10 years ago (in 2014) I went to France twice, both times to the South. Once on my own in the spring to Nice and Eze, and then to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (and Eze again) in August with my American family. In Roquebrune-Cap-Martin I shared a hotel room with a member of my family who snored like […]
Travel
The Night We Met I Knew I Needed You So
The death of Ronnie Spector this week reminded me of one of my earliest memories of “musical significance”. I grew up in the town where my mum’s family were from, and my dad’s family lived much further away in the north. My brother and my mum and dad and me would go to see them […]
Totality
Back when I lived in East Oxford and could ride my bike to work I developed a special game to play on my commute. It was called Totality. It actually began in about 1986 back in Boston, Lincolnshire when one of my brothers came home once from his girlfriend’s house and told me that he […]
Top Tips For Climbing Ben Nevis
Somewhat random perhaps for this blog, but having climbed Ben Nevis twice I figured I’d share my top tips as someone who is basically a walker rather than a climber. “Ben Nev” is a challenge and not for the faint hearted, but it is a heck of a climb and one you should tick off […]
Nothing Ever Happens
Round about now, 4 years ago, regardless of the difference in time, I was descending from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in New Zealand and knew nothing of so many of the things that make up my life right now. On a cold, rainy afternoon where it seems as though nothing ever happens, this is a […]
Jilfm, 531 kHz
Hello 2019. In the dark, on a Saturday night driving back from the cinema which is 17 miles away, when 1531 kHz is playing Take That, tune to 531 kHz medium wave (that would be AM, or ondes moyennnes). Their house music mix touches on ’89/’90 and sounds boomy and bassy heading home, bringing back […]
Weekend Away
I am small and I want to feel small Dwarfed in my heart by the awe of love I want to be dwarfed in plain sight By the awe of tall buildings White limestone monuments Grey concrete abstractions Fiery red-brick towers With the chaos of a hungry heart in love Surrounded by tall buildings There […]
Mugged in Barcelona
I mentioned in a post about the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera that one of them got stolen from me when I went to Barcelona. I reflected on that experience in the latest episode of Photo Chat Vlog. The photos mean less in this one, though they’re all taken in Barcelona. It’s the story of […]
Slow photography
I was reading up recently about slow food, and how it’s an alternative to fast food. As Wikipedia says “At its heart is the aim to promote local foods and traditional gastronomy and food production. Conversely this means an opposition to fast food, industrial food production and globalisation“. I recently reflected on my most popular […]
Photo Chat Vlog Season 1 Episode 10 – Konica C35, San Francisco and why I #believeinfilm
So the camera I talk about in this photo chat vlog is the Konica c35, and as you can see from this picture it’s a small rangefinder type camera which means you’ve got manual focusing but you’ve also got automatic shutter and exposure. I’m really fond of this camera. Mine cost me four pounds from […]
It’s yesterday once more
Or, at least, a year ago. Time is noticeably flying by faster as I get older and older. I took this photo in New York a year ago today on the Staten Island Ferry. It’s a good way to see the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline, and it’s free. This was taken with […]
New York Pavements
There is a photograph of me taken in 1995 on East 75th Street in New York City. It was the first time I’d been to the USA, and I was on a university field trip. Since I was studying Fine Art, our field trip had no agenda other than to soak up the culture of […]
New Zealand
I spent three weeks in New Zealand in March and April this year. Lizzy and I went on a massive road trip across both islands, starting in Christchurch on the South Island and ending up in Auckland on the North Island. The whole thing is documented pictorially on my Flickr stream and I could write […]
Beach revelations
I recently went to New Zealand for adventures with my friend Lizzy. A big itinerary was planned and we visited lots of places and saw many things. But some interesting unplanned things happened on the trip as well. The photos which make up this collage were taken on the deck of a cafe at hot […]
Japan
I visited Japan recently with friends, and saw temples, skyscrapers, distant cousins, video games, hot springs, mountains, bullet trains and a whole host of other things. It was the trip of a lifetime and I really ought to write something about it (and I will soon). In the meantime I’m posting pictures to Flickr, and […]