Category Archives: Photography

Played In London

05 Friday Sep 2014

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I have a photo of a particular architectural detail of Charlton Lido in this new book, published this week. It’s an incredibly comprehensive look at the history of sports venues across London, written by Simon Inglis and published by English Heritage. The entry for Charlton Lido also includes a reference to Greenwich council’s failed attempt to rebrand the lido as ‘Royal Greenwich Lido’ – a timely reminder of last summer’s fun as the outdoor swimming conditions start to turn autumnal.

More info – and online ordering – can be found on the Played In Britain website.

Tour de France à Londres, 2014

08 Tuesday Jul 2014

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The Tour de France passed by my work yesterday – more or less, anyway. We nipped out of the office and down to Tower Hill, found a sunny spot, bought ice creams, and waited. The sunshine turned to rain and, eventually, the riders arrived. I had a small gap through which to point my Nikon – looking straight across the road, so not great for focus-locking. I got a couple that I was pleased with (most of the others made it look like the riders we’re going at about 5mph – too fast a shutter speed, not enough background blur to give a sense of speed or dynamism).

I’m told that at least one of these riders is Alberto Contador, and that apparently counts for something.

Goldfinches

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in London, Photography

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We moved house two years ago, from a house whose garden was rarely visited by birds, to one that gets a reasonable number of the usual suspects – given our inner London location we can’t expect too much, I guess. Last year saw a brief visit from the goldfinches; this year they’ve pretty much moved in. I look out of the kitchen window before setting off to work and they’re on the feeder; come home from work: still there. The annual nyger seed budget was blown weeks ago.

Photographing them isn’t easy – they fly off at the first sign of human movement, and they’re pretty much in constant motion. Here are my best efforts to date:

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January Antidotes

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in Antidotes, Music, Photography

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a shameless borrowing of the idea behind Caught By The River’s Antidotes To Indifference series

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1. We went to the Tate Britain on a quiet day in the gap between New Year and the start of the year proper, and it was great. First visit since it’s been re-hung, refreshed, repainted, and so on: they’ve done a great job. Great to see more sculpture on display around the whole gallery than before.

2. Stan Tracey’s Under Milk Wood.

Apart from knowing the name, I’m not sure I really knew who Stan Tracy was before he died last year. This Caught By The River post included a clip of his ‘Starless and Bible Black’, which I found myself listening to on repeat. I had to buy the whole Under Milk Wood album, and it’s made an excellent accompaniment to January commuting in the dark. My knowledge of this kind of jazz is limited, but it seems to me the perfect blend of melody and angularity.

3. Turner and the Sea at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich

A too-quick look around this exhibition was enough to know I’ll have to go back for a proper look before it closes. The sketchbooks and later works were particularly stunning.

4. [View the story “Somerset Levels flooding – Jan 2013” on Storify]

Undoubtedly grim for those affected, but I’ve found myself fascinated by the photos appearing every day on Twitter showing the flooding around the Somerset Levels. A view of a completely different English landscape to any that I’m familiar with. I’ve Storified a few (link above).

5. Photos

An occasional reminder to myself that, amongst the HDR horror, there’s some amazing landscape photography on Flickr. I’ve been enjoying Ragnar Stefanssson’s work a lot recently, and it’s been good to see Ben Jones back on Flickr. I’m always keen to get recommendations of other photographers doing interesting landscape photography.