Gibraltar, 1969

Shot on an Olympus Trip 35mm film camera. I bought it in Gibraltar while working there during an attempt to see the world. I could only afford black and white film at the time. Since then I have never been anywhere without a camera.

King Edward I, Pilning, Gloucestershire.

As with many enthusiasts in their early days of photography I used black and white film and set up a small darkroom where I developed and printed my own photographs. I was never a train spotter but steam trains are a great subject for black and white photography. This is the King Edward I passing through Pilning, Gloucestershire.
Canon AE1, 28mm lens. DIY black and white film.

Shuttle

I read that the Space Shuttle was being taken to the 1983 Paris Air Show and that the Boeing 747 transporter was to be refueled at Fairford, Gloucestershire, so off I went.
Hundreds of others had the same idea but the American air force was ready for us. They waved us straight into the base and got us quickly parked up. We were allowed close to the runway.
I photographed the landing and later, the take off. Canon AE1, 135mm lens.

Concorde

Concorde was making a visit to Filton, Bristol, but I was late and missed the landing. At the western end of the runway a large crowd of photographers were waiting for the take off, which was to be in that direction later in the day. I decided to go to other end of the runway. When I got there I was almost alone. Later, when Concorde taxied out towards me before turning to take off I took this photograph. As it was taxying a small plane came out behind it and took off first. Canon SLR. Lens not known.

Comet Hale Bopp 1997

Easily bright enough to see with the naked eye and bright enough to overcome the glow of Bristol in the far distance. I photographed the comet over several nights. ISO 100 black and white film. Canon SLR, 50mm f1.4 lens, 20 seconds exposure.

Swans at the bottom of the garden

We once lived on an Island in the River Avon near Bath, where we had a variety of wildlife living on our river banks and in our garden. This pair of mute swans nested on the island for several years and raised many cygnets there. Here they are being amorous, momentarily lit by a shaft of sunlight cutting through the heavy shade of trees behind them. Canon SLR, Agfa CT100 slide film.

Concorde

When we lived near Bath I would often watch Concorde flying high overhead, as it did every afternoon on its way back from America. It was just a tiny white dot in the sky but it had its own distinctive sound. On a sunny day I would sometimes lie on the lawn and watch it crossing the sky. I have quite a few photos of Concorde but this simple image is one of my favourites. Canon SLR and telephoto lens, Agfa CT100 slide film.

The Olgas Northern Territory, Australia.

We went to Uluru (Ayres Rock) early one morning to photograph the sunrise that turns the famous rock even more red than it is normally. There were far more people already there than I had expected. There was a line of people climbing up the rock. We watched as ladies in totally inappropriate footwear were trying to haul themselves up the single chain that was strung between posts on the steep surface. Those who had failed were trying to descend again on the same chain and many were descending in a sitting position. I didn't want lots of people in my pictures, just one or two perhaps to give some perspective to the huge monolith, so we decided to drive to the Olgas where there is a larger but broken outcrop of the same red rock. This was some distance away so by the time we got there then sun had already risen. I stopped and took this shot as we approached. When we arrived there was no one else around. We had the place to ourselves. Canon A1. Agfa CT100 film.

Bankok, Thailand.

There is so much to photograph in Bankok, but I chose this one as my favourite. It shows a tiny tug boat hauling two massive barges along a shack-lined waterfront with the city's modern centre in the background. Canon A1. 200mm lens, Agfa CT100 film.

Total eclipse of the Sun, Cornwall, 1999

I unexpectedly got a last minute seat on a plane that was due to fly along the south coast of Cornwall and into the path of the umbral shadow. Being unprepared for this I had to improvise with what I had. I used my Canon F1n, a 200mm f2.8 lens and a polarising filer. I fitted the filter in the hope that it might reduce the glare, stopped the lens right down, set a high shutter speed and removed the AE prism.
I watched using solar glasses until the point of totality then pointed the camera up through the plane's window and looking down at the focusing screen, Fired off about ten shots at a variety of shutter speeds before the reappearing sun got too bright. The camera was unharmed but when the slides came back the film had been slightly buckled by the heat of the reappearing sun. I only got one good image. Canon F1n, Agfa CT100 film. This method is definitely NOT recommended.

Bodie, California.

Bodie is an abandoned mining town, littered with buildings and rusty mining machinery. It is in a state of "arrested decay", meaning that it is being preserved but not being restored. It was a very hot and very bright day. I had been taking photographs of the dim and dusty interiors of some of the buildings and had set my camera to two stops overexposure but had forgotten to reset it afterwards. Some of the resulting photos were completely washed out with no hope of reclaiming any detail. But in some shots the overexposure actually helped to show how blindingly bright the sun really was on that day. Canon F1n. Agfa CT100 film.

Badwater, Death Valley, California.

I walked out onto the vast dazzlingly white salt flats in the stifling heat to take photographs. There is something about desolate places like this that intrigues me, but I didn't stay out too long. My wife stayed back in the car. Air con is essential here. Canon F1n. 20mm lens. Agfa CT100 film.

Death Valley, California.

I was fascinated by the salt flats but I was also fascinated by these massive valley walls and their bands of coloured rock. Canon F1n. Agfa CT100 film.

Bryce Canyon - Utah.

