Category Archives: Stranger

Feb 24 2025
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Silhouette

Sunday 23rd February 2025, 3.30pm (day 4,931)

Silhouette, 23/2/25

While we have been teaching in one half of the hotel’s ‘business centre’, the other has been occupied by a large number of extremely attractive models of both sexes, getting ready for the fashion show that occupied the ballroom this afternoon — a specifically Russian event, it seems. I think if I possessed this woman’s shape, not to mention her ability to support her posture on what looks like two narrow pencils, I’d probably become a model too. The guy on the right isn’t badly sculpted either.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 16 2025
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The Standard guys

Thursday 16th January 2025, 3.20pm (day 4,893)

In the Standard, 16/1/25

I’ve been here before — not just in life, but on the blog, with this picture, taken on my first trip to St Helena. That one is also in black-and-white, and today that aesthetic move relieves some of the more garish colouring, particularly of the Hawaiian shirt of the guy on the left. Who, by the way, keeps saying hello to me as if he’s never met me before, whereas in the past we’ve had numerous conversations. But perhaps I am just forgettable, in a way that he is not.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 09 2025
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Sport, Stranger

Cape Town stadium

Wednesday 8th January 2025, 8.45pm (day 4,885)

Cape Town FC, 8/1/25

I try not to put too many football pictures up here but I do like this one, simply because of her face, and the general contrast with the rest of the scene. And it does epitomise the day, with me not having arrived in the city until noon, local time. Either way, the match (Cape Town City v Orlando Pirates) and the general experience were very fine: a great introduction to the country.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Dec 30 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Half-time feelings

Sunday 29th December 2024, 3.50pm (day 4,875)

Morecambe fan, 29/12/24

After the interest and congeniality of Padiham the day before, Salford City v Morecambe, my last football match of 2024 was one of the worst of the lot, a truly dire game in a characterless metal box. The general demeanour of this gentleman, captured at half-time, sums it up. Time to move on — though for Morecambe this movement increasingly looks like it will be downward again, and back out of the League at some point in the spring. Perhaps I’m wrong, but you didn’t see them play today.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Dec 25 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger, Transport

Tractor run

Tuesday 24th December 2024, 6.50pm (day 4,870)

Tractor run, 24/12/24

Attempts to create a new tradition by running a bunch of tractors and trucks, decorated in lights, through the centre of Hebden Bridge on 24th December were greeted by this photographer as an opportunity to depict something different on the 14th Christmas Eve to grace these virtual pages. Did he (I) really see the point, though? Well, not really. But it did draw a reasonably sized crowd.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Dec 11 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger, Transport

How we feel about the trains

Wednesday 11th December 2024, 2.40pm (day 4,857)

Train delay, 11/12/24

Christ Almighty you have no idea about the shite that is the local train service. Don’t think that the one you see here is pictired trundling happily onto the platform — instead it is hanging there, just for arbitrary reasons. Not only that, but it’s the first train out of Hebden into Manchester for some hours. The giuy’s face says it all. In the end I didn’t even bother.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Nov 30 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger

Friday market (not ‘Black’)

Friday 29th November 2024, 4.10pm (day 4,845)

Friday market, 29/11/24

Another day spent almost entirely in my office at home, working, and not emerging until after the sunlight was mostly gone. The Friday market in town was still open at this point, though only just, and I’m sure this guy is considering packing up his clocks and jewellry and calling it a day.

I go monochrome here simply because it feels right for the shot and it stops the bright green stripes at the top dominating it. It is not a ‘Black Friday’ reference. I hate that bollocks, in fact: especially because, as various recent conversations about this marketing wheeze have proven, virtually no one in the UK — consumers, retailers, the media, anyone — actually understands the derivation of the term. Be honest — do you know where it comes from? (American readers don’t get to answer this.)

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Nov 13 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Retouching the bees

Tuesday 12th November 2024, 9.15am (day 4,828)

Retouching bollards, 12/11/24

This scene has been seen a few times in Manchester city centre recently. All the bollards you see here are decorated with little golden bees, the bee having been adopted (I think fairly recently) as the symbol of the city. And it’s some bloke’s responsibility to go round and repaint them now and again. Actually I think they’re doing a pretty good job, but it must be hard on the knees.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Nov 05 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Inspecting the manuscripts

Monday 4th November 2024, 2.00pm (day 4,820)

Rylands manuscripts, 4/11/24

Another one of my Palaeography classes in the John Rylands Library. We have moved from Hogwarts (the old reading room) upstairs and into the new seminar room, with tape still on the windows. Checking out the manuscripts themselves is always the best bit, and they need to be ready, and cared for — would that students got to sit on such comfortable-looking cushions.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Sep 25 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

High-contrast gear

Wednesday 25th September 2024, 10.35am (day 4,780)

On King Street, 25/9/24

One of the rare cases where I tag a photo as ‘black and white‘ but not ‘monochrome‘. I like the generally muted tones of the shot but the high contrast of the dress makes it stand out. And not just for that reason, either. Whatever she’s getting ready for, I hope it’s important.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →