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2 hours after dawn the sun is at a good angle to capture the magnificence of Old Menton, and the light begins to release the essence of the place. Of course an early morning walk out to the end of the harbour breakwater to catch the colours as they change minute by minute and to take in the whole width of the town is what dedicated "real" photographers would be doing.
Having been away I don't have any images of Richmond to offer for the time being. So, from Menton, thanks to the well-oriented balconies of the excellent Hotel Napoleon, here is an image of the dawn rising out of Italy. Already, Genoa and Ventimiglia, behind the headland are bathed in morning light. The dawn is breaking over France and the town of Menton. For a few minutes the sky is liquid gold. The border is formed by the mountains as they form the headland sweeping down the sea, all nice and neat, to divide Italy from France. The road and railway to Italy must pass through the tunnel.
All over France girls are riding motorcycles. They ride them in Britain, too - but not like in France. The best shot of all (which, of course I missed) was the girl in high heels on a motorcycle! Lesson.....never switch off the camera , and never put on the lens cover until the very end of the day. Next time I go to France I plan to photograph absolutely nothing but girls on motorcycles. I'll just sit by a road for 2 weeks and snap away. Every snap will be a winner.
"Waterloo sunsets (I am in paradise)" is a famous song by the Kinks. French impressionists (I think I'm right) have painted it.
This is "Waterloo lunchtime" - at noon.
Many will recognise it and love it. Those of you who have no idea about London will now see. This is London in March. On sunny days London's nice, but on grey days it's, well, just Grey! London has enormous amounts of culture and entertainment to offer the tourist, but the overall sense of London is "Business and Commerce"; "world Business"; and that's how I like it.
I am standing on Hungerford Bridge looking East towards Waterloo Bridge and the City of London in the distance. St.Paul's Cathedral, with its distinctive dome, is more or less in the centre and the towers of the city are clear on the right of it. On the extreme right we see the rising central core of the new "Shard" - the skyscraper going up at London Bridge.
I'm not going to bore you with endless naff shots of Spring flowers. Unless something really super materialises, this narcissus will be the last one. But, it is indeed wonderful to be enjoying a very pleasant Spring. It's mild, the sun is shining: dare we hope that this will be an end to three years in a row of very bad doses of "eternal grey cloud". (At least that's how it has seemed to me).
Spring! I started a few weeks ago by announcing a little series aimed at showing the transition from Winter to Spring. Suddenly Spring is here! It is magnificently manifest in the "go-faster" red stripes of this tulip which survived the attacks launched by slugs in February.
I enjoy "Stand-up". It's often a bit crude (and sometimes it's unnecessarilly crude). It's certainly not "politically correct" and that's good in a world where political correctness has got out of hand and needs a rap on the nuckles.
I have to thank the comedians at the Ram Jam Club at the Grey Horse in Kingston for kindly allowing me to photograph them in action, using only "available light" . This is the most charismatic image I captured during a laughter-filled Friday night.
