Sunday 29th September 2024, 12.40pm (day 4,784)

This is definitely my street. You are just passing. I will allow you to take the photograph but after that I dismiss you totally.

This is definitely my street. You are just passing. I will allow you to take the photograph but after that I dismiss you totally.

Brighouse is modest enough, having never given anything of huge significance to the world (except what is reputed to be one of the world’s best brass bands). But it’s an OK place generally, and to look at. Magnificent? Well…. maybe, in a modest sort of way.

Those of us who drink in particular pubs regularly may or may not have A Spot. I wouldn’t say I do, even in the Railway. I have been found in most of its corners, at one time or another. But Tony is someone who has A Spot, and here he is, in it. If he sat somewhere else we might not recognise him.

For the first time since 13th December last year — I give a lecture in Manchester. Most of the recipients look happy enough at this point (perhaps because I wasn’t talking).

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.

My mediocre kit is never going to take crystal clear photos in very low light, even if I do crank the ISO setting up to 1600 or whatever. But here, the lack of clarity is just the point. Surely the gentleman to the left is about to emerge from some horrible transformation and begin consuming human flesh. Although in the end, he recovered, and we all got on with watching the evening’s entertainment (Tom McRae, as it happened).

Back home: from Berlin on a Sunday morning to Hebden Bridge on a Monday one. At least I got out of the house today. This is a standard shot but the comparative lack of traffic was appealing. The sign to top left, less so, but I tried to make it look less obtrusive.

This being one of the world’s great party cities, I am sure there were a reasonable number of Berliners who were comfortably still on their Saturday night out at 7.35am: but I will never be a person like that again. Personally, I was on the way to the airport. It’s been a good and potentially transfomative trip.

Took myself on a day out into the countryside, specifically to the little town of Lübben, which lies about an hour’s train journey south of Berlin, further up the River Spree. Here, the river breaks into a series of creeks and canals, on which, today, a substantial number of tourists were floating around in either a self-propelled manner or on Venice-style gondolas, only piloted by gruff-looking East German types. But let’s go with this person-free shot, instead. One has to be pleased with the colour contrast here.

Formally this used to be the “Research Institute for Experimental Medicine”, which I am sure is quite as sinister as it sounds, so its being more popularly known as “The Mouse Bunker” does show that Germans indeed possess a sense of irony. It’s a masterpiece of brutalism, anyway, of which no one picture can do justice but you’ll get a better impression looking it up online. It’d be nice if the white ball of the street lamp wasn’t there, but otherwise, the light will certainly do.