[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 December 2020].
wreath. red ribbons. reunited.
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 December 2020].
black river
One of my photographs taken on Mersea Island last year (cropped to square)
is in issue 1 of black river journal.
The first issue garnered submissions from over 200 photographers and is well worth a browse.
o tannenbaum
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 December 2020].
season's grievings
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 December 2020].
As promised in my 22 November post, albeit starting a day later than planned, I've been putting together a new series of photographs.
These are images I've previously taken that have a particularly seasonal relevance. Though, as warned, they're not really full of your usual Christmas cheer.
As many of you will know, I've a bit of a thing for graveyards, cemeteries, churchyards and other places of rest. If you don't know, now you know.
Reviewing photos I imported from earlier this year recently, I realised I've gathered a collection of photographs from various places of rest that capture mementoes of Christmas. Festive ornaments and decorations left by family and friends recently or not so recently.
So, I thought it was as good a time as any to edit a selection of these to share with you as a series entitled 'season's grievings'.
I'm still reviewing how many I have and editing them as I find them.
Given the topical nature of the series, I'm going to share them early-access for patrons-only on my Patreon, but only two days ahead of them becoming public and being posted here and elsewhere on the interwebs, instead of the usual week.
For the avoidance of doubt: these photos are shared respectfully. Both, for those who've passed and the families who decorated their final resting place.
I find these both beautiful and heartbreaking tributes to those now gone.
eclipse theatre
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 26 November 2020].
It's easy to forget how much Art Deco architecture still remains in Australia.
There are so many high profile examples of it in major cities, and I'd seen examples in New South Wales towns like Bellingen when on a road trip with a friend in 2010.
But, even then, I kind of forgot. Even though it's one of my favourite architectural styles.
So when Simon and I were on our road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane just over a year ago, it took me a bit by surprise.
From Fish Creek and Yarram in Victoria to Oberon and the well-known Hotel Gearin in Katoomba, New South Wales, we saw a lot of beautiful Art Deco buildings in various states of repair.
Unfortunately, with our trip feeling rushed, with the constant stress created by watching bushfire alerts, and with my limited mobility, we didn't spend much time photographing these gems. Definitely not as much as I would usually demand.
The Eclipse Theatre in Deepwater, New South Wales, was a sneaky surprise that caught our eye on the New England Highway. Still impressive despite its dereliction.
And a place we would never have seen if not for the bushfires that raged across the country.
We were supposed to be driving along the coast somewhere between Port Macquarie and Rosebank according to our original itinerary. Instead, as we stopped to check out this beauty, we were inland about 20 minutes' drive south of a raging bushfire.
Our visit varied a lot from our plans, but I'm thankful for the experiences we had. And grateful we chose to go for Mum's birthday (despite what the day held for us) instead of mine and Simon's. Had we held off until April this year we would not have been able to go at all.
untitled #12
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 22 November 2020].
Reality reared its ugly head again on Thursday afternoon this week after a reverie of about seven months.
Was it reverie or just denial?
Either way, I've had to focus more on things other than my photography, art and writing over the past few days.
On the positive side: I've imported all my photos and videos to near the end of April. I hope to get up to date in the next week, around things that need to be done in 'the real world'.
I fell ridiculously behind with importing after my trip to Australia with Simon. Far worse than I've ever managed before.
I also started work on a new collage recently - which may or may not work out, so it may or may not appear here soon - which is part of a new series.
At the tail-end of the night (what's now last night), I had a chance to look through some of my photos from earlier this year that I'd barely seen since I took them.
Doing so gave me ideas for two new series of photos using images I've already taken but, in many cases, not yet edited. One is Christmas-themed, so I'll start posting that series from 1 December. Spoiler alert: it's not full of your usual Christmas cheer. Sorry.
However, I chose this photo to edit and share with you for now.
It caught my eye earlier this week as I was importing photos from my DSLR from that day. 2 February 2020, specifically. A nice palindromic date: 02/02/2020. The serenity of the scene felt like that particular soothing thing I needed right now.
Listening to Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump... on a wooden piano as I edited also helped to slow my racing mind.
