Category Archives: Portrait

Jul 01 2012
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Joe doing his homework

Sunday 1st July 2012, 11.10am (day 311)

Joe doing homework, 1/7/12

Well, there went the first six months of 2012. So far we’ve had four nice weeks of weather (two at the end of March and two at the end of May) and the rest has been dreadful. The nostalgia freaks would have us believe that all children spent their youth frolicking in hayfields at this time of year but it’s hard to engage with that reality at the moment, when it’s raining most of the time. So here’s Joe doing long multiplication. He’s getting kinda good at it.

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Jun 30 2012
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger

Handmade Parade

Saturday 30th June 2012, 11.25am (day 310)

Handmade Parade, 30/6/12

This was supposed to happen last weekend. Once a year the populace of Hebden Bridge spend a little while building ephemeral but beautiful costumes and parade down the town to the park. It’s like Carnival in Rio, but shorter, with less naked flesh and in Yorkshire. A lot of fun though. Today it became something of a two-finger-salute to the weather, which for the entire month of June (except maybe for 3 days around the 18th) has been dreadful. Market Street – the main road through the centre of Hebden – has been devastated, with maybe two or three businesses out of about 30 still open, or likely to reopen before September. And it was still raining today – in bursts, but they were heavy bursts.

I took 89 photos of the parade within the 17 minutes it took to pass me; so to pick just one was very difficult. That being the case, interested parties could look at the top 20 pics, on my Facebook site. But I pick this one for here mainly because of the happy smile of the central model and the fact that this was the only picture of all the ones I took which I felt worked despite the fact there was a spectator firmly in the background. For some reason, it just seems to work with him there. We were all in it together, so to speak. And for just a short time we forgot the floods and the rain and just enjoyed the spectacle.

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Jun 28 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Chinese girl on plane

Thursday 28th June 2012, 9.15pm (day 308)

Chinese girl on plane, 28/6/12

It’s a nice shot (if a little out-of-focus). Unfortunately, this encapsulates the day because there’s no way I should have been coming home late enough to catch the sunset streaming through onto the face of my single-serving model. British Airways stranded me in the sixth circle of Hell that is Heathrow Airport for 7 hours this afternoon because their first choice of plane needed fixing. OK, I don’t want to go up in a dodgy plane but why the hell was it left to me – a passenger – to inform the BA ticket desk in Terminal 1 that one of their planes had gone tits-up, a full hour after the pilot told me and the rest of the passengers that it wasn’t going to take off?!

I’ve been on the go since 3.30 am this morning UK time (6.30 Moscow). I’m going to bed.

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Jun 26 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Endorsing the declaration

Tuesday 26th June 2012, 7.15pm (day 306)

Tatiana, 26/6/12

Today was a salutary lesson in what Principal Skinner (The Simpsons) once said: “Children! Do you want to be like the real UN, or do you just want to squabble and waste time?!’

I am being unfair. It was a very interesting day today. But the experience of writing a document then, in effect, having to have it endorsed by 120 different people from 40 different countries was a new one on me.  I therefore distracted myself from the more repetitive parts of the process by taking photos of the delegates. As you can see, everyone seems quite interested. Rule one of taking photos of crowds: even if it’s meant to be a photo of a crowd, focus on someone. This is Tatiana, from Brazil. There are good reasons to pick her as a focus: what a face!

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Jun 25 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The official (Russian) photographer

Monday 25th June 2012, 11.40am (day 305)

Photographer, 25/6/12

God, it feels so long since I have been doing this blog. Way back in September – though it feels much longer ago – I took a picture of ‘the official photographer’, on a day when he was taking photos of us, constantly, throughout a conference/seminar session. Today I got the chance to repeat the theme, quite exactly.

She is definitely cuter. And considerably more Russian. Whether she is a better photographer or not, I have no proof.

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Jun 20 2012
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger

Waiting for the train to Manchester

Wednesday 20th June 2012, 8.55am (day 300)

Commuter, 20/6/12

Which, of course, is something I do frequently: though not as often as some. Either the 0652, if I don’t have to take Joe to school, or the 0856, if I do. Today I did. It was a nice sunny morning, and though I got a couple of other decent pictures throughout the day, I’ll stick with this one: it’s nice to be on the way to work and still feel quite mellow about the day, and the shot captures that I think.

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Jun 14 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The Committee, Albert Square

Thursday 14th June 2012, 3.35pm (day 294)

The committee, 14/6/12

Full-on day of work today, both in Manchester during the first part of the day and in Hebden Bridge on into the evening. Very few chances to snatch photos of anything, and they were all snatched in transit from one meeting to the next. These guys were taking life rather easier than me today, but I still like the juxtaposition of their gathering with the sign in the windows of the Town Hall behind them.

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Jun 12 2012
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Spontaneity

Tuesday 12th June 2012, 9.20am (day 292)

Drew with shaved head, 12/6/12

Got bored today and shaved my head, well, a #1 clip anyway. I do this kind of spontaneous thing now and again. Ask my wife one day how I proposed to her.

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Jun 11 2012
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Ginger la Rouge

Sunday 10th June 2012, 10.45pm (day 290)

Ginger la Rouge, 10/6/12

Clare’s alter ego – whose identity, of course, I could not possibly reveal – was doing a burlesque show in Chester tonight, and I got to go along for a change. Here is another of the lovely performers (5 female, 1 male). I like taking pictures of people candidly – it helps you see what they really look like. I get the impression Ginger looks rather like this most of the time, in fact. (Even if her right leg does appear to be stood in a big glass. Perhaps I should have cropped that, but what the hell.)

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Jun 08 2012
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Joe makes a contribution

Friday June 8th 2012, 3.30pm (day 288)

Lego pirate, 8/6/12

After a busy week, today was dull, spent working at home while the rain came down outside. Later on, Joe observed that he never gets to decide my photo of the day. OK, mate: go ahead. Here is his choice. I love the pegleg on this Lego pirate; a neat touch.

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