the IOTMImage of the Month archive

Stone Wall. Warm colours on the old stone wall and sheep fold, looking back up the hill just north of Place Fell in the Lake District (over Patterdale village). Taken with a 20mm lens to emphasise the perspective and make the closest stone really prominent.

Eye Bug. On a ride on the British Airways London Eye – the 135 metre high Ferris Wheel hanging out over the River Thames in London – I took this shot of three of the pods with an 85mm lens on the F3, looking almost straight down to the Thames, as we came in to 'land' in the evening sun. Later, this photo won the amateur 'Best Daytime Picture from the Eye' category in the 2001 Fuji/British Airways London Eye competition, March 2001, and was accepted for the RPS International later the same year :-)

HCB at the South Bank. I was on my way to the 'Europeans' exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson – one of my all-time photo heroes – at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank. As I waited under the walkway lining up the shapes of the concrete, a few people obligingly walked past. I took several shots on colour negative film in the Minox, of which I think this is the best. I like to think HCB himself provided the inspiration!

Calm. Taken at Orford, on the Suffolk coast in the east of England, on New Year's Day 2000. This is the river Orr – the sea is beyond the small land mass at the top of the picture.

Ahead Only. The London Marathon 2000 (the best city marathon in the world!). Tightly packed and still going strong at 17 miles, these runners will finish in around 4 hours 15 minutes. I couldn't resist the words on the road: 'Ahead Only' perfectly sums up the determination and commitment of every one of the 32,000 runners taking part, encouraged as they are by huge support from the spectators who line the entire length of the course.

Departure. The bustle at the harbourside on my favourite Greek island of Symi, as the Triton sets sail for the day trip to Turkey. 135mm lens and Kodak Ektachrome 100 film. [Many more Symi photos in the 'Postcards' section of the site.]

Christmas Time, 1999. A digital montage for the change of year, based on the same images as Autumn Time. Some Christmassy colours in the leaves on either side, and a more erie feel to the clock face; the hand of the clock is stronger. In fact, this treatment of the source images was my original intention. This image printed and sent to close friends and colleagues as the 1999 Christmas card. Happy New Year!

Towards Derwentwater. Looking back towards Derwentwater, in the English Lake District, from part way up Glaramara during a walk in April 1999. It was a damp and miserable day, and the cloud dropped lower as the day went on, but the only patch of brightness just happened to fall on these sheep at the right time! Handheld, with an 85mm lens on the Nikon F3 and an exposure that was rather too long for comfort...

Greek Blue. I love the shape of small boats. This rowing boat in the Greek national colours was shot on a quiet Greek island. I think the mooring rope of the larger boat is important (for the picture as well as for the owner of the boat!), and I like the small repetition of shapes by the boats in the distance. The tiny orange float on the left provides some balance.

Autumn Time. A digital montage of an autumn leaves image and a close-up of an old clock face, the colour of the brass of the clock face providing the autumn colour removed from the leaves. An attempt, perhaps, to show the passage of time through the seasons. Not the sort of thing I normally do but it was worth experimenting. A leater version – Christmas Time – mixed the same images in a different way, and was rather more dramatic.

Evening at Buttermere. A view over Buttermere Lake in the English Lake District. Taken with a 28-85mm zoom at 85mm; exposure about 1/4 second handheld, with the camera steadied against a convenient wall. Judges and others have commented that the silhouette of the hills and its reflection – I think that must be Blea Crag in the distance, with Red Pike out of the picture to the left – are too black and solid; I'm not sure I agree, and I think the picture's saved by the thin line of bright between the two.

The Mirror. A nicely matured statue in the garden of a country house in Wales, of a lady checking her makeup in her mirror. I've rejuvenated her features by adding a not-so-mature face, photographed in the studio. In competition judges tended to comment on it as just a statue – I would have thought the eyes might have suggested that everything is not as it seems...

Rooftops. Processed into a 'watercolour' from a slide taken on my favourite Greek island with (if I remember correctly) an 85mm lens with 2x converter. I like the repetitive shapes, split by the diagonal line of the long flight of steps rising up from the bottom centre of the picture.

Beads II. Processed from an original colour print of a craft stall with a suberb and very colourful display of beads. Taken with a long lens, probably the Vivitar 300mm, and blown up from about half the negative. I've tried to give the feeling of a pen and watercolour picture, a style of drawing that I used to do for real in my late teens. The original print made it to the 1976 East Anglian Federation Exhibition, and went on to be accepted in the PAGB Inter Federation Competition.

Take One of Me, Mister! I was out walking with the old Nikkormat FTn and a Vivitar 300mm f/5.6 (a huge lens that I never did like) when this lad and his mates decided to pose. So I turned and grabbed the picture. A bit soft on focus (that 300mm was a terrible thing to focus – so far to turn) and taken on Ilford HP4 in my 1970s grainy period, but I like the (lucky) composition. It made it to one exhibition, but apart from that no-one liked it much!

