Category Archives: Photography

7th March picture of the day…

07 Sunday Mar 2021

Posted by in Bali, Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Well, that was a week I’m not unhappy to see the back of! Hopefully this next one will be rather calmer and more productive, there’s certainly a lot to look forward to anyway so I’m going to remain positive and optimistic whilst taking one day at a time.

I’m not going to bore you with a blog about the minutiae of life as there would be plenty of minutiae to bore you with! Instead, I’m going to go to the picture of the day, which has been chosen from some of the few slides I had time to scan today. It’s the end of an album, so you won’t be seeing any more like it for a while as its partner and next in the series is further down in the queue.

I took this shot in the town of Ubud on the isle of Bali, Indonesia in December 1994.

One of the many cultural delights of the island is going to see some of the variety of Balinese dance performances that you can witness at hotels, temples or theatres. This particular location is the Ubud Palace which provides an excellent backdrop for the dancers. It’s also right in the centre of town, which makes it very easy to get to. The dances vary from solo to mass performances, all of which are accompanied by a live Gamelan orchestra. The movements of the dancers are extremely stylized and choreographed, plus – they take years to learn. Many Western tourists don’t appreciate the art or understand the messages the dances convey and just enjoy the spectacle – which is OK as it helps fund these dance troupes and keep the traditions alive. I’ve always been impressed with the way the Balinese have managed to (mostly) make foreign tourism work for them without it subsuming their unique culture. I’ve many more pictures to add from Indonesia but the next batch will be from a country that’s culturally very different but that has some stunning scenery. Personally (out of the two) I know whose food I’d prefer, but I won’t knock some of the American national parks!

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

6th March picture of the day…

06 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by in London, Photography, Photojournalism, Picture of the day

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Life’s slowly returning to normal for now as (despite his age) our cat shows a stubborn resistance to the idea of dying. The old bugger’s scared the life out of us this week but we’re so knackered by it all we’ve decided the only thing we can do is give him all the love and attention we can whilst starting to think this was a clever ploy on his part just to become the centre of attraction even more than usual! Poor Dawn’s been kept busy trying to find different foods just to attract his appetite and get him to eat, which could be part of his plan…

Moggie maintenance has taken up most of our week so I’m looking forward to getting back to a less fractured routine and chance for more exercise and less stress – especially as the weather’s slowly warming up and the days are getting longer. With a bit of luck I might even be able to dust down the camera and document the present besides scanning the past…

Talking of the past, here’s the picture of the day. I’ve not sorted and slides this weekend so this is one from the last batch. I’ve been posting pictures from all sorts of exotic locations but this is one that used to be close to home. I took this shot at Columbia Rd flower market in London’s East End on the 12th March 1994 which was when I still lived in the East End. Lynn and I used to cycle over to the market from my flat in Bromley-by-Bow to pick up plants to decorate the communal balcony outside our homes. Columbia Rd was a brilliant place to while away a few hours of a Sunday morning, buying plants from the street stalls or drinking coffee outside a cafe whilst people watching and grabbing pictures like this.

I do miss it. Going to local garden centres here in West Yorkshire just can’t compete!

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Thank you!

5th March picture of the day…

05 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Not exactly a vintage end to a vintage week…

To say this week’s been stressful would be an understatement. We’ve been back and forth to the vets with Jet, our aged moggie. The old boy’s nineteen and a half and his health’s taken a turn for the worse. At one point we had visions of being on a one-way trip to the vets but the old bugger’s bounced back again! We’re fearful we could lose him anytime has he’s indifferent when it comes to eating but he doesn’t seem to be in any pain. The vets can’t find anything wrong with him other than weight loss and the passing of years, so we’ve really no idea how long we have him for. But, he knows he’s loved and the fact we’re both working from home means he’s getting lots of attention so we just have to take life on day at a time.

One bright bit of news was that I’ve now got both my Covid vaccinations booked. I receive the first one next Thursday and the second one on the 27th May. With the relaxation of lockdown looming this makes me feel rather relieved as I may be better placed to take advantage of work opportunities due to that fact. I can’t wait to get out and about again as there’s been huge changes on the railways over the past year with massive changes in train fleets, plus big engineering projects like the rebuilding of Kings Cross station that I’ve simply been unable to cover – and that’s without the biggest engineering project in Europe to document and report on (HS2).

The vagaries of the week have meant my plans (and usual routine) have gone out of the window. My daily exercise has gone to rat-shit but I have managed to scan an awful lot of old slides so the light at the end of the tunnel’s getting closer – although the plethora of pictures is making it much harder to choose the picture of the day! This week I’ve gone from India to Bali via Denmark and various ports of call in the UK, but the picture I’ve plumped for is this as I don’t think I’ve featured anything from Denmark before.

