A moment of Welsh solitude

During my recent travels to Wales I spent a night staying in the village of Cilycwm. I arrived mid afternoon and decided to make the most of the day’s remaining light to take a short stroll around the village. To my surprise the village church was open so I wandered in and spent some quiet time there exploring its photographic possibilities.

For some reason I’m always drawn to solitary chairs…

A lovingly crafted cushion on one of the pews.

There had evidently been a wedding in the church within the last few days and it was lovely to see the small posies of flowers adorn the pews.

Photos taken 19 September 2024

The grandeur of Greenwich

Every so often my Dad and I enjoy a day out together in London, and we always find an interesting exhibition or a place to visit. Last month we decided to head east to Greenwich, to explore the historic buildings around the Old Royal Naval College.

We started off in the chapel, which is an absolute riot of colour and decoration. I could really have done with a wider angle lens to fully capture its grandeur, but that didn’t stop me finding some interesting scenes around the building.

From there we moved on to the Painted Hall, whose name perfectly describes what awaits visitors - every inch of the building is decorated with ornate friezes and even the panelling around the windows is painted to give the impression of ornately carved frames.

In the neighbouring Nelson Room, this beautiful pool of light caught my eye, catching the bench in a golden sunspot.

Photos taken 17 September 2024

Slow wanderings in London

After a long break I finally found time for some more slow photography last month. I wanted to catch an exhibition of pinhole photography at the Barbican Library so I used that as an excuse to take a leisurely stroll around the City of London, as I was already in the area. I started off in Whitecross Street, where I found a miniature street scene painted on the side of a telephone exchange box - a city within a city.

Continuing down the street I found a collection of street food stalls which smelt delicious (shame I’d already had lunch!) and some interesting street art too.

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From there I just followed my nose, heading wherever took my fancy, through the tunnel at the Barbican, around Smithfield Market and down to Holborn Viaduct where I admired the regal looking lions.

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After a stop for coffee near Hatton Garden I eventually emerged onto Holborn, where I discovered an impressive red brick Victorian complex of buildings at Waterhouse Square. Walking through the square I wanted to photography the huge arch and wondered how long it would be before a security guard came and told me I couldn’t use my tripod. Fortunately I was able to set up and shoot swiftly and got away before anyone spotted me!

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It was getting pretty breezy among the tall office buildings, so I took the opportunity to include some of the nearby trees in my photos, adding a sense of movement among the static architecture here and also around St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Opposite St Paul’s stands One New Change, a striking glazed building, with a view of the Cathedral framed by two walls. I’ve shot this scene before, but couldn’t resist having one more try!

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Finally, with one frame of film left, I ended up at the junction by the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange. Here I chose my spot carefully and waited patiently for a passing bus to add some movement to my final image.

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Photos taken 21 August 2024

Return to St John's

St John’s Chapel is one of those places I tend to visit when I’m performing there, rather than simply as a visitor. Since I last played here, almost exactly a year ago, the chapel’s organ has finally been restored and returned to pride of place in the upstairs gallery. This milestone has been in the planning for decades, so with a free day to go into Chichester I just had to go and take a look. Sadly the door to the stairs was locked so I couldn’t take a closer look at the organ, but it certainly looks at home from ground level.

The chapel’s magnificent triple decker pulpit, which allowed the preacher to be seen by everyone, whether they sat in the gallery or on the ground floor.

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Such elegant, curved handrails…

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Every part of St John’s has such beautiful play of light.

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The ornate, gilt ceiling rose.

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Each pew has a number, carefully painted onto the end. Click on any image to see it enlarged.

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I couldn’t resist this small puddle of light on a pew end.

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Photos taken 9 September 2024

An elegant gallery

After my morning spent in the Sir Duncan Rice Library in Aberdeen I continued my architectural photography with a couple of hours at the Art Gallery in the centre of the city. Built in 188 by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie this elegant building has been extended and developed several times over the last century. I was particularly keen to see how the latest addition, a glass rooflight added within the last decade, fitted in.

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Having never visited the Art Gallery before I had nothing to compare this modern edition to, but I love its clean lines and the way it effortlessly brings light into the quadrangle.

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At the other end of the gallery I found a very different space - an octagonal room, also lit from above, but this time by a small cupola and a ring of lights which looked like a UFO from above!

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I became quite obsessed with this space, finding many different points of view on its beautiful lines!

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Photos taken 26 April 2024

Church light

With a few frames left on my roll of Ilford FP4+ after my jaunt to Portsmouth I found opportunities to finish them up in two churches I visited recently. The first came at Boxgrove Priory where I was giving a concert the following day. As Yat-Soon tuned his harpsichord I spent a few minutes looking for photos, unsure how well my little camera would fair in a dark church with ISO125 film. As it happens, the f2.8 lens did me proud!

