The look of Hanoverian England - # 141/2011

Marble Hill House - classic 18th C England.  Night shot. 
 http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/marble-hill-house/

A corner of a field - # 130/2011

Rupert Brooke, the First World War poet, wrote "If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England".

Rememberance Day is coming up on the 11th November.  I am constantly amazed by the capacity of Britain to continue to shed its blood in foreign fields.  These fields near Oxford reminded me of the poem.

Mediaeval - # 129/2011

We're now going back a long way.  A pleasant day out near Oxford brought me to this ancient landscape where the impact of ancient farming and village organisation is clear to see but not so simple to photograph.  I dithered for ages about which shot to choose. 


I settled on this one.  You can read about medieval Ridge and Furrow here http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba33/ba33feat.html   The fact that its remains can still be seen amazes me.

Richmond Bridge - # 125/2011

.......a nice B&W of Richmond Bridge.

Junk - # 124/2011

We're still at Richmond Palace. I hope you enjoyed discovering the comment about the 16th C flushing toilets in the wiki notes.


I chose this rather harsh looking treatment for the B&W photo because I wanted to enhance the texture of the ancient brickwork - which is also why I took the photo.  You can clearly see remnants of the very old structure (filled in arches).  I guess that what we are seeing here are windows put in during a late 17th or early 18th C development.  I also notice that a car roof has sneaked in.......arrrrgghh!!!  The grey overcast weather (cloudy but surprisingly warm) was ideal for B&W photography.

Richmond Palace 1501 - # 123/2011

At long last I'm feeling like getting out a about again, fit enough to walk about more and carry the dreaded "heavy camera". I can take very nice photos with the "little camera", but the "big one" gives me more exercise.


So it's time to get back to trying to show some more of Richmond and try it in B&W. Here's Richmond Palace - it's very old...............but not much of it is left: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Palace .


I chose this shot because it's got a figure in it.  Nobody came along when I was taking some slightly better angles, and although I don't "do" people I felt that the archway needed a figure. These days the acursed car cannot be avoided and is too hard to clone out.


Be warned - more B&Ws (as opposed to BMWs) are on the way.

Tonal exercises - # 117/2011

At last we're back in Richmond (not sure for how long - there are so many other things to photograph).


Pen Ponds in Richmond Park are an ever changing scene. This shot is not supposed to be representational. I'm experimenting and enjoying the "tonality" presented by the Ponds under varying skies. 

a Strong Woman - # 100/2011

...........a "feminist" term that seems to be increasingly popular these days.  I've nothing whatsoever against "strong women", but I sometimes find the term a bit annoying.

Anyway, here's a good metaphor for a really "strong woman". It's a massive and immensely strong, traditionally built wooden "clinker hull" fishing boat; on the beach at Hastings, alongside the old bulldover used to push it down to the water and haul it out again when it comes home. 

Hastings is the home of a very large beach-launched traditional-style fishing fleet that works the English Channel and catches fish in a sustainable and ecologically sound way. That's also a popular term these days, but it certainly does not annoy me! 

The North Foreland light - # 93/2011

A landscape by the sea.

Black Friars' Bridge, St. Paul's and the City - # 87/2011

Another shot of the the City of London under a dramatic cloudscape. Brilliant sunshine, the time of day and the weather came together to produce this and reward my day out hunting for good images of London.

The skeleton - # 86/2011

A somewhat quirky image, and probably not your normal "City Daily Photo", but the shape and startling skeletal form of the broken wheel house on a derelict fishing vessel at Dungeness seemed worth a photo and some B&W treatment.  

The Lugger - # 83/2011

Let's stay for a while longer on the South Coast admiring the quirks of the English Channel (or, as the French call it, La Manche = The Sleeve - why on earth The Sleeve?).

Here's a lovely traditional lugger sailing safely and well in stiff breeze, just as the old craftsmen who invented the design meant her to do.

Dungeness derelict - # 81/2011

Dungeness: a huge desert of shingle on the south coast of England, so large it's clearly visible from space.  Look it up. It's a site of special scientific interest, a bird sanctuary, a Ministry of Defence live firing range, a strange community of artists and fishermen, the site of a nuclear power station and great for weird photography.  The day I went, the sun was hot, the sea breeze was strong and fresh......

Menton Old Town - night - # 59/2011

A night-time foray up through the Old Town yielded this. (Not the finest of night time shots, but it still captures some of the atmosphere and the pleasing tonality of a night time-walk through the alleys - actually that's "climb" not walk.)

I've been neglecting the blog and my loyal "lurkers".  I'm quite precoccupied weeding and reorganising my photo collection and still trying to short out my strenuous physical exercise programme to try to overcome the limitations caused by my fall on the ice at Christmas 16 months ago.

Urban experience - # 40/2011

Once a royal hunting park where deer roamed, the "Old Deer Park" car park has few charms.  On the other hand, it does have a strange atmosphere as a piece of "Urban-Techno" art about it - at least, that is how it is at night. It conveys a strangely comfortable feeling of "cosy alienation". It somehow says "Yes, this is home.  Like me or loathe me, I'm yours".  I really have tried to do my best with it.

Crossing over (Transition from Winter to Spring) 2 - # 37/2011

Late January in Kingston upon Thames.  It looks better in B&W.

Crossing over (Transition from Winter to Spring) - 1 - # 35/2011

Returning from the brilliant sun and warmth of winter in Oman I have been wondering what on earth to do next.  As the archive builds up it will be nice to try to document the transition from a nasty Winter towards Spring.  So we can start here with "Crossing over". There is a hint of the damp asphalt after rain, and the ravages of winter can be seen already on the bad road surface. Given the sad state of the public purse, lack of cash and cuts in expenditure that damaged surface is likely to be there for a while, and will get worse before it is repaired.

Converging lines - # 114/10

Blizards and closed airports and out-of-position airliners permitting, I'm off to stay for a while in the Sultanate of Oman.

So, I'll leave you with this puzzling abstract taken in the old "meat cellar" in Ham House.  It seems that they did need a lot of meat.

Depending how things go I may treat you to a few "Muscat Moments" while I'm away.

Likenesses - # 113/10

......and look at us, for we were once like you.

Ham House shadows - # 112/10

Another one of those "Ham House moments" when the play of shadows catches your eye.