Monthly Archives: November 2017

Photography and Painting

It is easy to take photographs, more difficult to paint or draw, according to Andrew Marr introducing his latest publication, A short book about painting, at Ely cathedral on 6th November.  Though this is a gross over simplification, I have … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Qal’at al Madiq

In September 2010 I was privileged to travel around Syria for two weeks.  What was an itinerary of beauty and delight – Damascus, Lattakia, Aleppo, Deir Ez-Zour, Palmyra – has become a litany of violence and cruelty.  How little we … Continue reading

Posted in Travels | Leave a comment

Rothschild Mynah

The Christmas Fair at Waddesdon yesterday was manic.  Away from the stalls selling things I didn’t want to buy, the Electric Menagerie by Lauren Booth floated through the gardens.  ‘Booth has interpreted the Rothschild Mynah as four neon sculptures installed … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

U3AC Photo Forum 5 – Post Processing

Using Lightroom, Photoshop and Silver Efx, just three of the wide range of packages available, Sue Fifer and Molly Warrington showed how easy post processing is in the digital age compared with the time of silver and chemical baths.  If … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge, U3AC Photography Courses | Leave a comment

Joan Leigh Fermor 1a

Joan Leigh Fermor has footnotes in the history of the 20th Century as the daughter of a rich and well-connected family, as a confidante of notable literary figures and as the wife of Patrick Leigh Fermor.  Her footnotes should also … Continue reading

Posted in Joan Leigh Fermor, The Mani | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fountain Pano Kardamyli

The fountain, just outside Pano Kardamyli under the vadia, supplied the village with water until the 1960s.  Now the water is just a trickle and birds and butterflies drink from pools that gather in the shadows.  An inscription in Greek … Continue reading

Posted in The Mani | Leave a comment

U3AC Photo Forum 5 – Travel

Alan Bird’s discursive 14 point introduction to travel photography: 1. Define; 2. History; 3. Key photographers; 4. Perspectives; 5. Own experiences; 6. Photographic equipment; 7. Luggage; 8. Security; 9. Travel logistics; 10. Risks; 11. Security; 12. Ethics; 13. Some of … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge, U3AC Photography Courses | Leave a comment

Fish

Benjamin Franklin, someone never short of a good quote, famously said that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.  When choosing fresh fish the advice is to: check the smell; test for taut flesh; and look for bright … Continue reading

Posted in Remains, The Mani | Leave a comment

Stone Eyes

Cultures through history have used the eye as a symbol of knowledge, providence, foresight, power and divine direction and protection.  The eyes as windows on the soul is a common idea. The spiritual associations move iconoclasts to behead statues; frescoe … Continue reading

Posted in The Mani | Leave a comment

Blue Rope and Red

‘“I am at war with the obvious,” William Eggleston has said, and he set out to prove it by showing the everyday and the ordinary is a startling new light.  More than any other photographer in recent years, Eggleston has … Continue reading

Posted in Blue Rope | Leave a comment

U3AC Photo Forum 4 – Landscapes

Mike Morrish started his class by saying that, for him, looking at a landscape and responding to it emotionally was more important than the photography.  Working through examples by Don McCullin, Colin Baxter, Ansel Adams, Charlie Waite and Fay Godwin, … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge, U3AC Photography Courses | Leave a comment

Sarah Wrench

I wonder when it was in Post War Britain that being born out of wedlock stopped being a great social stigma, the badge that gave a member of my family born during the First World War a miserable childhood and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

U3AC Photo Forum – Colour Photography

I included a photograph by William Eggleston in my history of photography in 20 photographs for the Forum – his 1976 exhibition at MoMA sanctioned colour photography as serious medium. Two members of the Forum drew our attention to earlier … Continue reading

Posted in U3AC Photography Courses | Leave a comment

The Guards Chapel

‘The Royal Military Chapel, St. James Park, known as the Guards Chapel, is the religious home of the Household Division at the Wellington Barracks in London. Constructed between 1839–40 in the style of a Grecian temple and restored in the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beechwoods – Waiting for snow?

Randy Pangborn commented on my post ‘Gunnar Ekelof in Hadstock’ (27th February 2015) and suggested I read Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.  He quoted the last verse: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge, Film, The Beechwoods | Leave a comment