At least for a while... until my computer crashed and I lost this post and had to start again. Thankfully I managed to get the bulk of what I'd written captured with the camera on my phone before it disappeared into the ether.
I hope this image helps to calm you if that's what you need right now.
Let me know what you're listening to lately to help you deal with whatever stresses you're going through. Music recommendations spin me right round, baby, right round.
landlocked
He was back in front of this window; the window that had ended his school days, every day.
When he was young, he used to stop and gaze up at the model boat and the marine rescue vehicle as he arrived home each day. He would stand there, distracted for long moments.
So long, that his mother - waiting, anxiously, for him to return home from school - would open the curtains and find him stood there. Motionless, head tilted back, mouth slightly gaping and staring up at the boat.
She would come to the front door and watch him for a minute or two, a soft smile playing at the edges of her lips before she bundled him up and took him inside to the kitchen. She would ask him about his day while she prepared supper and listened to the tales he would bring home from the schoolyard.
His fascination with the boat had not waned over the years, but he had stopped gawping at it as he grew older. There were girls to gaze at instead, and as he grew up, they were what caught his eye or kept his attention as he arrived home each day from high school.
As he reached the end of high school, he was usually too busy sneaking in one last kiss with his girlfriend, Sarah, as he unlocked the front door of the house and said his goodbyes for the day.
The model boats, the marine rescue vehicle and the lighthouse baffled him a little bit when he was growing up.
Their home was twenty minutes from the nearest body of water, and that was a river, not an ocean or the sea. Hardly somewhere that a lighthouse or a marine rescue vehicle would be needed, let alone various large boats or ships.
The models were his dad's, but he didn't talk much about them and didn't like being asked about them.
His dad didn't really like being asked about anything. Or talking about anything.
The models just sat on the windowsill gathering dust, hidden from the inside of the house by the curtains. A display for others, not for us.
Except him, of course; he was fascinated by them.
On occasion, when his dad was in a more social mood or simply wanted to distract him while he talked with the grown-ups, his father would let him take down the marine rescue vehicle. Roll it across the rug, pretending he was saving his Lego men from some maritime disaster.
But his dad was always firm about the boat. The boat was not a toy. It wasn't to be removed from the window. He had received more than one firm slap across his legs and buttocks for even inching his fingers up toward the boat.
It was only in the past few years that his mother talked more about his dad's upbringing. It was only in the past few years, as he became more ill and his mind started to slip that his father spoke about the sea. It was one of the few things he could still connect with. That he still remembered.
He didn't remember faces, except his wife's. He never remembered birthdays; that was no change. But he could talk vividly about the sea. The sound of it. The smell. The feel of it on his hands.
His dad would sometimes stop mid-sentence and tilt his head as if listening closely to a conversation through the walls. After a few moments like this, he would invariably ask if they could hear the waves. They nodded and smiled awkwardly, hearing nothing, but knowing that they had to agree. That his dad would look crestfallen and confused if they said "no".
Growing up, he never met his dad's parents. His dad never spoke of his father, so he grew up believing he only had one set of grandparents. He didn't question this for a long time, and then it seemed too late to ask. Too awkward of a conversation to have.
Coming home now, facing the front windows of his childhood home, he gazed once more at the boats, the lighthouse, the marine rescue vehicle. He knew that now he could lift them out of the window and take a closer look. He knew that no one would reprimand him for that.
Since his dad had died, a lot of pieces had fallen into place in the puzzle. His mum had opened up dusty photo albums hidden away in the loft for decades. Too painful for his dad to look at, to speak about, to share.
In the yellowed black and white photographs taken in his dad's childhood, a warm, smiling, middle-aged man gazed into the camera from the railing of a boat.
He waved at the photographer with a look of love.
orange hue lichen [it?]
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 October 2020].
I've been working on a submission for a new online magazine this afternoon.
In reviewing photos to submit, I rediscovered this image I took at Burgess Cove in Tasmania in March 2018 that I'd edited in January 2019 but not yet shared anywhere.
