Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

Posts from July 2009

  • One year on

    A year ago today, I left my previous employer after seven and a half years to start a new working life in Bern.

  • The newest version of the newspaper, to which I still subscribe online despite no longer working or living in the catchment area, produced by a small handful of people and covering purely local news instead of falling to the temptation of reporting news from more distant regions, is at least a match for – if…

  • My friend Beat Glauser, discussing photographic geekery late one evening at my home.

  • Timelapse Tram Ride

    A stop motion video of the tram journey between Zytglogge and Mattenhof areas of Bern in Switzerland.

  • An American company offers a service to send individual, custom postcards from your mobile phone or web browser via traditional mail.

  • The Seenachtsfest took place last weekend in Spiez, so Jo and I headed up with our friend Beat to the vineyards near our home, where there is a commanding view across the castle, lake and surrounding mountains.

  • Continuing in the series of individual photos along the Thames which I took in 1999 for a City and Guilds photo course.

  • After seeing a few shots around the internet in a certain darkened, de-saturated style, I asked around to see if anyone was familiar with the post-processing technique which is used to create it.

  • One of the many hundreds of gems which lie in folders in my cupboard; one of the thousands of frames taken over the years with traditional film cameras.

  • Jo takes a break on our walk along the lake to Faulensee from home.

  • One of my pictures in 1993 was of the unique tiling at Chalk Farm on the Northern Line, late one evening.

  • I occasionally receive emails from people all over the world, who find my photos and blog and want to know which places in Switzerland are unmissable for their upcoming trip. The most recent one has inspired me to make a series of blog posts in response, the first of which covers the high altitude mountain…

  • Pocket Rocket

    In which I explain why I chose to buy an iPhone and what advantages it has brought to me. Post includes photos, multimedia and a healthy dose of geekery (which I’ve made understandable for non-geeks!)

  • Photos from last Sunday, when a colleague from work and his girlfriend took up my offer and joined me for a free photoshoot.

  • Classical accordion

    A lone man sat on a little fold-away stool, out of the way of people hurrying past, and played classical music wonderfully on an unaccompanied accordion.

  • The date for the next Swiss Strobist photographic meetup in Lausanne (Switzerland) has been selected.

  • Details of the new website for Swiss national historic location Rütli, combined with a brief explanation of the meadow’s history.

  • A personal history of computer desktop wallpaper, a Microsoft Switzerland competition in which you can take part, and some free landscape photos for you to download.

  • With an audience comes responsibility. Use it wisely and carefully.