Posts from the category General
Posts in this category are (in the main) not assigned to one of the more specific categories in this website.
Beware car rental comparison websites
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As I travel fairly regularly, I am no stranger to renting cars. It’s always a slightly nervy moment for me after having so many unsatisfactory experiences over the years; from awful cars to tricky situations involving deposits. The most recent experience, though, is one that I want to share, as it’s an important lesson from
Jura
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My friends Yannick and Lea made another film last summer of an extended journey around the Jura mountains, on the northern edge of Switzerland and into France. It’s quite delightful and rounded off wonderfully by the music they’ve used, which they composed and produced themselves. I am envious of their talent, it must be said.
London bridge trivia
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In the British Parliament building, the Palace of Westminster, there are two parliamentary houses. The House of Commons is in the northern part of the building, in which ministers sit on green leather benches. In the southern part of the building is the House of Lords; here, incumbents sit on red leather benches. Spanning the
Glen Etive
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Jo and I spent two great weeks in the highlands of Scotland, travelling from the airport up through the Trossach mountains to Rannoch Moor, Glen Etive, Glen Coe and then on to the islands of Mull, Iona and Skye before staying with Jo’s parents near the Cromarty Firth. There were few goals along the way, other
Flamborough Head
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Just up the coast from the collapsing cliffs in East Yorkshire is the more solid mass of Flamborough Head, one of the northernmost sections of chalk which thread their way up from the south coast of England to the north. As the tide was out when I visited, I headed for the beach to inspect
Faulensee
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I thought that it’s about time that I write a little bit about the village where we live, given that we moved a year a half ago and I’ve since had the chance to (intermittently) extend my collection of photos. Faulensee is a small village tucked into the curve of the lake shore between Interlaken
Cinque Terre, from the archives
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In beginning to clear out the folders in my website this lunchtime, which contain photos and files I have used on the site since its relaunch in 2006, I came across a set of photos from a trip to the Cinque Terre region of north-western Italy in 2004. The most enduring memories of the holiday
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
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
