Baby Bluetit season

Every spring a pair of bluetits takes up residence in our garden bird box to raise a family and around the beginning of June we hear the incessant calls of young fledglings demanding food from their harassed parents. This year’s brood appeared a couple of weeks ago and today I finally found an hour to sit in the garden with my camera to capture some of their activities.

When I’ve done this before I’ve always had a battle with my camera’s autofocus to catch the birds among the branches of our buddleia bush. But since I updated my camera about 18 months ago the new autofocus system has made this so much easier. It was even able to pick up birds deep in the branches and focus on them and that make such a difference when you’re dealing with small creatures who move so quickly!

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

A couple of years ago we bought a new bird bath, which is raised off the ground and placed closer to our bird feeding station. It’s made a huge difference to the number of birds who use it, and I was surprise how many came for a drink, even though I was only sitting about five feet from it!

Although the garden is dominated by bluetits at the moment, we had plenty of other visitors too…

A rather tired looking Great Tit

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Photos taken 23 June 2025

Brooklands Mini Day

One of the first trips we made after I bought my little half frame Pentax 17 camera was the Brooklands Mini Day - a gathering for Minis, large and small, at the museum in Surrey. I decided to travel light, with a roll of Kodak Gold loaded into my camera and an open mind about what I might photograph.

A quartet of Rover Mini Cooper 35 special edition cars - ours is the second from the left.

Mini noses in silver and red…

The odd non-Mini shaped interloper was allowed in too!

Minis as far as the eye can see on the old Brooklands track, and a few modern Minis too.

Minis of all sizes were welcomed in - even ones made from crochet!

Minis everywhere - even beneath the wings of aircraft.

We also took a look around the bus museum on site but it was a little too dark for my chosen film for many successful photos.

And finally, a triptych, created from an old petrol pump I found a corner of the museum

Photos taken 23 March 2025

From the South Downs to Birling Gap

Way back in February we’d planned a short trip to Eastbourne to be part of a podcast recording, after which I was then heading west for work. I had a free day in between though, and there were two locations on my photographic agenda.

The first was the Church of the Good Shepherd in Sullington, up on the South Downs. I learnt about this tiny little church from the YouTube channel of a fellow pinhole photographer, Will Gudgeon, and it’s been on my list of places to visit ever since. Will was kind enough to give some tips on where to park and how to find the church was it stands in the middle of farm land, some distance from the nearest road.

The Church of the Good Shepherd is genuinely tiny, with perhaps room inside for a dozen people. It originally formed part of a larger church, but all that remains of this larger structure are a few fragments of wall.

You wouldn’t expect the weather to be wonderful in February, but with the church’s exposed location on the South Downs it felt even more blustery and cold. To top things off we then had a hailstorm, so I was very grateful the door was unlocked. While I waited for the stinging hailstones to peter out I made the most of the opportunity to take a slow photo inside!

A small slit window in the stub of one of the walls from the original church.

After I’d meandered back to the car I headed once again towards the coast and stopped of en-route at the church in Litlington to finish off my roll of film.

My second destination for the day was Birling Gap. After a warming lunch in the cafe I loaded up a fresh roll of film and braced myself for an hour on the beach below the chalk cliffs. By now it was blowing a hoolie and keeping my tripod stable was a bit of a challenge - sometimes I had to place my body strategically to create something of a windbreak!

The beach at Birling Gap is a mix of chalk and flint which made for some very striking patterns. I’d timed my visit for low tide, just as the sea was beginning to return so I kept my eyes peeled for places where the water was running back in between these stony ridges.

Capturing the ridges of chalk and flint as the waves came in took a good sense of balance and timing. As I stop atop the larger rocks I waited for the waves to come in and hoped I didn’t lose my footing or find the water had inundated my return path to dry land!

Photos taken 7 February 2025

Chester Cathedral

The last time I visited Chester was in April 2003, when I was teaching on a course in the city and it’s long been on my list of places I’d like to return to. As we prepared to drive home from Liverpool last November that moment finally came as it was a fairly easy detour to Chester via the Mersey Tunnel. We spent an hour or so in the Cathedral and I was thrilled when the sun finally appeared, creating some beautiful play of light on the stonework.

Photos taken 22 November 2024

Museum light

There are certain buildings which never fail to get my photographic juices going. Sometimes that’s down to the architectural lines; on other occasions it’s because of the way the light falls within the space. The Museum of Liverpool falls into both these categories, and when we visited last November I found some new angles on a space I thought I’d already explored pretty fully.

Photos taken 21 November 2024

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Towards the end of our April holiday in Yorkshire I had a few frames of film left in my pinhole camera so naturally I took it along with me. Our day out in Scarborough seemed like a good pinhole photo opportunity so I brought along my mini tripod and an open mind and kept my eyes peeled for scenes which might work from a low point of view.

Down at the harbour…

Getting up close and personal with a selection of ropes from boats moored at the harbour.

Steps not in use…

A worm’s eye view of the lighthouse.

Photos taken 25 April 2025

Finding colour on the streets of Liverpool

This April I treated myself to a few days in Liverpool, with the aim of focusing entirely on pinhole photography. The day I arrived I checked into my AirBnB and then headed straight over to Jamaica Street to meet up with my friend Rachel Brewster-Wright who has her darkroom space here. After a cuppa and a catch up I had some time to spare before the light faded and I’d spotted some great street art in the area - the perfect excuse to crack open some Kodak Gold 200 film and take some colour pinhole images.

The area around Jamaica Street is full of interesting faces, colours and shapes. The portrait above, of Jurgen Klopp, was the first one to catch my eye - one of Liverpool’s footballing heroes.

This reminded me of ‘Back to the Future’, even if it’s a Ford Capri rather than a Delorean!

I discovered these curious characters around the local skate park…

It just wouldn’t be a complete visit to Liverpool without a connection to the Beatles.

Photos taken 15 April 2025

Salisbury Cathedral

I never pass up the chance to visit a Cathedral, even if it’s one I’ve been to many times before. In April we passed near Salisbury on our way to a concert so naturally we popped in for a look around. I’ve photographed here in detail before, so on this occasion I ended up shooting two mini projects - the first was to explore the many different animals I found lurking among the choir stalls.

My other mini project was looking for interesting light and as the sun came out there was no shortage of that…

Photos taken 19 April 2025

Christmas Eve on the beach

It’s become a bit of tradition over the years for me to visit the seaside on Christmas Eve, usually with one of my pinhole cameras in hand, and in 2024 I did exactly that. The Sussex coastline isn’t know for its drama, and on this particular day I had a double dose of calm in that the tide was out and it was misty too - no dramatic crashing wavescapes for me!

One lovely thing that West Wittering does have though is some sand dunes and I couldn’t resist featuring the marram grass in some of my photos.

There may not have been many folks using their beach huts, but the owners of this one were getting in the festive spirit.

There’s always time for a slow motion selfie…

Photos taken 24 December 2024