If it wasn’t for the distinctive topography of my home town, Hebden Bridge, I doubt I would have felt inspired enough to keep this blog going for 2,370 days. I do spend quite a bit of time here — some 40% of the shots are from HB. And, well, it does look rather good in the right light. I try to do it justice.
Richmond Street, Manchester. Overnight I have cogitated on a possible pithy commentary for this one and none springs to mind so let me allow the photo to stand on its own for a change…
2016’s last day was an enjoyable and sociable one, but these balloons were as near as I got to what might be called a ‘party’. But either way — hope you had a good evening, and a good 2016 as well. Personally, mine’s been up and down, and there hasn’t really been a ‘big event’ (like Kilimanjaro in 2015 or Australia 2013) to inspire me behind the camera. There are possibilities emerging for 2017 though. Favourite photo of the year? Probably the proud-looking frog in our garden on 30th June, because of its willingness to pose while I maneuvered the lens two inches from its nose. Happy New Year.
I said I was due a holiday, and so it began today: a 4.15am alarm call was the only downside. But here we are in Lisbon, Portugal — this blog’s 25th different country. Not a new one for me, I spent quite a lot of time here in 1990-91 when I had a Portuguese girlfriend for a little while (an experience I recommend if you get the chance…), but very little since. So it’s nice to revisit it. Today was just a settling in, but you’ll be seeing plenty more of it over the next few days, I guarantee it.
Sometimes you don’t even realise you’ve got the shot until it’s been sitting on your camera all day then you upload it. This was just a general scene but once I saw how glorious her hair was she became its obvious subject. Had to crop it down a lot, hence its loss of sharpness and increased grain — but that’s then helped by going monochrome.
I wasn’t taking a photo of this guy, but just of the scene. He then stopped walking, turned straight into the shot and lit his cigarette. Sometimes it just works out.
There’s a lot of junk in this street scene isn’t there? Well, as I said a few days ago, the whole of Manchester city centre is littered with junk and building debris at the moment. Two days in a row in Manchester for the first time in two months — which I guess is as good a sign of impending autumn as anything.
Just another one of those corners that pop up at the periphery of my life. I had very little time as I half-ran back through Manchester today, to catch the best train home, but I did pause along the way to catch this shot. It’s not of anything in particular, it’s just a combination of cloud and architecture and light that I like.