It struck me that I didn't know what the orange on the rocks was. A quick Google search informed me it's lichen creating that distinctive colour. It's the same or a similar lichen that possibly gives the Bay of Fires in Tasmania its name.
Once again, my love of photography leads me to learn new things, which in turn is something else I love :)
port welshpool long jetty
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 October 2020].
I took this on the second day of our road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane before we went on an unscheduled detour along disused logging tracks in the Tarra Valley.
Unfortunately, being on crutches meant I couldn't go for a wander along the jetty, which is the third-longest wooden jetty still standing in Australia.
The clouds were pretty impressive, though!
a child’s bauble
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 22 October 2020].
scenic lookout
[I originally posted this collage as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 October 2020].
duck reach
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 11 October 2020].
A little shy of a year since Simon and I flew to Australia for a month, I've finally imported all our photos from my iPhone and camera.
To celebrate, I thought I'd edit some of my best photos from the third day of our holiday and share them.
These were taken at our third stop for the day, Duck Reach in Trevallyn, Tasmania, the location of a hydro-electric power station which was in use from 1895 to 1955.
The day after we visited Duck Reach, we had a car accident which left me with a fractured ankle and on crutches for the remainder of the trip.
As a consequence, I took far fewer photos than I would usually. The photos Simon and I took with my Nikon D700 combined almost filled one 4GB memory card. I'd usually use at least that on my own in a month of travelling!
The bulk of my photos were taken with my iPhone 11 Pro Max, as that was substantially easier to manage while balancing on one leg and navigating my way around on crutches. All my iPhone photos worthy of posting have been edited and shared on my Instagram account previously.
So there isn't an overwhelming number remaining to edit from the trip.
I'll be sharing the best of them on my Patreon over the coming weeks, a week before I share them here and on my social media profiles.
If you want to check them out first, you can become a patron for as little as £1 a month.
emanations
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 27 September 2020].
gorgeous view
[I originally posted this collage as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 September 2020].
underpass overpass
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 September 2020].
This is another photograph I submitted to issue #149 of Shots Magazine.
Extras role in the background for the Albert Road gasworks.
untitled #47
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 20 September 2020].
I took this on a photo walk with my friend and fellow photographer, Scott, on my birthday in 2018.
It was taken in Bloomberg Arcade, a spot which is very close to two of my last workplaces but that I rarely passed through. I think this was only the second or third time I'd been there.
This was one of two photographs of Bloomberg London that I submitted to Issue #149 of Shots Magazine.
untitled #2
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 September 2020].
Though I haven't posted many of the photos I took during my time in New Zealand and Australia in February/March 2018, I've managed to edit the majority of them.
However, there are quite a few from the Tasmanian leg of my trip still to work through. This was one I recently edited for submission to Issue #149 of Shots Magazine.
Taken on Cradle Mountain Road, en route to Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain with my parents, my uncle and his partner, we experienced lovely, but cold, weather. Arriving at the information centre to take the shuttle bus to Dove Lake, it became much more foggy and overcast.
While Dad and I took the shuttle bus to Dove Lake and back, Mum waited impatiently with my uncle and his partner in the information centre. She became increasingly impatient and irritable when Uncle John and I went on the rainforest walk. Mum's impatience and irritability is an unfortunate byproduct of dementia.
John and I were able to see native birds, wildlife and plants on the walk and I took quite a lot of photos.
Despite Mum's mood that day, the weather and circumstances were better than when Simon and I attempted to visit Cradle Mountain with my parents almost a year and a half later. This time around it was even colder, blowing a gale and raining, and I was on crutches.
As a consequence, we used the facilities and moved on to the next stop of the tour. The only positive of our attempted visit was the sighting of wombats and wallabies by the roadside as we navigated our way back.
Almost a year on, I still haven't had the chance to import and review photos from our trip taken with my D700. I'm finally close to being caught up on other things so I can do so though.
And I'm looking forward to sharing the best of mine here when I do.
nice light on those cows
[I originally posted this collage as early access for my Patreon patrons on 18 September 2020].
my cross to bear
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 September 2020].