Photography
My photography
I use photography to show something about where I’ve been or people whom I’ve met. As well as trying to see the beauty in a scene or situation, I’m also trying to convey ideas and feelings. My photography is about me and what I do, who I meet and where I go. All my photography tries to be contemporary and creative. I’m resistant to being fitted in to a taxonomy by categorisation such as “travel” or “conceptual” or “nature”. All image-making is political simply by the act of selection and hence exclusion but I am not campaigning for any particular point of view, except to try to see the positives and to live life to the full.
I use 645, 35mm and DX formats plus a handy little digital compact that shoots RAW files. I’ve experimented with non-lens photography - do ask!
I first worked in a monochrome/silver wet darkroom at age 7, helping my Father with scientific prints; I’ve used colour negative materials since age 21 and digital since 2005. I use Photoshop (Adobe) and Photopaint (Corel).
Sunrise towards the Pennines as seen from above Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick on the day after Midsummer Day 2021. Blencathra (868 m.) on the left and Clough Head (726 m.) on the right.
Also my photo of the party in progress around the Neolithic stones - but you don’t see the sun rise over the stones, you need to go a bit higher up.
Today’s partial solar eclipse, seen from my home in west London. The clouds cleared just enough to snap this photo at 1115, just two minutes after the maximum.
Always a moment of awe and wonder, though not as dramatic as the partial eclipse of 2015 which I saw from Kendal in Cumbria.
People I saw in one hour’s wander around Preston Park, Brighton on Sunday afternoon. Individuals, pairs and couples, groups and teams.
Magnificent flowers and foliage in the garden of Muncaster Castle at the foot of Eskdale; the castle is still owned by the Pennington family, who have lived here since the early 1200’s. Henry IV (of England) was sheltered here by Sir John Pennington after the Battle of Towton (1461). Muncaster Castle gardens feature a fine collection of rhododendrons and other plants collected from the Sino-Himalayan region, including primulas, irises, cotoneasters, camelias, anemones and acers.
The climate at Muncaster is said to be similar to that at 3350 m. in the Sino-Himalayan region, ie temperate cloud forest.
Muncaster Castle also features a collection of Birds of Prey: eagles, owls etc; in normal times there are displays for the public. There’s also a delightful woodland walk with the forest floor strewn with native bluebells, not the invasive Spanish variety.
Muncaster’s collection seems at least to have inspired whoever laid out the garden I have inherited here at Keswick; my rhododendrons are also in fine flower.
More photos: Muncaster Castle Gardens, Eskdale - Lake District National Park
Skiddaw Man (931 m.) and Little Man, Skiddaw (865 m.)
Helvellyn (949 m.) and Lower Man Helvellyn (925 m.)
It’s rare but not unprecedented to see fresh snow in the Lake District in May - local memories recall snow falling in early June 1975.
