Category Archives: Portrait

Self-portrait, BOBCATSSS conference

Tuesday 24th January 2012, 11.05am (day 152)

Self portrait, BOBCATSSS, 24/1/12

We were so close to getting some attractive but stereotypical shot of the canals this morning and probably that one will make the ‘Best of the Rest’ files at some later date. But in the end this one wins because it amuses me, and it amuses me because it’s not staged or altered in any way: the words are written in marker pen on the whiteboard behind me and yes, I took it myself and no, I actually wasn’t pulling a face. Apparently, that’s what I really look like.

I promise, some canals tomorrow. Or Thursday morning.

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Movie Premiere, Amsterdam

Monday 23rd January 2012, 7.40pm (day 151)

Movie premiere, 23/1/12

What a terribly glamorous life I must lead, right? Actually, no. I did shuttle over to Amsterdam this morning (one of the world’s great cities – visit, if you never have), but that was for a boring old academic conference. On my way back to the hotel this evening I passed what was clearly a movie premiere and just inserted myself among the paparazzi for a few moments to see what I could get.

Why are people so obsessed with celebrities by the way? I mean here not as actors (see ‘Tom Baker’, two days ago – which I accept is a case for the prosecution), but as ‘personalities’? I don’t understand it. If people are good at acting, fine, admire them for that, but then again there are people who are good at nursing, at controlling air traffic, etc. They don’t get cameras shoved up their arse on a regular basis.

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Tom Baker

Saturday 21st January 2012, 2.20pm (day 149)

Tom Baker, 21/1/12

First day at home after 8 on the move, and so profoundly inactive (and light-free) that I was reduced to taking pictures of the DVDs I was watching.

Still, this shot is meaningful to me: like most British kids my age, I accord Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who near-divine status. I could claim that I was watching ‘The Deadly Assassin’ DVD today because of Joe, who does like the programme, but actually, he was out at a friend’s. I feel no shame.

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Waiting to board, Bergen airport

Thursday 19th January 2012, 1.20pm (day 147)

Waiting to board, 19/1/12

I know how you feel, love.

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The saddle of Blencathra

Saturday 14th January 2012, 12.05pm (day 142)

Clare and Joe on Blencathra, 14/1/12_low-res

Taken at about 2,800 feet up. (You want that in metres – work it out!) I was very proud of Joe for having got up his first really substantial mountain. I also note, on this shot, quite how tall he is getting.

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Self-portrait in kitchen

Sunday 8th January 2012, 3.35pm (day 136)

Kitchen selfie, 8/1/12

I am on there, you just might have to look for me for a couple of seconds.

The contents of the saucepan eventually became a very nice plum & blackcurrant sorbet, by the way.

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Joe, spaceship pilot

Saturday 7th January 2012, 3.00pm (day 135)

Joe in Eureka, 7/1/12

Eureka! (and don’t forget that exclamation mark) is a kind of kid-oriented, interactive mini-science museum in Halifax, just down the road. It overcharges you for entry and then feels guilty, so turns your ticket into an ‘annual pass’. But I suppose there are enough things to keep someone like Joe busy on more than one visit and he is, after all, the target audience. Me, I just take photos these days.

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Clare at the Centre of Britain

Tuesday 27th December 2011, 2.55pm (day 124)

Dunsop Bridge, 27/12/11

Drove home today via the scenic route, and took some landscape shots I’m quite pleased with (two others have already made it onto my other photography sites – see the links at the very bottom of the home page).

However, this picture is more fun. Said scenic route from Morecambe to Hebden Bridge takes us through the remote (well, remote for England) Forest of Bowland and through the little village of Dunsop Bridge. According to the nice people at the Ordnance Survey, Dunsop Bridge’s telephone box is the exact geographical centre of Great Britain. So here we are at the centre of the country.

No one seems exactly sure how this is measured, however. Is it just the island of Great Britain? Or do you count all the satellites, like the Shetlands? Or is it the UK, which should therefore include Northern Ireland?

Let’s not worry about it. Few people seem to, anyway. The box is in a bit of a neglected state to tell the truth, I don’t think BT are really that bothered about it. I doubt anyone actually makes calls from here.

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Matchday hospitality, the Globe Arena

Monday 26th December 2011, 2.00pm (day 123)

Matchday hospitality, 26/12/11

I’ve never heard a satisfactory explanation for why we call it Boxing Day. Whatever it means historically, these days it usually means, for me, attending a football match if there’s one in the vicinity. Today therefore becomes the Globe Arena’s second appearance on this site (after September 23rd). We did this one rather differently, however; our Christmas present for Carol & Dave, our in-laws, was to sample the full matchday hospitality package, with dinner in the suite under the main stand. Interesting experience.

This lady appears today for no other reason than I think she looks good in this photo. She becomes, begging her pardon, the oldest person so far on this blog.

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Joe tries out his Christmas present

Sunday 25th December 2011, 12.15pm (day 122)

Joe the photographer, 25/12/11

Hard to know quite how to encapsulate a day like Christmas without cliché. But here is Joe using one of his Christmas presents…. a chip off the old block? Who knows?

The game, by the way, is mölkky, a version of skittles for which I developed a liking in Finland last midsummer. Very tactical. Worth a try, if you have a piece of flat land about half the size of a tennis court to play it on.

Also, today is the end of the 4th month of this blog. I feel like I have been doing it forever. Actually I have twice as much left as I have already done.

And a happy Christmas to you all….

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