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The first time I visited Romsey Abbey was to perform in a concert. It was so cold that March evening that all I remember is feeling utterly chilled to the bone and the beauty of the architecture certainly didn’t register with me! It was time I made a return visit so in May I made a small detour on my way to Somerset to see what I’d missed the first time.
Photos taken 17 May 2022
I never pass up the opportunity for some photography around the City of London so today I travelled into town an hour early for my meeting so I could take a leisurely stroll down to the River Thames.
Looking out for subjects that interested me, my first stop was the Bloomberg Building, which has some interesting lines and details, along with some rich golden colours.
Further south, I stopped at St Paul’s Cathedral, where I explored the way it interacts with the modern glass architecture of the nearby One New Change shopping centre.
Photos taken 2 November 2022
One of my favourite local churches is St John’s in Duxford. It’s no longer used for worship but is instead cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. A couple of times a year I visit and even though the architecture doesn’t change the light is different every time.
On this occasion I visited in mid-March, when the days hadn’t yet started to lengthen but the shadows were definitely still long and dramatic. There’s something about the light in St John’s which is irresistible, whatever the season, but on this occasion it just called out for a spot of black and white.
Photos taken 17 March 2022
A few days after my visit to Ely Cathedral I headed west to Gloucester. It’s been several years since I visited this Cathedral, during which my photographic skills have improved so it was interesting to look at it with fresh eyes and find new opportunities for photos.
Click on any photo to see them enlarged
The Cathedral’s 14th century lavatorium - where the monks would once have washed.
Photos taken 8 April 2022
The first week of April turned out to be a week of cathedrals, with two of them bookending the week.
I started off at Ely with two friends, helping them with their architecture photography and sharing the way I look at buildings when I photograph them. We spent the day exploring the building in detail and although the main focus of my attention was on teaching I did take a few photos myself.
Photos taken 4 April 2022
We often visited north Norfolk when I was a child to visit my grandmother in Ingoldisthorpe. There are many places I remember from those trips, but on this holiday we found a building I had no recollection of whatsoever. We stayed in Snettisham, just a mile or two from granny’s house and on our drive home from Felbrigg Hall we noticed the church - an imposing structure on the outskirts of the village.
I don’t recall ever seeing the church all those years ago, but it was fantastic find, albeit somewhat belatedly! The light was fading but that just added even more character and mood to the resulting photos.
Photos from October 2022
We enjoyed a short break in north Norfolk recently and while we were there ticked off a National Trust property that’s been on my ‘must visit’ list for a long while - Felbrigg Hall. I tend to visit stately homes without a pre-planned agenda, photographically speaking. Sometimes I’ll be taken by wide, sweeping shots of the architecture, while on other occasions it’ll be the smaller details which draw me in. On this occasion most of my photos fall into the latter category.
More often than not it’s the light that draws me in, as it falls on something photogenic or creates a lovely contrast of light and shadow. Felbrigg was full of such corners and Kevin ended up having to wait for me to catch up as I kept getting waylaid by interesting photo opportunities.
Click on any of the photos to see them larger.
I’m always drawn to libraries, and this one even had a private room with a chamber pot!
Photos taken October 2022
Today’s post is a collection of photos I took more recently. The day after the Queen died I travelled down to Sussex for work and stopped on the way at the Tuxlith Chapel at Milland. This tiny chapel was outgrown by its congregation and a new, larger church was built right next door during the 19th century. When I arrived, the bells were tolling for the Queen in this Victorian building, offering a very atmospheric mood in which to photograph the chapel next door.
A window on the world…
Photos taken on 9th September 2022
After my darkroom workshop with Andrew Bartram back in April I was keen to put my new founding film developing skills into practice. About ten days later I took myself off to Audley with my pinhole camera to take some photos, with the intention of developing them when I got home.
I found plenty of photographic inspiration and had no difficulty in completing the 12 shots on my roll of film. Once I was home I light proofed our our downstairs toilet with the blackout cloth I’d bought for the job. As a room with no windows it’s only a case of sealing the tiny slivers if light which sneak in around the door - the perfect darkroom! Loading the film took a couple of attempts but once it was done I spent half hour at the kitchen sink developing, fixing and rinsing my negatives.
When the film emerged from my developing tank I was very relieved to find I had photos, but disappointed to discover I’d made a bit of a horlicks of loading the film on the spiral. It had stuck together in a couple of places, so a handful of the shots were lost. Just as well I’d gone somewhere I can easily return to in order to recreate the same photos another time!
Overall I’m pleased with the results though and since then I’ve been careful to make sure I don’t make the same mistake. Even better, each roll of film costs me about a fifth of what I was paying to have them developed commercially so that leaves me more cash to buy film!
Photos taken on 14 April 2022
Hot on the heels of my pinhole photos from our Northern Ireland holiday, I’m back with my digital images. I travelled light for this trip, taking just my little Fuji X100V, which has a fixed 23mm lens. Some people might find this limiting but I’ve known for a long while that I ‘see’ best with a prime lens - it just makes me work harder to seek out compositions.
My photographic explorations began before we’d even left England, taking a few photos from my seat on our aeroplane, including a view of Hatfield Forest as we took to the skies.
Our first view of Northern Ireland - so green!
When we arrived we went for a jaunt around Castlerock, the village where we were staying and after a rainy start the sun came out!
The next morning we explored Portstewart, where we found some great street art, including a small painting which may or not be a Banksy…
A duo of digital images from the Mussenden Temple to complement the pinhole photos I took there. It’s amazing to think that once upon a time you could drive a horse and carriage right round this building!
Looking across the harbour at Port Rush
My main photographic focus at the Giant’s Causeway was my pinhole images, but I did take a few digital photos on our walk from the visitors’ centre.
Towards the end of our holiday we visited Derry City but chose to take the train rather than driving. The views across the river estuary were glorious so I took some minimalist photos of the landscape as it whizzed past the train window.
One of Derry’s most striking landmarks is the Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle which runs through the centre of the city. I love its curvaceous lines - so photogenic.
The Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle in Derry
While the lines of the Peace Bridge seemed to call for a monochrome treatment the rest of Derry was too vivid for me to remove the colour!
On our last day we took a diversion to the Titanic museum in Belfast. Such a wonderful structure and it was astonishing to see SS Nomadic, a tender which ferried some of the passengers to the Titanic when it moored just outside Cherbourg Harbour.
Photos taken in June 2022
