On the way home

On the way home I was seduced by the setting sun over Hawley Lock, which is just below Camden Lock, on the Regent's Canal in north London. A lot of people were out enjoying the cooler temperature at the end of a long, hot day.

Walk to Work is published!

At Last! Finally! I have managed to release my first book of photography: "Walk to Work: from the City to Whitechapel". I am very grateful to Rafael Q Publishers for backing the project which is realised using the excellent print-on-demand facility of blurb. The book contains 120 pages of photography which I assembled during my morning walk from the edge of the City to my destination in Brady Street in Whitechapel. These early morning walks, often in near darkness in the middle of winter, yielded dramatic, poignant and downright bizzare images. The books contains my observations on the important social history contained in the back roads of Whitechapel, only a stones throw (literally in some cases) from the powerful presence of the City of London.

The book is also a testament to my kit, my Leica M8 and Leica D-LUX 2, and the range of Leica lenses I have used. The beauty of the Leica M8 is that it is discrete enough not to attract attention yet powerful enough in combination with Leica lenses to render truly professional results.

Walk to Work is available in a standard and also Limited editions. The Limited Edition is a large coffee table book, limited to only 250 copies. The standard edition contains all the same images and text but is a smaller 10x8 inch book.

Bee and Allium

Been too busy at work and putting the final touches to my book "Walk to Work" that I haven't had time to take pictures or post them here. Here's one from my garden this weekend.

BSA Combination

These photographs of a BSA motorcyle combination were taken at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham - an unlikely place for me to visit but my wife was attending the UK National Glass Fair, which was held at the venue. As glass really isn't my thing I spent my time looking over the motorcycles. Seeing all these old british marques like BSA, Triumph and Norton reminded me again how far we have changed as a country when it comes to our business activities - and how dangerous it has proven to rely on service industry to create our wealth.

The Tomb of William Bligh

My wife, Julie, dragged me off to the Museum of Gardening in Lambeth on Wednesday. The museum is in the Church of St Mary. An unexpected surprise was to discover the tomb of William Bligh. He is most remembered for the infamous "Munity on the Bounty", episode in British maritime history. Of course, the 1930s did no favours to his memory (dashing Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian battling with demented and autocratic Charles Laughton as Bligh) but further reseach reveals Bligh to have been an urbane and intelligent fellow, as well as an exceptional navigator (a craft he learned while sailing with Captain James Cook). I was intrigued that his tomb bears the description 'Esquire' and notes his FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society) above his distinguished rank of Vice Admiral. For more information it is well worth reading the entry for Bligh at Wikipaedia.

Fyfield Down

I had a great time yesterday trekking around Fyfield Down in Wiltshire. This area of rolling, heath-like hills contains natural deposits of Sarsen stones. It was a significant source of material for many neolithic monuments in the area and it certainly has a prehistoric feel to it. The Sarsen stones themselves are often mistaken for sheep from a distance.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow.....

I left the house today with little expectation of being able to take any photographs in this typical, drizzly, miserable, British bank-holiday weather. The main purpose of an outing was to visit nurseries in Buckinghamshire to support my wife's latest gardening project.

Then, about midday, the overcast changed and the diffuse light highlighted the lush, spring-green landscape. I stopped at this field near Creslow on the A41 and tried to capture the light and colour.