What to do when stuck in traffic
What to do when stuck in traffic? You do have your camera, don't you? And there are traffic lights.You can curse living in the city and wonder whose idea the stupid basketball key chain was. Or you can take out your camera and....
Take a photo at the first red light!
Ooo, skate-boarder and bike guy, cool!
Have a sun roof? Open it. Wow, wouldn't want to be the work men up there! How do they do that?
Do those water spouts actually work?
Oooo, got to check out that store!
What's this? A secret balcony?
Coolest shadows!
I was told to never take photos into the sun...whatever!!!
Things are so first to bloom between the buildings. Lovely treatie, white blossoms.
Damn, traffic is moving, got to go. (Just want to say that all these pics were taken with a tiny Sony Cyber-shot (which nobody could even see) when no-one was looking!)
First Spring-feel day
You know that day - when you see clear skies,
and the dafodils soak up the sun, 
and the rosemary dares to bloom,
when you walk out without a coat,
and watch the hyacinth reflect the blue,that's spring.
Well, fancy that!
I've got all this old stuff at home. Great stuff! Like old letters, small writing boxes and old photos, not so much found as rescued from charity shops, garage sales and, sometimes, rubbish bins and the back seat of scrap yard cars. Not only does it make me wonder who could have thrown these things away, but more importantly, who were those people in the photographs? Who wrote those letters? Where are they now? I've been composing Vanitas for a few years now. Vanitas...emptiness, meaninglessness of earthly life? Maybe that's the literal translation, but for me they represent memories. And after, memories are all we have left. I agree with Art History Professor Geoffrey Batchen, from The University of Victoria, photographs are a reminder of our mortality and I would be tempted to run back inside my burning house to rescue the shoe box full of them. I'm happy to have had my image chosen to represent this article in Photography News.
Afternoon in Oxford
Sign probably means something to someone.
Pret A Manger makes the best butter croissants
Got the window seat!
Till next time OXON, I love you.
Market Jellyfish
I remember we had a children’s book where the pages were cut into thirds and could be flipped to create absurd images. I’m not sure exactly where it is, and most likely at the cabin, but I remember the pictures; like swans with red brick chimney necks and cauliflower heads. Amazing concepts.I was thinking about how much I would love to create some images like that. A whole catalogue of beautiful absurd images. A children’s book worth.I’m thinking fish swimming through the Sahara and sailboats in fields, giraffes with totem pole heads and map butterflies.So I’ve decided to try some double exposure, drawing and mixed media to see if I can make some sense of nonsense but as I thought of all the wonderful images I could create, the small gremlin of self doubt pulled the handbrake and my thoughts turned to, “Where am I going to get images of giraffes anyway?”I’m surprised by how much it scares me, which almost certainly indicates that I should do it.One children’s book worth.32 pages.How hard can it be?
Knowing myself at the end of 2010
Funny how the close of one year and the beginning of another always prompts reflections of past times and intensions of times to come.Somewhere between jetlag, work, snow and the general hectic holiday season I seem to have lost a day with the result that the 31st has snuck in out of nowhere, so I sit down somewhat late at the closing of this year to write down these words.It’s taken me a while to grasp it all, but I think I have finally arrived at that grown-up place where life is what you make it and not all things we go through are easy, comfortable or ideal, but, looking at the state of the world, they could be so incredibly worse, and a simple life of comfort does nothing to change us or make us into better, stronger, more beautiful versions of ourselves.Looking back over this past year, I’ve been reminded of the situations which have tripped me up and served to teach me just what I’m capable of. Perhaps it’s some sort of plan, this 2010 full of lows and discomforts and challenges, to push myself more towards new chapters in the story of my life.This year has been extraordinary.This year has been painful.This year has been enlightening.This year has felt mostly like I’m stuck in some sort of liminal space, on the threshold of something new.Overall it was a good year, one which has shown me who I am.I am capable and I believe they will be good chapters.Happy new year everyone.
Winter walk and some magic
We have been working all day. About 4pm R and I looked at each other and said, "Let's go for that walk." So on with 17 layers of clothes, wellies, hats, mits and we walked out into the fields.
At the end of first field were some rooks arguing with something. "A FOX, A FOX, IT'S A FOX, I LOVE FOXES!" (I may have jumped up and down a little too.) I shouted. R said "hush" but too late. The fox heard and ran away.
All we saw were the footprints.
So we walked on the footpath thru the fields to Hawk field and turned back. And just then, coming out of the little copse, beside the hedge, on the footpath, there he was.......... magic.
Then home to Theo, a nice open fire and supper. It was a good evening.
Thud...
That’s the sound of me landing at Heathrow.
*
Hello, I’m here.**You didn’t hear that, did you?
Actually, it sounded more like a little “poof”.
Because it snowed overnight.And the whole of Oxfordshire is reduced to incredible shapes and shadows.
All of which I’m compelled to photograph.
Only in windstorms
R and I walk on the beach in the midst of the madness, when everything seams chaotic, a little shaky, a little uncertain. The wind whips up more questions and the future seems hazy. R’s hand slips into mine and suddenly the future looks a bit brighter. And I find the ability to wrestle the inner daemons and find the determination to never give up ~ however impossible it looks right now ~ the task seems a little less difficult; when there is someone beside me to hold my hand.