Beds of tulips flowering for Easter outside Buckingham Palace, London. Lots of colour, even the taxis aren’t black! A glint of sunshine making the gold shine on the Victoria monument. First picture with my new phone’s camera, using the digital negative workflow: I’ve not used graduated filters but a bit of adjustment of the contrast. The small format sensor of the S7 gives a “thick” or “heavy” image quality but there’s lots of detail and colour range, if not subtlety.

 I’ve always thought Richmond Park would look better with a herd of triceratops grazing the grass rather than just deer and some Brontosauruses in the ponds but maybe carnivorous theropod dinosaurs would be going too far for a park which is open to the public. Now the National Trust are trying this out in nearby Osterley Park, far from being the Trust’s latest strategy for crowd control, it will be an almost certain crowd-puller once the Jurassic Live exhibits have been fully installed in the park around Osterley House. Having seen the skeleton and some of the videos of animations, the surprise was just how really massive that jaw and teeth are, as well as how the animal is at least half the height of a good-sized tree. But is it responsible parenting to settle for a family picnic within tail bashing range of a formidable carnivore like Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Amongst the brilliant white fibre glass hulls snuggle a few old vessels like Antonia. Her wooden hull and canvas canopy with tiny round porthole “eyes”, immediately more human than countless modern boats. The dark eyes of the skull and crossbones pirate flag add to the impression and are also a reminder of the traditional independence of the seas, unlike many a Corsican bandit flag which are so popular in Marseille that they have become another team to belong to, like a football team or fashion brand. perhaps also a reminder of the Barbary coast pirates, whose predations were feared in the long history of Marseille Vieux Port.

Cranes building the new development over the railway line on the boundary between at Earls Court, Brompton and Hammersmith in West London. This crane, massive even by London crane standards, is the solution adopted to spread the load to avoid damage during construction to the rail lines of the Overground, District and Piccadilly lines underneath.
This picture’s about awe, the huge size of the steel engineering being used to construct this new “village” within the urban environment.