The beautiful painted ceiling of Boxgrove Priory…

A few days later I made a fleeting visit to St John’s Church in Duxford - one of my favourite places for beautiful light combined with medieval architecture.

On this occasion the light was quite flat, but I did see a fleeting glimpse of the sun on the floor of the church…

Photos taken 3 July 2024

A library like no other

One day in April I hoped on an early morning bus from the centre of Aberdeen, heading for the University Library. Despite being exam season, I’d been given permission to take photos in the Sir Duncan Rice Library, but they advised me to arrive early to avoid the busiest study times. The building is open 24 hours a day during the exam period so I got there soon after 7.30am, when I knew it would be quiet thanks to the University’s website which has a webpage showing the current occupancy levels - very handy!

The exterior of the building seems like a giant sugar cube, albeit with a wave blue and white glass coating, and I was lucky enough to catch some photos of this the previous day when the blue sky was full of white, puffy clouds.

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From the exterior you might expect similarly crisp lines inside, but the reality is completely different - a symphony of swooping curves! With seven floors to explore a strategy was required so I took the lift to the top floor and slowly worked my way back down, one floor at a time.

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Looking down from the top…

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I found so many ways to photograph the library - the curves showed themselves in different forms from different angles. Shooting from a level perspective revealed elegant ellipses.

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Looking up towards the roof lights offered lots of possibilities too…

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Even the stairs contained interesting photographic details, although less curvaceous!

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Looking down into the lower levels these study pods added a striking pop of colour to an otherwise subdued interior.

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Using the handrails as lines to lead the eye…

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I purposely avoided including the students in my images, apart from this semi-silhouetted figure where I couldn’t resist the low straking light.

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A place to study with a view…

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Two more colourful study areas.

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I can’t recall another photoshoot when it’s taken me so long to select my final images, but as you can probably imagine, there were lots of photo to choose from. One thing’s certain - libraries have changed since I was at college. Ours was a single windowless room in the basement, although I can’t help feeling a building like this might continually distract me from my studies!

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Photos taken 25 & 26 April 2024

Warm vs cool

I’d never been to Petworth House before, despite living within easy reach for most of my life, so we put that right at the weekend. Unlike many stately homes, which are filled with the furniture and personal belongings of past inhabitants, Petworth is all about the paintings so the rooms are otherwise remarkably empty. While some of paintings are absolutely beautiful (I particularly enjoyed the Turners) I found myself surprisingly uninspired to take photos. I came away with a few dozen shots and after working through them I selected four, which really appealed to me. These seem to break down into two distinct colour palettes - one cool, with other warmer - a contrasting yet complementary quartet.

I often find myself drawn to small architectural details and this combination of doorknob and textured paint just demanded to be photographed. Click on any image to see it enlarged.

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My warmer duo of images both come from the Carved Room, which is decorated with ornate Grinling Gibbons carved wood panelling.

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It strikes me as a pity that anyone who chooses to sit in this seat does so with their back to a rather lovely Turner painting!

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Photos taken 14 July 2024

The Big Film Photowalk

During a recent trip to Sussex I had the opportunity to take part in the Big Film Photography Walk - a series of photowalks for film photographers taking place all over the country. The location I booked for was Portsmouth and we met at Gunwharf Quays, where we were all given a roll of Kodak Gold 200 film to use. I started off by aiming my little Rollei 35S at the Spinnaker Tower and the film proved to be gold by name, gold by nature in the warm summer sunshine!

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There were lots of interesting details and scenes to photograph

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Further around Portsmouth Harbour there were more details to photograph, but the Spinnaker Tower’s presence was still there on the horizon.

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Architectural details around old Portsmouth.

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At our final destination a busker was relaxing outside the pub in the sunshine and I couldn’t resist the added graffiti on his guitar.

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Photos taken 29 June 2024

Quarry Bank

I’ve long wanted to visit the mill at Quarry Bank in Cheshire, and in April my opportunity finally came during our holiday. I went with no preconceived ideas about what I might photograph, just following in instincts. We started off in the mill building, beginning in the administrative offices…

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Capturing good photos of the mill machinery was tricky, but there were lots of opportunities for grimy details!

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When the sun came out it created some lovely contrasts through the mill’s small windows.

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Styal Village was where many of the mill workers lived and this cottage has remained unchanged since the last inhabitants moved out in the 1980s. By the state of the interior, it had very little work done before that to improve living conditions.

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Over in the apprentices’ house we learnt about where the child workers at the mill lived and the conditions they endured.

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Photos taken 19 April 2024