The Red Castle

August 3, 2023

I had a day to myself during my last visit to Wales so I decided it was time I visited the castle I’ve seen high on the hillside from the motorway many times. Castell Coch (the red castle) was built by the third Marquess of Bute between 1875 and 1879, although it takes in the remnants of a much older building.

It may have been intended as a family retreat for the summer months, but the Marquess spared no expense on creating lavish interiors which I really enjoyed photographing.

I’m always drawn to interesting light and there was no shortage of that inside Castell Coch…

Photos taken 11 June 2023

Saved from the brink

August 2, 2023

For four years I trundled past Battersea Power Station on the train as I travelled between the south coast and the music college where I was studying. It was a very sad sight - a weather beaten shell beside the River Thames, and any number of projects had been dreamt up to reuse it the discarded.

Thirty years later this beautiful structure has finally found a new use - a mix of shopping and flats - and has been restored to its former glory.

When my Dad and I met up in London in June we visited Battersea to see it close up and to ride in the lift which has been built into one of the huge cooling towers.

Travelling up through the tower towards the sky

From the top of the tower the views across London were amazing - even now I keep spotting new landmarks. Click on any image to see it enlarged.

The many railway lines leading into Victoria Station.

Looking east towards the City of London.

Photos taken 6 June 2023

It's all in the detail

August 1, 2023

My usual hunting ground for car photos is the classic car shows we visit with one of our Minis. Back in June I had the opportunity to explore a whole field of beautiful classics, right in the heart of the City of London. The London Concours takes place each year at the Royal Artillery Company which is hidden away behind high walls near Moorgate - an oasis of green I had no idea existed.

There were plenty of exotic cars to see but, as ever, my eye was most drawn to the older ones, dripping in chrome.

The only small fly in the ointment was the harsh sunlight, so I found myself focusing on details rather photographing whole cars - and there were plenty of interesting details to be enjoyed!

Photos taken 8 June 2023

Beautiful Boxgrove

July 31, 2023

Way back in April I popped into Boxgrove Priory while I was down in Sussex. At the time I was preparing for my smartphone photography workshop so while I was there I snapped a few pics on my iPhone. I never got round to doing anything with them at the time and had forgotten all about them until I rediscovered them a few days ago - what a lovely find!

Photos taken 17 April 2023

Storm clouds over Cumbria

July 17, 2023

I had a feeling I wouldn’t find too much time for photography during my flying visit to Cumbria at the weekend so I decided to travel light, using just my iPhone camera. Little did I know the weather would decide perhaps it was the autumn rather than summertime so what little free time I did have was mostly spent under leaden skies and heavy rain!

That wasn’t going to stop me though, so I grabbed a few snaps on my evening walks to the pub for dinner, including this rather forlorn looking tractor.

My journey home began at Grange-over-Sands and I was able to squeeze in a few minutes for a quick stroll along the promenade before my train left to capture the Cumbrian coastline’s big skies.

Grange may be a small station, but it certainly makes up for that with its lovely Victorian architecture.

A station with a sea view…

The train at platform 1. My first of six trains to get home and one of the few to actually run on time!

Photos taken 14-16 July 2023

A walk in the woods

July 8, 2023

One hot summer’s afternoon I decided that if I was going to have my daily walk it would need to be somewhere shady, so I headed for Alsa Woods.

Naturally I took a camera along and on this occasion I decided on some slow photography. I had no fixed ideas about what I wanted to photograph, but just kept an open mind and looked for interesting subjects and views through the woods.

There was barely a breath of wind but I wanted some movement in this photo, so I created my own by blowing across the leaves during the 45 seconds the shutter was open!

A ghostly self portrait on the footbridge crossing the M11 motorway.

I intended to take another ethereal self portrait sitting on the tyre swing, but I found a teenage boy sitting on it next to his bike. It struck me this might be even better than my planned photo and fortunately he didn’t mind me including him in the photo!

Photos taken 24 June 2023

All fluffed up

July 7, 2023

I’ve been watching our resident Great Tits over the last month as they cope with the challenges of parenthood. Our nestbox regularly erupts into choruses of cheeping, usually as one of the parents arrives with a tasty morsel to eat. I’m hoping the youngsters will also use our feeding station, but in the meantime the adults are looking decidedly frayed around the edges after so much hard work!

Photos taken 20 June 2023

Colour or mono?

July 2, 2023

It’s very rare I use colour film in my pinhole cameras but for my trip to Wales in June I loaded up a roll of Kodak Ektar.

Getting really close to the daisies on the platform at Cynghordy Station.

Frustratingly the rest of the film didn’t quite live up to expectations. Pinhole photography often induces colour shifts because of the longer exposure times, but on this occasion the colours were completely crazy! I didn’t want to throw the photos away so instead I experimented with converting the negatives to monochome instead.

To my astonishment they work much better in mono than colour. I guess, with strong sunshine, I should have realised it was really a black and white sort of day so at least I’ve learnt a lesson!

Photos taken June 2023

Keeping an eye on the neighbours

July 1, 2023

Every so often we have the pleasure of looking after our neighbours’ cats while they’re on holiday. Cwtch and Sookie have gradually grown accustomed to us and I often use their more relaxed moments to catch some photos of them.

During my second visit they had come downstairs, ready for breakfast and a spot of sunbathing, although initially Sookie decided she would observe me from a chair beneath the dining room table!

Cwtch watching the garden intently for intruders….

Followed by a spot of unashamed lounging in the sun - not always in the most elegant way!

Eventually Sookie gained some more courage and came out into the sunshine.

Photos taken June 2023.

Travelling light

June 30, 2023

My experience of teaching a smartphone photography workshop last month proved to be a great way of learning more about my own phone’s camera, but not without its temptations. As I researched what the cameras we all carry in our pockets can do I realised just how much more the latest iPhone can do now.

After much indecision I took the plunge and upgraded from my three year old iPhone SE to the latest iPhone 14 Pro and I haven’t regretted it for one moment. Yes, it still does all the phone stuff the same as any mobile, but having a larger sensor and three different lenses to play with brings many more possibilities when I want to travel light. The day after I bought the new phone I decided to use it as my sole camera for our monthly visit to the Barrington car meet and it was strangely liberating.

The super-wide angle lens offers some fun possibilities if you get really close.

On the new phone’s camera it will allow you to use the portrait mode on subjects which aren’t human which allows for all sorts of creative possibilities.