Category: Photography

It’s always quite intriguing where conversations on social media end up. I posted a photo on Facebook of the view from my office at sunset last week, the sky was quite vivid and red and it was a nice shot. One friend, music PR and singer Jo Forrest, whom I first met when we recorded together at Abbey Road Studios years back (as part of one of The Really Big Chorus, TRBC, events with Karl Jenkins) said she loved the colours and thought it would make a nice top.

I sent her the original photo and she had it made up by one of those sites that prints photos on to teeshirts, leggings, bedspreads, mugs, and wallclocks etc. Works well…maybe I should take more sunset photos, the Society6 lets you produce duvet covers, shower curtains, iphone covers, scatter cushions and much more besides…

Photo of Jo was taken by Adam Forrest.

“My mum says I’m a butterfly as I’m drawn to bright colours,” Jo tells me, “so when I saw this picture on Facebook last week instantly fell in love with it. That’s the way I tend to clothes shop too, this photo was perfect for a top and printed and delivered within a couple of days.”

Currently underway is the demolition of the ancient residences of Via Riccardus Fillius on the site of what is now Newcastle University; known in the modern tongue as the Ricky Road flats. The department of archaeology has been on the site for several weeks and has so far unearthed at least 17 traffic cones, thought to be terracotta, although possibly a primitive polymer-fibreglass composite.

They have  also identified several fossilised cloak laboratorium, many of which still carry coinage, quills, spatulae and eyeware in frayed and stiffened pouches, or pockets. The sophisticaed chemical testing method of mass spectrometry has been used to identify the faint alchemical odour as being due to acetone and pyridine degradation products thought to have been used in pyrotechnic rituals. Atomic absorption spectromometry, AAS, has also identified traces of sodium known to have been present as flakes of desiccated sodium hydroxide used as a method of torture or in the emascalation of errant eunuchs.

The biology team, meanwhile, is busy extracting and sequencing DNA from fatty deposits (some containing lustrous red pigments) and foamlike fermentation residues from the rim and interior of pint potsherds originally used by Bacchus, circa AD 85 (AD 1985, that is).

We have attempted to contact one expert of the era a Professor(?) Smell(?) for comment on the legend of the so-called “Bridge Pool”, thought to be the site of at least one near-gladiatorial encounter that took place somewhere between Segedunum and the Priory at the mouth of the Tyn river (known in the modern era as Wallsend and Tynemouth). However, evidence from Stephanus Negotianis suggests that event most likely took place closer to one of the many viaducts or walksways used by merchants and centurians alike to cross the ancient water course. There were significant numbers of broken potsherds and slanderous graffiti enscribed on the stone walls of buildings identified as local hostelries as well as the interiors of ablution houses of the period that provide further evidence of this and related episodes.

Today’s Maltese memory brought to you by the letter V

Vacation, vacuum, vagina, vain, Valentino, Valium, vague, Valletta, vanity, Van Gogh, vanish, variation, V.A.T., Vatican, vasectomy, Vaseline, vegetarian, V-Day, velocity, venereal disease, vendetta, venial sin, venture, vent, ventilation, ventriloquist, Venus, veritas, vernacular, vermouth, versus, velvet, vermillion, vessel, Vesuvius, victim, V.I.P., vice versa, vicious circle, Vicky, victory, video, vino, violence, violin, virgin, virile, Virgin Mary, virtuoso, virtue, Viagra, vibration, vice, vicinity, vicious, viper, virus, visceral, vision, visitation, vitamin, V-sign, vixen, vocabulary, vocation, vociferate, vodka, voice, void, voluntary, volatile, volcano, volume, voluptuous, voltage, vomit, voracious, vote, voyage, voyeur, vulgar, vulva

Photographers’ rights in the UK*: Basically, you can photograph anyone or anything from a public place. Period. 6’19” in on the video.

Caveats: Photographing Ministry of Defence (MoD) property might sometimes be in breach of The Official Secrets Act, by which everyone is bound whether or not they have signed it. In this era of increased terrorist threat tension, you might also arouse police suspicion if you’re taking detailed photos of known sensitive sites or if you’re repeatedly photographing an individual and it seems like harassment.

But, the police do not have the right to stop you photographing and certainly no office building door staff can, if they try to and threaten you or try to take your camera, you could have them arrested for assault and attempted robbery.

Keep snapping!

*This is under the law of England and Wales, I assume it is valid in Scotland and Northern Ireland too, but there may be variations on the theme there.

Part of our recent wet-and-dry whirlwind tour of some interesting places in England took in the city of Lincoln, its cathedral, castle and the Poppies Wave installation, which has also been touring the country since its inauguration at the Tower of London in 2014 as Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.

It was a poignantly wet and grey day to photograph this memorial to the fallen of World War I, 100 years since the start of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916. Find out more about the installation here and see additional photos from my collection here.

A Virgin hot-air balloon was looming low over Cottenham, just North of Cambridge City on the evening of 22nd June. Drinkers enjoying the sun and the ale outside The Chequers pub were stunned to see the enormous inflatable bobbing low over houses opposite. The pilot seemed desperately trying to gain height and had the burner on full power.

The balloon eventually lifted up and floated a few metres above the sweetshop and Chinese takeaway opposite heading for the Community Centre and Co-op store on the dangerous dog leg in Cottenham’s long High Street. Fortunately, it was at an altitude of about 40 metres at this point, although it did not stay high for long.

With nowhere safe to land at this point in the village witnesses assumed that the pilot was desperately trying to navigate to a field or open country away from the houses.

“It literally skimmed a tree in my back garden! It was frighteningly low,” said Cottenham resident Sian Williams. “I could feel the heat from the flames in my bedroom. Is this allowed?” she asks.

“It was extremely low when it came over Rooks Street, another Cottenham resident and local businessman Chris Fryer said. “It cleared the houses but landed very shortly after. I’m no expert but it didn’t look deliberate.

The law is very strict on ballooning. Except with the written permission of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) an aircraft shall not be flown closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel vehicle or structure. “Virgin seems to have form in breaching the Air Navigation Order like this,” says Russ Swan who filmed a similar incident in 2010 that elicited an apology from Virgin on local BBC TV.

Experienced glider pilot David Allan told me that, “The only way they can get around this is in the case of an emergency landing (gliders and balloons have an exemption for field landings). If there was a problem the pilot should have set the ballon down before drifitng over a town – when there is nowhere to go.”

High Street balloon photo David Bradley. Balloon on Tree photo by Sian Williams