Travel
I'm lucky enough to travel a lot but I also aim to understand a place in some depth. So I like to find out about the local history, sociology, wildlife and local arts. I prepare for a trip by looking up photos of the famous sights, they're usually a good guide both about the local visual interest and also a warning of what has already been done or over-done.
I try to use the tools of modern photojournalism and photography to communicate how I feel about a place. You’ll see that I have used Portrait, Street, Interior, Historical, Abstract, Landscape, Historical, Wildlife, Phone-camera and Selfie genres at different times for specific effects.
St. Tropez,“The pearl of the French Riviera” according to the musical “La Cage aux folles”, hosts its regatta at the end of September each year. Past years have seen profusions of Russian and Greek oligarchs and their muscle-bulging bodyguards; this year it seems to be the the Germans who have the most noticeable presence in port, including prominent marketing stands from German car manufacturers. Strangely. Volkswagen weren't evident, though I did see an open-topped Beetle. The usual smattering of chic Italian and French visitors.
Travels in the forgotten worlds of the Dévoluy massif and the Valgaudemar valley in the Écrins massif of the Alpes-de-Haut-Provence. The exotic sounding names of the areas continue with the names of the mountains, my photos show the sunset around L'Obiou and the glacier on the peak known as Le Sirac. Both driving tours from a hotel in Corps, on the well-known Route Napoléon.
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in Kent looking very much its summer best. The orchard, the gateway to the White Garden also the cottage garden and the hazel grove. The garden is the creation of author Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson to a layout designed by their friend Edmund Lutyens, is now open to the public and cared for by the National Trust.
Well worth even braving the south London traffic and also on this trip, we endured the traffic queues resulting from “Operation Stack M20”, the temporary lorry park on the M20 motorway due to the strikes at Calais.
See also Charleston Farmhouse, Sussex - June 2010
Dramatic sunset tonight viewed from flight BA 371 taking off from Marseille Provence airport at Marignane. The flight itinerary is peculiar at this time of the year in that the sunset appears to reverse as the plane flies roughly north-east, meaning the sun rises out of the sunset.
St. Tropez, now the village port where people come to be noticed. The trouble is that when everybody is a somebody then nobody is an anybody, or at least everybody who thinks they are somebody just because they are in St. Tropez at the end of a sunny Saturday afternoon in summer. So everybody has to try really hard to be noticed. Never mind the arms race in cars, yachts or wearable bling, it's fascinating how the pedestrians front out potential collisions on the narrow pavements. A not-bad dance troupe doing back-flips gets no attention whatsoever... And of course it's one of those places where the gendarmes (remember the 1964 comedy film with Louis de Funès: “The Gendarmes of St. Tropez”?) enforce a dress code that is quaintly body-fascist: you are much more likely to get asked to cover up if you are a) old or b) fat, especially b).