I took this shot of the Radhus clocktower and nearby statue in Copenhagen in August 1994. Lynn and I had friends in the city whom we’d met when travelling in Indonesia and used to visit them on a regular basis. Sadly, now both Lynn and Didi have passed away but it’s a city I have some very find memories of.

You can find many other pictures from Denmark in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

Scanning of old slides may slow down a bit next week as I’ve many other things to catch-up with, but – the next album in the queue is going back to the very beginning. I started taking pictures on slide film in 1989 and the album I have lined-up to get through starts with shots I took in the USA in 1990 when four of us spent a couple of weeks driving around California, Arizona and Nevada, taking in various national parks like Big Sur, Monument Valley, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon as well as cities like San Francisco. After that the album covers UK destinations before containing the first pictures of my 1991-92 year-long solo trip from India through to Australia – most of which was done the hard way – overland. I’ve wanted to scan these pictures for a long time as they contain some brilliant memories and great stories of how backpacking was 30 years ago. Watch this space…

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Thank you!

3rd March picture of the day…

03 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, World War Two

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Apologies for absence but the past 48 hours have been rather stressful. I’m not going to go into details right now, just the concept of a nearly 20 year-old cat – and vets…

Our stress levels are starting to subside now but I’m having another night off so without further ado – here’s the picture of the day. I have a huge queue of scanned slides waiting to be edited at the moment and this is one of them. I took this picture of a recovered World War 2 ‘Sherman’ tank at Slapton Sands, Devon on the 31st July 1994. It commemorates one of the great secrets of World War 2. The Slapton Sands area was evacuated of civilians during the war as it was used as a secret training area for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. During one such exercise disaster struck as on the 28th April 1944 German E-Boats attacked a fully-equipped convoy training for the landings, killing 700 men. You can find details of the events here.

The tank was lost at sea during the attack and recovered in 1984 after secrecy about the attack was lifted. It was installed by the sands in Torcross as a memorial to all those who lost their lives.

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

1st March picture of the day…

01 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Bloody hell – it’s March already! We’re now just a few weeks away from the first anniversary of ‘Lockdown’ and the event that’s turned many people’s lives upside down…

It may be the month when spring arrives but the balmy weather we had yesterday was but a flash in the pan. Today we were back to temperatures in single figures and a miasma that hung around all day, blocking views of anything more than a few hundred metres away. The gloomy weather left me with a severe disinclination to venture out. Instead I spent most of the day catching up on paperwork and scanning old slides of sunnier climes. When I did sally forth my walk was a short circular one to pick up some shopping and that was that. I’m working on the assumption that banking my time whilst the weather’s so poor will leave me in credit when it improves and restrictions on movement begin to lift. Oh, and having a pub beer garden to walk to rather than wondering aimlessly without a destination in mind will be a great improvement too!

Anyway, here’s the picture of the day which was taken on Arambol beach in Goa between Xmas and New Year 1993…

Each evening local children from the village would turn up to play on the beach once the heat of the day had dissipated. Here, a group of young boys play cricket whilst a young Western boy (who wasn’t English) looks on in bemusement. It wasn’t just the locals who’d appear this time of day as many Westerners would appear to jog, juggle or just enjoy a stroll along the miles of sand before adjourning to one of the beachfront restaurants for a sunset beer. Oh, to be able to do that right now…

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Thank you!

27th February picture of the day…

27 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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It’s ‘groundhog day’ weekend again but the added bonus is the weather’s getting warmer and the days longer. It doesn’t stop the world being any weirder but at least it’s not as chilly! If nothing else, I’m looking forward to being able to sit out in the garden and soak up some sunshine whilst I contemplate the madness. If nothing else I’ll at least have a base-tan for when I’m allowed access to sunnier climes.

 Like everybody else I’m looking forward to the end of lockdown and the chance to resume normal life, although I’m not sure what the ‘new normal’ will look like. Whilst everyone has been focused on Covid and lockdown rather than the Brexitshambles we still have the the political and economic  consequences of that to look forward to once Covid’s under control and people remember there’s other things happening in the UK other than a pandemic.

Personally, I’m taking a backseat. I always knew that Brexit was going to be a shambles that would drag on for decades, but what’s masked that has been Covid, but not for much longer…

We’re in for a very ‘interesting’ year of the old Chinese curse variety although I suspect most people have still fallen for the Tory slogan that Johnson got Brexit ‘done’. Oh, if only it was that simple. Welcome to years of negotiations folks.

