I must admit that I thought Hamburg would be a rather modern and industrial kind of place. Actually it’s a very attractive city, plenty of old buildings and lots of green space. We walked every day through this park, called Planten un Blomen. My real target in this picture was the dog, but as I took the shot the girl turned round, the runner came past, and I think they all make a nice little set.
It’s been raining again. Perhaps it’s not a blip, maybe that’s the end of the whole hot weather thing. Still, we’ve all got to get out of the house when we can. You didn’t want a photo of my laptop now, did you.
Clare was one of approximately 1,600 women running this race today, the majority in the regulation pink, raising money to fight all kinds of cancer. I don’t normally do advertising on the blog but this time I feel obliged to mention that you can sponsor her (and by implication, the 1,599 other women running today, including the ones I have pictured) at http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/the-railway. Every little helps…
It was on this weekend last year that the summer in Hebden Bridge took a decided turn for the worse. The evening of 22/6/12 saw the first of two floods hit the town centre, an event which appeared on this blog only the following morning. The 2012 Handmade Parade did take place, albeit a week later than originally scheduled and produced this picture — that event becoming a kind of gesture of defiance in the face of the damage the town had suffered (though if it was a plea for mercy it was not answered; there was still 9th July to come, but more on that in two weeks’ time). The 2013 Parade could run as planned and became an anniversary celebration, the town still getting together in an amazing burst of creativity that impresses me each year, though I’ll never be part of it; I like photographing it too much.
Seven days in a row at home now — I mean without leaving at all, even for work — and no nights away planned until well into July. This is unusual for me. I need to look around, reconnect.
Gosh, here I am in an airport, that hasn’t happened much this year has it (sarcasm warning). Sat out a half-hour flight delay at Oslo airport (which doesn’t seem to be particularly near Oslo) by watching others watching Norway v Italy in the UEFA Under-21 championship: final score 1-1, if you’re interested. Slightly strange light on the guys in the middle but I like the shot anyway, it was taken very candidly and quickly so you never quite know how they’re going to turn out.
The title of this post is used with a mild sense of irony. Because of the role this airport wants to play — a bridge between Europe and East Asia/Australia as well as a destination in its own right — many of the flights seem to land and leave here between midnight and 3am, to fit in with flight schedules to and from countries that have stricter controls on when planes can come in and out. As a result, Abu Dhabi airport was as busy at 1am as anywhere I’ve ever been. I didn’t deliberately get a shot of these two, but was taking something of the decorative pillar in the center of Terminal 1 — as many other people were doing to pass the time — as she turned around. Cropping did the rest, it’s a bit out-of-focus but never mind, I quite like this shot.
And so, thanks to a three-hour stopover, another country, the United Arab Emirates, technically makes it onto the blog, though I don’t consider I visited the place. However, I think this shot is a little more representative than the dull one, technically of Singapore, that I got on the stopover during my flight out just over four months ago. This shot also becomes the earliest on any of the 641 days so far, and one of only four taken before 6am.
The boat that took us to the village trip a couple of days ago also serves as a kind of bus service between the two villages on the island of Wayasewa, this little girl was amusing herself while waiting for it to depart this afternoon. My last full day in Fiji, and only three more left in the Southern Hemisphere before I head for home.
Is there any point trying to convince any of you that I have actually been working while here on the Yasawas? Going through academic papers and taking notes for my book? No? Didn’t think so.
Almost all the sunsets on Fiji have been good, but seeing as I have a backlog of posts to work through I can pick the best depiction of one and not worry about repetition. Sometimes one is just in the right place at the right time to get a particular shot.
Being 42 