Travel
I'm lucky enough to travel a lot but I also aim to understand a place in some depth. So I like to find out about the local history, sociology, wildlife and local arts. I prepare for a trip by looking up photos of the famous sights, they're usually a good guide both about the local visual interest and also a warning of what has already been done or over-done.
I try to use the tools of modern photojournalism and photography to communicate how I feel about a place. You’ll see that I have used Portrait, Street, Interior, Historical, Abstract, Landscape, Historical, Wildlife, Phone-camera and Selfie genres at different times for specific effects.
Brilliant clear spring light in Provence: Arles, Alpilles and Marseille in spring sunshine; plus clear roads for sporty motorcycling.
Sights from Marseille this chilly February weekend. New paving around the Vieux Port, complete with sculpture installations of animals representing the South, all facing away from the Mediterranean. The impression is that Africa and the South start here at the Marseille waterline.
Good surf at the beaches of Pointe Rouge in the bitter wind that brought much snow inland. Despite the clean-up, and the Petit Train Touristique, someone finds a use for the art installation as a place to sleep. The clean-up has resulted in a new sport: watching the sunset across the water of the Vieux Port, the waterline not much changed from the time of the Phoenician sailors trading with the port then known as Massalia.
Chocolate culture being celebrated in many ways at the Salon du chocolat in Marseille: an unmissable trade show!. Chocolate art, chocolate flutes for champagne, chocolate jewellery, music about chocolate, sustainable chocolate farming, boxes of chocolates plus of course chefs demonstrating how to cook chocolate and opportunities to taste and then buy chocolate products.
New architecture mixing harmoniously with the Haussman and Art Deco facades of La Joliette, where the passenger ferries and cruise ships arrive in Provence. The district is one of many that have been redeveloped to coincide with Marseille being the European Capital of Culture 2013 and to clean up the image of Marseille for the ever-increasing hordes of tourists visiting Provence.
Steam train on the Underground at Olympia, my local station, before entering the tunnels. Yes this is trainspotting. It seems incredible now that the original Metropolitan Line was hauled by steam trains. This weekend's re-enactments are in celebration of 150 years of London's underground railways. Locomotive Metropolitan No 1 hauled a restored carriage of the Metropolitan Line, with invited VIP passengers, on the line from Olympia to Moorgate via High Street Kensington and Paddington. The other carriages were on loan from the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. The rear was brought up by one of the first electric locomotives, No 12 Sarah Siddons.