Not that I want to be seen as a complete curmudgeon. The Covid vaccination progamme seems to be going really well, although the cynic in me knows that’s because the Government didn’t bung billions to Ministers friends this time and let the NHS do the job instead. Try as I might, I still struggle when I realise that we’re now living in a banana republic and a cause for celebration is someone doing something right for once.

Anyway. Enough of this. As the old saying goes, people will have plenty of leisure time in which to repent. Right now I’m going back in time to post the picture of the day, which comes from a very different era and time in my life.

Today’s picture was taken at the Anjuna flea market in December 1993.

The women you see are local tribes-people from Maharasthra, the state North of Goa. India’s a fascinating place for so many reasons but the mixture of people’s is one of the most intriguing. The history of different invasions and ethnic origins makes the place so colourful – as these women demonstrate.

Scanning all these old photographs during lockdown is so frustrating as it’s showing me all the places that Covid has deprived me of visiting. I’m going to have a lot of lost time to make up. Not just for places that I’ve been before – but also the places I’ve never yet made it to. As soon as the planet starts to re-open, I have a cunning plan..

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

24th February picture of the day…

24 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Architecture, India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Busy, busy busy – with lots of different things. Although the old canard is that men can’t multitask that’s certainly what I spent most of the morning doing! I had a batch of slides all mounted, ready for scanning so whilst I went through that mechanical process I was tuned into the the National Rail Recovery Conference listening to a series of excellent presentations from speakers about the future of the railways – from how to recover passenger numbers post Covid to how the railway can decarbonise and also how the network can cope with climate change. All three are complex subjects but the speakers really helped to nail the issues. You can find a copy of today’s agenda and details of the speakers here. I could dedicate to whole blog to the conference but time’s short and there’s one more day to go. What I will say is that the conference dispelled many of the myths around how working from home (WFH) is supposedly cutting pollution and the need to travel. In some cities pollution’s increased as people have abandoned public transport and taken to the car – even if they’re working from home. As usual, the simple soundbites you hear from people like those opposed to HS2 simply don’t stand up to the facts. The conference also confirmed my opinion about just how out of touch with the realities surrounding transport and climate change much of the UKs ‘green’ movement really is. So much so that they’re actually hindering, not helping, us tackle the real issues.

The third part of my multi-tasking was (finally) producing my new blog on progress with building High Speed 2, which I finally finished and published this afternoon. All in all – a productive day. I even managed to get out for a walk and get my quota of exercise but managed to time it badly so received a soaking on the way home! Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow…

Ok, on to the picture of the day. I’ve now amassed a whole heap of scanned slides that are in the queue to be checked in Photoshop. Due to their age (taken in 1993) and the fact the harsh desert conditions of Western India were never easy on film or film cameras – many slides need retouching to remove surface scratches or blemishes. The worst examples will have to be filed away until I have time to put in the hours to make them presentable. Others only need a few marks, blemishes or shallow scratches removed or contrast and colour balances adjusted. Here’s one such example. I took this shot in November 1993 from atop the magnificent Merangarh Fort that dominates the town of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India.

Sitting on the battlements of the fort gazing down on the town some 400ft below is quite an experience due to the fact the sounds of the town can be heard really clearly due to the atmospheric conditions that allow them to carry upwards. The blue of the houses? I’m told that’s to show the homes belong to high-caste Hindus (Brahmins) although I’ve seen other reasons given. Whatever the truth is, they make for a colourful sight.

When all the pictures are scanned you’ll be able to find them here.

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

23rd February picture of the day…

23 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Architecture, India, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Another busy day scanning and scribbling – although the results of either of these activities won’t see the light of day until tomorrow – apart from this taster. I’ve finally got my teeth into a blog catching up on what’s going on with construction of the High-Speed 2 railway, but whilst I’ve been engrossed in that I’ve also been juggling my time with taking part in RAIL magazine’s online National Rail Recovery conference which is on until the 25th. There’s still time to sign up to the next two days sessions if you follow the link. One of the other juggling balls was keeping an eye on the unfolding eviction of yet another anti HS2 protest camp. This time it’s the one at Poors Piece near Steeple Claydon. Of course there’s only ever going to be one outcome – and I’ll be blogging about the latest failures of HS2Rebellion as a follow-up to my HS2 progress report.

