Man Ceiriog

This ruggedly handsome chap kindly let me take his portrait as part of a seasonal series I am work on. He was pulling a large cart of wood up a steep lane when he kindly stopped for me. He looked great – straight out of Lord of the Rings I thought. I just need to get three other local folk to agree to seasonal environmental portraits for Winter, Spring and Summer and that’s my Four Seasons of the Ceiriog Valley exhibition entry sorted. It all sounds so straightforward in words. Oh, and I really need to find this chap again and ask him to sign a model release form. Easy.

Doggy style?

I did a few snaps of a friends dog, with the intention of printing one of them onto a stylish wall canvas for her Christmas present. Now I have seen them, I can’t decide which one of these will look least 'greeting-card cheesy' when it comes back from the printers on a rather large canvas...

Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo. It’s 10 minutes away from my house on a push bike, yet I hadn’t been there since I was a wee bairn, on a school trip from St. Wilfrid's High School in Blackburn. I remember holding hands with a girl I had a crush on during the coach trip back from the zoo. Twelve years old I was and I didn't dare utter a word to her again after that. School trip fond memories. The smells of the souvenir Zoo pencil's and leather bookmarks, eating our packed lunches on the sun-baked lawns, the punch of humidity as we entered in the steamy crocodile's lair.

Although I am blown away by the wildlife photography of Martin Bailey and Nick Brandt, it’s not something I really feel drawn towards in any way, but an enforced stint indoors, a poorly landscape lens, oh yer, and the timely arrival of a bling new zoom lens I have been saving my pocket money up for months to buy, made a visit to the animals seem a very appealing lunch break. I should have gone back a lot sooner – it’s a fantastic resource to have on the doorstep and seeing the levels the zoo are going to in conserving endangered species is remarkable. Sod it, in fact I am going to buy a season pass.

Sigur Rós, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

Sigur Rós, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

An Autumn Day in North Wales

The top image here is the Fairy Glen, near Betws-y-Coed, North Wales. This is probably one of the most photographed locations in North Wales, but despite this, I will certainly be paying my 50p to go back down there again, perhaps near midday when the sun is shining directly down the steep gorge and lighting up the autumn leaves...

Snowdonia

Snowdonia on a Snowy Saturday

The snow-clad mountain lurching behind the tree at the top of this set of images is Tryfan, a mountain that has touched most of the outdoor-orientated folks I know in one way or another. I remember it for terrifying icy winter scrambles, oh, and watching my partner being helicopter-lifted from a decent route. A couple of friends will definitely remember the top of the mountain as the place they became engaged to be married. Another chap we know probably treats it with great respect after dislocating his shoulder on the way down. Once you have walked, scrambled or climbed the north ridge route of this hill, it distils the contradictory mix of outright respect and just plain rocky fun into everyone who passes that way.

The Sinister Snowman

The brief sunshine through the freezing cold today reminded me of one of my favourite poems by Wallace Stevens:

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Hamish

It snowed today. Actually it really snowed today. It snows occasionally around here during winter, but not until around December or January. I think there was a wee little man that enjoyed the early snow even more than I did...

Abstract Crete

It’s kinda hard to look beyond the sun-lounger beaches, terminally half-complete villas and sleepy tavernas of the Greek island of Crete for photographic inspiration. After a few days of wondering if I would take any photographs while on the island, I dropped any preconceived ideas and just enjoyed the little details...

Samaria Gorge, Crete

What’s your perfect walk? Downhill all the way? Natural spring water breaks every mile? Hot sunshine? Little stone sculptures lining the trails. A cold beer and a dip in the sea followed by a brisk, coast-hugging ferry journey back to the car? You would probably like the Samaria gorge walk then.

The Norwegian dudes...

Hello Sunshine

I was playing with that wonderful overexposed style on these shots – the eternal optimism look. These two folks walked off into the bright sunset to have better than average careers, several attractive children and lived very happily ever after.

Standing In The Shower... thinking...

Try getting your nine year old buddy to stay still under a cold outdoor shower, open his eyes for the camera, oh, and hold his breath all the while...

Lost Cat

I stopped on a meditative wander around the midday sleepy backstreets of a Cretan village to take a few shots of the cats living wild on the edge of a building site and noticed I wasn't the only observant one...