Travel
I'm lucky enough to travel a lot but I also aim to understand a place in some depth. So I like to find out about the local history, sociology, wildlife and local arts. I prepare for a trip by looking up photos of the famous sights, they're usually a good guide both about the local visual interest and also a warning of what has already been done or over-done.
I try to use the tools of modern photojournalism and photography to communicate how I feel about a place. You’ll see that I have used Portrait, Street, Interior, Historical, Abstract, Landscape, Historical, Wildlife, Phone-camera and Selfie genres at different times for specific effects.
We knew it was coming but it’s still a shock to see the price of fuel at more than two €uros a litre, even just outside the refinery gates here inear Marseille-Provence airport. I’m told that you can easily pay far more inland.
Postcard of photos from a couple of days touring Sussex, not that far from home.
Paper postcards having become a rarity, here’s my own, featuring the beach at Bognor Regis, the park at Petworth House created by Capability Brown, Arundel Castle and the memorial at Selsey Bill to the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore.
Lambley Viaduct in Northumberland was opened in 1852 as part of the Alston line, a single track from Haltwhistle. Trains last ran across Lambley Viaduct in the 1970’s, serving the lead mines at Alston. Walkers on the Pennine Way pass nearby but don’t cross the river. The elegant arches span the River South Tyne flowing down from Alston, making it the only major river in Cumbria which flows to the North Sea.
One of the most dramatic French nineteenth century buildings, the Palais Longchamps is Marseille’s temple to water. Fresh water from the Alps first arrived by canal on the 8th July 1847 and saved Marseille from repeated droughts and disease. The Palais Longchamps was built at the main distribution point, a sort of header tank for the city. Its sculptures and architecture look particularly good with the low angle of the winter sunlight and the sky blown clear by a violent, glacial, Mistral wind.
Ratcliffe on Soar coal-fired power station in the Trent Valley was new and modern when I was studying at Nottingham University in the 1970s. It was a major landmark from both the Real Ale pub at Trentlock (where the Erewash Canal meets the River Trent) or when I used to cycle south of the Trent.
Back then, Ratcliffe generated electricity at a relatively low price so it was almost always running and so pushing out clouds from its eight cooling towers, even in summer. I remember being impressed at the huge plume of steam from the cooling towers, indicative of the tremendous amount of electrical energy that was being generated.
We did a visit as part of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree course, the engineers at Ratcliffe showed us the (then) state of the art and efficient coal-handling and generating technologies. We would think differently now that coal has been unmasked as a major contributor to climate change.