Leaf. Close-up of the edge of a leaf, with deliberately narrow depth of focus to create nice cirles out of some water droplets in the background. A typical audio-visual image which would be the ideal starting point for a similar picture, with different composition, to fade up and 'exchange' sharp areas and colours. Taken on Kodak Ektachrome with a Nikon F3 and micro 55mm lens (I might also have used a 2x converter).

Harbour. An adaptation in Photoshop from an original slide taken on a Greek island. I've given it a painting effect, and tried to convey that intense brightness that always accompanies Mediterranean sun on the white houses and paths. Original photo on Nikon F3 using an 85mm lens and Kodak Ektachrome film. Looking back on it, a bit overdone!

South Bank. Shapes and patterns in the evening sun outside the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. I'm not sure how well this works, but the colours and atmosphere were great at the time and I still like the composition. Behind the dominant signs in the foreground little stories are being acted out – the man at the ice cream stall, the kids at the railings (waiting for their ice creams?), the couple on the bench on the left of the picture... Taken, like many of the recent pictures here, on negative film on a Minox 35ML.

Rolls. I grabbed this photographer as he grabbed the old Rolls Royce in Cambridge, England. His shot was taken quickly, but was carefully framed, although he was only using a compact camera, as was I. An illustration, perhaps, of the male fascination with mechanical design, especially when it's good design, and especially when it's old! I like the people in the background: the lady with the handbag, the other lady taking a photo while her husband looks on, the people walking out of both sides of the picture. I helped the image a little in Photoshop, dropping the background slightly more out of focus, and darkening it.

Motorcade. Taken in November 1977 at the Remembrance Day parade in Hertford, England. At the war memorial in the centre of the town the usual gathering of veterans, civic dignitaries and scouts and guides was joined by a large group of motorbikes of all types and sizes. Bikers were getting a bad press at the time, and it was moving to see this group redressing the balance as they came to pay their respects. I took this one shot as they slowly followed the foot parade at the end of the ceremony. Almost straight into the sun, and helped by a trace of mist in the air.

Souk. An impressionist picture grabbed "on the hoof" in the souk (the market) in Marrakech, Morocco. For me it portrays some of the bustle and colour of the souk, although this particular part was not very crowded. There's constant pressure to buy something... anything... and keeping moving is one way of avoiding spending time and money buying stuff you don't want. The full story of my Morocco trek in the Trekking section of this site.

Wilderness Experience. On trek in the Pindos Mountains in northern Greece in 1990. One of our group enjoys one of those reflective moments that happen a few days into the trek, once the stresses and problems of the world back home have started to fade, and the beauty and simpler life in a relatively remote landscape take over. The title is the name of the maker on the backpack (not clear in this image), and it seemed appropriate.

Industrial Sunset. A small environmental comment on the tarmac plant at the edge of the meadows (the Hertford Meads) a few hundred metres from where I was living at the time. It's a straight shot – no filters or double images – on Kodak Ektachrome film, and dates from about 1979-80. Landscape 77 is a black & white photo of the same plant taken under less inviting conditions.

Landscape 77. April 1977. A small environmental comment on the tarmac plant at the edge of the meadows (the Hertford Meads) a few hundred metres from where I was living at the time. There's frost on the grass beside the River Lea at the left of the picture, and the whole thing looks pretty uninviting! Actually I used to walk here a lot, and got annoyed when the factory puffed out smoke and smells. It's still there. The original is not quite as grainy as it looks here, I must make a better copy. Industrial Sunset is a colour shot of the same plant.

Legs and Co. June 1979. Taken on a rather cold Camera Club social outing on a canal long-boat. The kids are pushing on the arm of the lock gate. For the benefit of overseas visitors, Legs and Co was the name of a 5 or 6-girl dance group appearing at the time on the weekly Top of the Pops TV programme. The chubby little lad on the right is my son, now six feet tall.

Durham. January 1975. I was returning by train from a meeting in Newcastle, in the North-East of England. In those days I was crazy enough to carry my modest but heavy camera outfit with me on such occasions, and I had a cumbersome Vivitar 300mm f/5.6 fitted to my Nikkormat FTn. We slowed for Durham station, and I took a few pictures of the fine cathedral... As the train pulled out of the station I grabbed this view of the weak winter evening sunlight on the slate roofs.

Morning Run. Taken from the window of a hotel room in Geneva (Lake Geneva is at the end of the road to the left of the picture). It was a lucky shot. I was interested in the strong lines of the cars and the patterns in the shadows of the trees in the warm light at 7:00 a.m. It's the sort of scene that would have a judge suggesting there should be someone in the space in the road towards the bottom left corner, and just as I was starting to frame it the runner obligingly appeared in the centre of the road, complete with long shadow! I waited until he reached the right place, and pressed the button. Taken on a Minox 35ML on negative film.