The mighty Grand Canyon was truly awesome, as the Americans say, but I was similarly impressed the smaller Bryce Canyon with it's spectacular basin filled with towers and buttresses of red, orange and white rock. This photograph was taken at sunrise. Canon F1n, 20mm lens, Agfa CT100 film.

Arriving at South Georgia

Most had gone below to eat but a few of us stayed on deck waiting to get a first glimpse of the island. It came into view just as the sun began go down so we were treated to this spectacular sunset. It was worth missing dinner for. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 220mm.

Iceberg

I took hundreds of photographs of icebergs in the seas around Antarctica but although it was by no means the largest, this 'floating mountain' was my favourite. This is only the one-tenth of it above the waterline. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 300mm.

Arriving at Antarctica

I photographed this crew member out in a zodiac while we were getting ready to leave the ship. When we set out in our zodiac it seemed to take ages to get to the shore. We found that everything was larger and much farther away then we had realised. The air was so clear that it had made everything seem much closer. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 70mm.

Adeli Penguins, Antarctica

I'm not used to being able to photograph wild animals so easily. They just ignored me, even though I was dressed in a huge bright-red anorak.

Elephant seal, St Georges Island, Antarctica.

Sleepy female resting her head on a comfortable rock. The debris scattered all around the beach are the remains of patches of skin shed during the last moult. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 270mm.

Dormouse

One spring while clearing a pile of leaves in the garden we found a hibernating dormouse. I carefully put it into an old bird box with some dry leaves. I took some photographs of it before covering it with more leaves and leaving it in a quiet spot. Nikon P300 compact.

The beach at Dungeness

Because the sea had retreated so much over the years the beach is now vast. It was a long way to the sea's edge so this walkway made the trek much easier. It can be bleak but photographers love it for that reason. Nikon D70, 10.5mm lens.

Milky Way. West Bay, Dorset.

Dark skies are getting hard to find due to the number of well lit towns and Cities. Photographing the night sky can be easier if you live on the coast. Fujifilm X-T3, 10-24mm lens at 10mm, 30 seconds exposure. The two streaks were made by a plane and a satellite.

Feeding Frenzy

The shutter speed used to take this picture of a gang of long tailed tits at a bird-feeder in our garden was much too slow to show any detail but I think that it really shows the feeding frenzy that the birds were in. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 300mm.

Bird-feeder

I was about to take a photograph of some small birds on our bird-feeder when suddenly they were gone. They were instantly replaced by this sparrow hawk, obviously after some lunch. Well - it is bird-feeder. Nikon D70, 70-300mm lens at 200mm

Hartland Quay

Hartland, North Devon. Right next to the old slipway at the Hartland Quay Hotel (and the Wrecker's Retreat bar) is a cove whose rock-strewn beach and weather-blasted cliffs are subjected to the full force of the rain, wind and Atlantic waves and where the effect of huge geological upheavals can be seen in the folded layers of rock. Fuji X100T.

The Venetian Lagoon, Italy

The huge lagoon surrounding Venice is very busy in places. We spent a week or so exploring it by boat. One morning we headed for quieter parts. The lagoon is very shallow and the wooden poles, called briccole, mark the edges of the navigable channels. Nikon P300 compact.

Watermouth Bay

We stopped for a few days in our motorhome at a site at Watermouth Bay, North Devon. I walked out along the promontory and found a ruined watch-tower overlooking the sea. Fuji X-Pro2 + 18-55mm at 30mm.

Very heavy rust

Hurst Castle near Milford-On-Sea, Hampshire. Standing at the end of a long spit of land that juts out into the Solent are the remains of a fortification originally built in the time of Henry the Eighth to defend against invasion by the French and the Holy Roman Empire. It was also made ready for use again during the first and second world wars. This is one of the massive gun ports that guarded England.

Scotland

A trip to Scotland in September turned out to be rather wet but I managed to do a little walking around Glencoe. This is Lock Linnhe on the road to Oban during a brief appearance of the sun. Fuji X-Pro2 + 10-24mm at 20mm.

Sun halo - 18 May 2020

I was digging up part of the lawn and we were replacing it with a shrubbery as part of our CV-19 lockdown-induced garden improvements. It was a hot afternoon and at about 4pm we stopped for a break. As my wife settled back in her garden seat she looked up and spotted what she called "a sort of rainbow" near the sun. It was a rare phenomenon called a Sun Halo. I used a camera with a wide angle lens to capture it. I sent a copy to the BBC and it was shown on the BBC News South-West weather forecast that evening. Fujifilm X-T3 + 10-24mm lens at 10mm.

Lightning and stars

When I hear thunder I usually grab a suitable camera and lens and try to catch a flash of lightning. On this occasion I was able to include a few stars in the photo too.

Concrete ears, Dungeness.

Built in the 1920s-1930s before the invention of radar. These three large concrete reflectors were designed to listen for the faint sound of approaching enemy aircraft.

Rainbow

I've seen a few good rainbows but this is the best complete one I have managed to photograph so far. Cropped from a photo taken with a 10.5mm lens.

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

'The city at the end of the world' at the tip of South America. The air is so clear that the distant mountains don't look real.

West Bay, Dorset. Stormy sea on a sunny day

Snowdon

It's now called Yr Wyddfa. View from the top on a clear day. Not everyone gets to see the view this clearly.