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.
A postcard of my photos from a trip north to south through Cumbria: Cumberland and Westmorland.
Pretty autumn mist over Ullswater as "The Lady of the Lake" cruises past Norfolk Island in to the sunshine - she is believed to be the oldest working passenger vessel in the world.
I found the mist on the south side of the Kirkstone Pass: maybe Kirkstone Pass a new definition of where "The South" begins, along with "The North" begins on the north side of Euston Road, London (or Aix-en-Provence if you live in Marseille).
I found a bit of colour in Kendal, the town of grey stone houses on the river Kent. And sea mist obscured the sands and mud flats of Morecombe Bay viewed through the windows of a platform at Grange-over-Sands railway station.
Cambridge by day and Cambridge by night - two postcards from a visit to Cambridge to return my late Father's academic gowns to his college. The familiar buildings of Magdalene and Kings College are now joined by impressive recent architecture of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS) and Robinson College.
As a respect to my late Father, I was honoured to be invited to Formal Dinner by candle-light at High Table in the early 16th century hall at Magdalene College; I stayed overnight as a guest of the college, thoughtfully accommodated in a set of rooms which my Father had had the use of as a Fellow. These precious experiences have helped me understand more fully my Father's academic life and work; the warm personal memories of the Fellows whom I was honoured to meet, confirmed the glowing tribute published in the college magazine.
Outside the college walls, celebrations were under way for the weekend of Hallowe'en and the changing of the clocks back to GMT. Undergraduates scurrying in ghostly costumes around the shadows of the city streets on their way to parties: “Play hard - study hard”, one hopes.
Tourists were on the streets again next morning but concentrating on the well-known buildings near the city centre. I was guided further afield, where there is much interesting new architecture to be discovered and appreciated.
On Parker's Piece I happened upon the ancient (sic) collegiate game of Frisbee Soccer: rather appropriately as it was Parker's Piece where the rules of Association Football were first defined.
Some views of Oxford this afternoon, walking back from a business meeting in Summertown on Banbury Road. The weather was more for the ducks so the punts were unused on the river Cherwell. Autumn colours in University park, with sport to complement the city's business of learning and serious thinking.
Autumn mist and drizzle didn't dampen our visit to our visit to Tyntesfield, Bristol. The sumptuous colours of the garden and estate were still brilliant; with the new boiler warming the house, chapel and National Trust guardians, it was a cheering visit as the skies go grey. I used to cycle past the estate as a school child, though you have to leave road to glimpse the main house; now there's an ample new car park and visitor centre and of course, the National trust gift shop as you exit.
The Alpilles are a diminished continuation of the crumple of land that makes the Luberon mountain on the eastern side of the river Durance, south of Avignon.
The Alpilles take and break the full force of the Mistral as it tears down the Rhône valley on its way to the Carmargue.. Quintessentially Provence, the Alpilles have groves of parasol pines as well as groves of cultivated olives.
The quiet country roads between Aureille and Eyguières are a fine place for a picnic, once the summer restrictions on account of the risk of fire have been lifted.
The rocks are light grey limestone that takes the colour of the sun and the sky: when Paul Cézanne painted scenes from the Alpilles he used colours to portray the moods so we have purples and blues that are entirely non-naturalistic but entirely appropriate.
My postcard also shows the fine ruins of the Castelas de Roquemartine, from the XIIth and XIIIth centuries: it's superficially similar to the popular château at Les Baux de Provence but became ruined as part of the complicated history of the Alpilles.
