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.
Pilatus Kulm
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The mountaintop hotel, restaurant and visitor complex on Mount Pilatus, between Lake Lucerne and the forest cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden, is a marvel of structural engineering. An ugly one, but a marvel nonetheless.
The Saddle
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The Jungfraujoch station, tourist destination and meteorological research centre sits on the “saddle” between the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. The weather was fine enough to spend some time outside when we visited, so I took the opportunity to stomp through the snow to the very base of the Mathildespitze, a high outcrop beneath the main
If you’re a web developer, checking that you use the standards of the web and valid code will make your life infinitely easier. By planning now for a standards-based future and focusing on HTML5 and its associated technologies, you’ll be building for the future: not just saving yourself time, but also making sure that the…
The Thirteenth Country
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As we were so near the border when we visited Bavaria in October, we drove over into the Czech Republic to add the thirteenth country to the list of those I’ve visited. There’s not much in this region and in order to avoid paying a motorway toll – as we were only there for an
Television tower number one
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I like being up high. When we were in Stuttgart at the beginning of October, I could therefore hardly turn up the chance to visit the restaurant at the top of the world’s first concrete television tower. I am a little scared of heights when on man-made structures, but I managed to overcome a wobbly-knees
Keep Calm and Fit In
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I was recently interviewed for the website expatarrivals.com and asked for my thoughts on life as a foreigner in Switzerland. Here’s the transcript of the emailed interview.
Studio training course in Bern
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I ran a course earlier in the year on the subject of portraiture and lighting, which was very well received by the attendees and which I really enjoyed organizing. I’ve been planning to run a similar photo course for a while now, and have decided that the next event will take place on the weekend
Porsche Zentrum, Stuttgart
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Jo and I split our journey to Franconia in southern Germany with a stop-over in Stuttgart. As we’d time to kill whilst there, we looked up some of the sights in advance and decided to stop off briefly at one of the centres of German engineering: the Porsche district. Alongside the obligatorily huge showroom of
The thronging crowd
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As I wrote earlier in the week, I was honoured to be allowed to show 20 of my photos from the One Frame Movie series at the 50th anniversary show of Pix Mix in Bern this week. I hadn’t quite anticipated the number of people who would be attending and during the break, I quickly
I wish you would let me take your portrait
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I love taking portraits of people; whether I know them or not. I do it because of my passion for the image, not for financial gain, and I really wish more people would volunteer to let me photograph them. Here’s why.
Vote for your favourite Jungfrau photo
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I’ve submitted five photos to an Interlaken Tourism competition, whose subject is the Jungfrau mountain in the Bernese Oberland. If you have a Facebook account, please pop over and vote for your favourite amongst the following photos. Thank you in advance!
Ponte Vecchio, Florence
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This medieval bridge in Florence, rebuilt in 1345, is the only one remaining which is lined on both sides by shops. Originally hosting butcher shops, the bridge has been populated by jewellers and goldsmiths since the late sixteenth century. The bridge is the only one in Florence to have survived the Second World War: on
Street musician, Florence, Italy
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I am enjoying the video capabilities of my Nikon, particularly to capture “moving photographs” such as this one. Filmed during our summer holiday in Florence, Italy, whilst we ate mint choc chip ice cream and enjoyed the music.
Capo Sant’Andrea, Elba
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The rocky coastline in the north west of Elba is unique in the world; granite magma, deposited by a volcano seven million years ago, is impregnated with orthoclase crystals and forms a peculiar, smoothed surface. On first seeing the rocks, they appeared to have been concreted-over, but on closer inspection, it was obvious that it’s
Viticcio
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One of the joys of a holiday on the Mediterranean coast is finding small villages, hidden away amongst the folds of the coast, and the special places therein. Although I didn’t know it when I took this photo, there’s an excellent, if tiny, restaurant beneath the gazebo in the centre of this photo. Frequented by
Inspiration: Gregory Crewdson
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Whilst presenting my One Frame Movie photos at the Open Show in Lausanne this week, I mentioned Gregory Crewdson. I first became aware of his work in 2008 via David Hobby’s blog and have admired his process ever since. He’s technically more of a film director than a photographer, albeit that the result of his
Colour me impressed
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OK, OK, I know: I’m a city boy at heart. But I defy anyone to be less than impressed when rounding a corner on a lonely road in the Scottish Highlands at dusk to be confronted with a hillside covered in wild red deer.
