The lone tree - # 131/2011

'nuff said.

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.

The North Foreland light - # 93/2011

A landscape by the sea.

Crossing over (Transition from Winter to Spring) - 6 - # 42/2011

The sun is out and Spring really is in the air (within 200 square meters I counted 8 photographers).


Looking west from the escarpment at Richmond Park we get a clear view of Ham House beside the river.  When the trees are in leaf it will be almost invisible except to those who know where to look, and for what.

Bombing range - # 09/61

The lighthouse stands to guide mariners to safety.

The black tower and huts date from WW I right up until recent times and were used for observing and photographing (with complicated camera systems) the performance of bombs as they fell, first from tiny string and paper planes with unreliable engines right up until the 1950s and 60s when the mighty British V bombers (Vulcan, Victor and Valiant) would release nuclear test bombs from 40,000 ft and the camera systems would track them down observing their trajectory and attitude as they dropped.

Open barrier - # 09/58

An image of Orford Ness, Suffolk.

A photo for Earth Day - # 09/57

Nuclear Spring - Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Orford Ness.

Isleworth Church from Syon Park - # 08/94

Moving westward out of the idyllic atmosphere of Syon Park with its grazing cattle and magnificent glasshouse, and its great house we see the tower of the medieval church by the river Thames at Isleworth.

No matter where I am, city or country, here or in foreign lands I am drawn by the effect of buildings and landscape grouped together in their unique local styles.

Studies in glass 2 - # 08/83

You've already seen this from a slightly different perspective, but I wanted to show this wide-angle shot because it places the glass-house in the Duke of Northumberland's parkland at Syon House firmly into its "English Landscape" setting. You enter the park and come round the bend and... !!!!... there it is!!! It's quite breathtaking to see in this context.

Even more interesting: the Duke's parkland and his great house are on the west bank of the Brent. Here we have "noble magnificence", but immediately opposite on the east bank of the river we have the highly industrial Brentford canal docks. These contrasts make a walking tour even more interesting.