Meanwhile, the slide scanning has taken me back in time to India in December 1993, when I took this shot at the Bada Bagh gardens outside Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Here’s a picture taken from amongst the Chhatris…

There’s several hundred pictures from India to add to my Zenfolio website which I expect to take a couple of weeks. The first ones have started appearing here and I’ll try and add batches on a daily basis.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

21st February picture of the day…

21 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Architecture, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Scotland, Travel

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Remind me never to promise to write a long, complex blog the Sunday after someone’s birthday party – even if the party in question is someone’s 80th!

Norah had a wonderful day yesterday despite the Covid restrictions. Her children (my wife and her brother) had hatched a plan to get as many people as possible to join in on a family Zoom call and it went brilliantly! Norah was rather overwhelmed by it all as she got to see people who would never normally have been able to make the journey to a conventional birthday party, so the event was a great success. Physically there might just have been the four of us, but Dee had prepared a lovely 3 course meal so the event was a great success, so much so that the pair of us didn’t get back home until after midnight so decided to have a lie-in and lazy morning today – hence no long, complex blog!

Oh, I still got some work done – hence the latest tranche of travel pictures that have appeared on my other website here, but apart from that we’ve bother taken our feet of the accelerator and pottered around at home before getting out for a long walk. Rather than ramble on the hills we’ve taken to exploring the backstreets and alleys of Halifax – and discovered some amazing architecture and stunning houses, especially around the Savile park area. It’s sometimes easy to forget what a wealthy town Halifax was in its heyday, but the huge family homes that still exist in many parts give the game away. Yes, there’s still rows of back to backs in some parts, but you can soon find out where the middle-classes and rich lived. Sometimes all that remains of these estates are a couple of gateposts and a substantial wall surrounding an estate full of modern homes. As an incomer to the area these have piqued my interest as they reflect what happened in the town I grew up in – Southport on the Lancashire coast. One day I’ll have to do some digging through local historical records. In the meantime I’ll just enjoy the discoveries we make by accident.

In the meantime, I’ve got a busy week at home as I’ve dug out a few more old slide albums from storage at Dawn’s parents whilst we were there yesterday. I’ve a first sift to do, disposing of ones that are no longer relevant or that have been superseded by events. After that I’ll have a much better idea of how long the scanning queue might be. Suffice it to say, I’m going to be kept occupied well into the summer…

But, I will get that High-Speed 2 blog written as it promises to be an interesting week. Construction of the new railway is coming on in leaps and bounds now as contractors are really gearing up on many of the main civil engineering elements of the project – which I’ll talk about in the blog. Meanwhile, the derisory ‘campaign’ against HS2 goes from farce to worse! The pointless Euston tunnel protest is dragging on, but as it’s no-where near an active HS2 worksite not an hour of construction time has been lost. Meanwhile, more ‘protection’ camps set up by the protesters are about to be evicted. The protesters response? Well, tomorrow Hs2Rebellion are having a nationwide ‘banner drop’. Quite how a bunch of vacuous, blustering slogans written on old bedsheets is going to stop HS2 is a mystery, but then HS2 rebellion seem to be more about raking in the donations from gullible people via Crowdfunders rather than mounting a credible campaign to stop HS2. I’ll relate some of tomorrows farce when I can.

In the meantime, here’s today’s picture of the day which is another shot from my Scottish trip – this time from Edinburgh rather than Glasgow. I took this shot on the 26th March 2001 from Arthur’s seat, the amazing extinct volcano which rises 250 metres above the city in Holyrood park. It shows the view across to the iconic Edinburgh Castle.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/Thank you!

16th February picture of the day…

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Architecture, London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Life today could best be described as ‘plodding’. That doesn’t mean it’s been a bad day – far from it but excitement and surprise don’t really feature much in these Groundhog Days. Instead there’s slow progress in this, that and the other, but nothing that inspires or really makes the heart sing. Still, I shouldn’t complain as our cage is gilded compared to many and there’s no shortage of (repetitive) things to do. Funny old world though, isn’t it? Who would have thought that one day we’d all be looking forward to the day we can go to a clinic to get a jab and it would be a highlight of your year and news of its reception something you’d proudly share with friends on social media?

So, anyway – here’s the picture of the day to brighten things up. It’s taken from the latest batch of slides scans. This particular image was shot on the 5th March 2001 and shows the wonderful exterior of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London. I have a passion for architecture and architectural photography, although this was one of a series from a list of pictures wanted for a Lonely Planet guide to London.

Built in the 1870s in the Romanesque style the exterior makes wide use of architectural terracotta tiles which helped protect the building from the city’s polluted atmosphere. They also make it gorgeous to look at and feature many relief sculptures of flora and fauna to add to the attractions. As usual, you’ll be able to find the full selection of pictures from London in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!