Phone. But the nomination which interests me the most is the British government’s website gov.uk. The website is the latest version which attempts to begin bringing all of the various government websites under one roof;…
Kensington to Camden
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Photographer Nick Turpin straps a camera to his motorbike and shows just how hair-raising a drive through London can be.
Longing for simplicity
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I know: my web design profession means that I can never leave this site alone. But I must confess that I am longing for the cleanliness and easiness of a simpler blog: like the Tumblr blog I started last year, or the minimalist blog Marcel started recently. The truth is that the behemoth I (re-)launched…
