Photos
Conkered
It was just laying there, on the patch from the car park, as I made my way to work this morning. How could I not photograph it?
Walking in the Cairngorms, March 1989
Back in my final year of school, a group of friends invited me on an Easter holiday with them. It wasn't expensive; we took the train from central Scotland, where we lived, up to Aviemore, and then stayed in a youth hostel for the week. We cooked ourselves dinner, and entertained ourselves by spending our days walking through the Cairngorms, stunning mountains in the Highlands.
I was 17, and this was my first real holiday with friends, and I loved it. After a small accident, involving ice, gloves, my face and a swinging frame in a children's adventure park, I had a blast. I had experiences that week I have never repeated since:
- being caught in a whiteout, and then finding our way to a nearby bothy to shelter, by holding on to each other's backpacks.
- going from snowy winter to glorious spring simply by heading down from the mountains to the valleys between
- being so tired at the end of the day that sleeping in the communal bunkrooms was easy
It would be four years before I would go away on holiday with friends like that again, but this really felt like the first big step towards independent adulthood that would continue six months later when I left for university in London. Sadly, I'm no longer in contact with the four other people who were on the trip with me - Daniel, Phylida, Claire and Katy - but scanning my way through the transparencies I shot that week reminded me of what a great, life-shaping week that was.
The whole set's below:
Adur, Evening
You know, I could just get used to living here…
Tech, 1988 Style
This is my computer desk from the late 80s - probably '88 or '89. Yes, that's a portable TV it's connected to. And yes, that's a tape deck for loading programs…
RevStan might live to note the RSC production poster just visible in the top left of the picture. And yes, there's a hairdryer by the mirror. It was the 80s, I was a teenager. You blowdried.
Just noticed - two toy Daleks by the "monitor". WIN.
This Week in iPhone Pictures: 12th September 2010
Let's be honest. I rarely go anywhere without my iPhone. And, on occasion, I'm so taken by something that I grab a photo and upload it straight to Flickr. And for the last four days, I've done that consistently. Now, the challenge I'm setting myself is to try to do that every day from now on, aggregating them all here every Sunday. Here's the first four days' worth:
This is the pic that started it - it was such a lovely morning that I couldn't resist grabbing a pic as I got in my car.
Changing at London Bridge, on my way to a meeting on Friday, I loved this view of the under-construction Shard.
A dummy on a stall in St Nicholas' Market made for a striking shot on Saturday.
And a rose in my mother-in-law's garden caught my eye on a lazy Sunday.
Abandoned Guardian
While walking down Shoreham Beach yesterday afternoon, we came across a Guardian that appeared to have been abandoned on a bench, and so was blowing around the beach in pieces:
We reassembled it, and left it held down by stones, in case the owner came back. But we didn't take it.
There's probably an extended metaphor for the future of print newspapers here, but I really can't be bothered to find it. ;-)
Covent Garden Candids
I used to do a lot of wandering around, just snapping pictures of life. I'm trying to get back into the swing of it:
Study's End
The study I've used for the last 12 years or so is dismembered, ready to be turned into a bedroom when we put the flat on the market. An awful lot of words were written in here.
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Lucifer VI
Flash: Off
Film: Blanko
Das Potato
An image shot for a student magazine project, back in the early 90s. That's me on the left, oppressing the heroic potato revolutionary, and against the bleak East European vistas of… Hyde Park.
Student journalism was a lot of fun.
When Lunch Goes Bad
Anyone who knows anything about Twitter knows that it's all about what people had for their lunch. I eschew such conventional wisdom. I blog about my lunch instead, as I am defiantly old skool in social media. And this was my lunch yesterday:
Can you spot my schoolboy error?
Yes, in the absence of anyone to share lunch with in the fine QH canteen, I opted for lunch al desko, and the poor plastic fork just wasn't up to the job of holding the pork fillet in place. Note to self: just eat in the canteen anyway, and save the environment the cost of the stupid plastic containers and cutlery.
Scenes from Southwold
Had a single day off yesterday, and spent it in Suffolk, for various reasons. Here are a few captures from an afternoon by the sea:
A View From Childhood
This was the view from our back garden in Dollar, around 1987 - September or October, I'd guess. I can't claim any credit for the photo, as it was Mum's work.
I could have shared a photo of my brother in a very mid-80s Miami Vice-style outfit.
But any jury in the country would acquit him of my murder if I did so…
80s Brothers
I'm spending some time scanning my way through a big bag of negatives, and this morning I was working on a film from the early to mis-80s. This is my brother, on holiday, in very 80s mirror shades - with me very clearly reflected in them.
I'd have been pleased to have taken this shot today, let alone 25 years ago.
