Away from the chaos of the Christmas Market

When I visited the Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds last month I was rather surprised to find most of the stalls inside the Cathedral. The resulting scrum of people didn’t inspire me to loiter for long, so instead I walked down the Street to St Mary’s - the other church which was considered when the town’s Cathedral was being chosen.

I’ve always found more photographic inspiration inside St Mary’s than in the cathedral - it has so many fascinating details. Although it’s quite a dark building, with lots of deep hued woodwork, the sun was shining today and that helped me as I sought out pinhole images which wouldn’t require massively long exposure times.

One of the fiercer characters I found in the choir.

I found this chap loyally guarding his master’s feet on a tomb.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Forgotten photos

I’m usually pretty swift at downloading and editing my photos, but occasionally I find images I’d forgotten about, still lurking on a memory card. This week I rediscovered some digital photos I took when I visited Copford Church with my pinhole camera. Each pinhole photo took about ten minutes to expose, so while they were ‘cooking’ I made a few digital snaps too. There weren’t many, but these three struck me as worthy of sharing.

Copford Church has some amazing wall paintings - definitely worthy of a second visit on a brighter day as I was working as light which was fading fast!

A close up of the domed painting above the alter.

Photos taken 17 November 2022

Sunkissed architecture

Alongside the pinhole photos I shared from St John’s yesterday, I spent some time using my digital camera for a different view.

Click on any image to see them enlarged.

The play of light in St John’s is always beautiful

A small detail I’ve never noticed before - coat pegs!

Photos taken 25 September 2022

Time and motion on the Elizabeth Line

I’ve wanted to take some photos of the new Elizabeth Line stations since they opened and an opportunity presented itself recently. I’d spent some time in London doing some pinhole photography (I’ll share those photos in due course) and on my way back to Liverpool Street Station I had some time to spare for a spot of digital photography.

We were heading into the rush hour, although the station wasn’t too busy yet, so I decided to use the commuters to create some movement in my photos. Thanks to the miracle of an image stabilised camera I was able to hand hold it for just long enough to capture a sense of motion through their blurred movements.

I like the results, but I’m sure there’s scope to do something even better - I just need some more time to hang around and play without the pressure of rushing off to catch a train myself!

Photos taken 1 December 2022

Meandering around the Fitzwilliam

I felt the need to escape the house for my day off as I’ve been working at home all week. The freezing weather wasn’t conducive to outdoor activities, so I headed for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for a wander with my camera.

I chose it use a single lens, picking out smaller sections of the building - a strategy which also proved useful for avoiding the crowds of school children!

This corner of one of the staircases took my fancy with its elegant lines and beautiful, soft light.

Photos taken 9 December 2022.

The Queen's church

During our brief holiday in Norfolk in October we enjoyed a day at the Sandringham Estate. Photography wasn’t permitted inside the house but there was an opportunity to use my camera inside the church. This is the church the Queen would attend on Christmas Day every year and you could certainly sense its royal connections from its sheer luxury.

Photos taken October 2022

Wonderful Wells

One of my favourite cathedrals is Wells and I never pass up an opportunity to visit if I’m nearby. In July I had some work in Bath so I sneaked in an extra day to visit this wonderful building.

I divided my time here between digital photography and some pinhole work too, but I’ll stick to my precise digital images in this post.

Looking up at the cathedral’s organ through those magnificent scissor arches.

Photos taken 1 July 2022

Church crawling

While others may enjoy partaking of several pubs in an evening, from time to time I employ the same principle to explore churches. On this particular occasion I was on the hunt for a trio of redundant churches in Monmouthshire, although one of them remained rather elusive!

My first port of call was St Michael and All Angels in Gwenesney, tucked away down a single track road. Maintained by the Friends of the Friendless Churches this was a gem of a church, with some beautiful contrasts of light and shadow inside, created by sun percolating through the leaded light windows.

Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged

From Gwernesney I continued my explorations at a larger church just a few miles down the road in Llangwym Uchaf. I arrived just before a torrential downpour and as the skies darkened I wondered how I was going to take photos inside, with no artificial light to help me.

Gradually the clouds lifted and my eyes adjusted to the gloom and I found that perhaps photography was going to be possible.

My plans for a third Welsh church were scuppered by my unimaginative satnav, which insisted I should try crossing a field from a dual carriageway sliproad to reach it. I decided against the necessary off-roading so it would have to wait for another day!

Instead I continued my journey to Wiltshire and found an alternative church to visit…

My final church of the day was St Margaret of Antioch in the village of Leigh Delamere in Wiltshire. Inside I found another dark interior, but one illuminated by some vividly coloured stained glass.

Photos taken 25 June 2022

Early morning stroll

It’s rare for me to pass up the opportunity for some quality photography time in London so when a meeting back in May popped up in my diary I made time for a stroll through the City beforehand.

I meandered south towards the River, keeping my eye open for anything that inspired me to lift my camera.

Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

When I reached the Thames I still had some time to spare, so I wandered along the south bank, making the most of the views and the deep blue sky which was peppered with puffy white clouds.

Eventually my time was up and I had to go into my meeting, but even there I was presented with a cute photo opportunity in the form of Bea, who obligingly posed for me!

Photos taken 31 May 2022

Shape and form at the LSE

My Dad and I have been trying to find the opportunity for a day in London today for months and in September we finally succeeded.

Our first destination was the London School of Economics. Not your average tourist location, but we’d both read about the new Marshall Building there and we were keen to explore it. Its brutalist concrete lines offered some fantastic photo opportunities and I can’t help thinking I’ll be returning to seek out some more in time.

Photos taken 8 September 2022