The whole point of no return

Countryside! How lovely! Spent a weekend with friends in the West Country, such a treat...long walks in the cold, proper country pubs, fabulous home cooking, what's not to like?

Not entirely sure why the sheep was staring at me like this. I assume the animal was thinking that I was either a) yet another idiot with a camera or b) a soul mate in human disguise. Hmm. 

It's that time of year again...

So Oxford Street has again started the Christmas thing, lots of lightbulbs to generate that special feeling...a bit early for my personal taste, but hey, what do I know?

Anyway, I didn't want to take the usual image so I tried something different. Not sure I succeeded, but I do like the image for its level of abstraction.

A foggy day in London town

Some of you might recognise the song title from an old record of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (and subsequently covered by Michael Buble). It is pretty much what London looked like today.

With the song on my mind I really enjoyed taking out the camera on my daily commute to the City this morning.

Grandmaster

A few days ago I had the great opportunity to attend a chess lesson with Malcolm Pein, a chess grandmaster here in London. That was a fantastic experience and certainly very inspiring. My fellow chess player comrades, get ready for some serious beating!

Thailand

What a wonderful country. How could you not love the beautiful beaches, indulge the amazing food and admire the friendliness of the people in this country? I will need to return at some point....

This week in London

What I saw this week was a rather happy dog being very interested in everything around him...

 ... and a somewhat bizarre thunderstorm radiating a strange light on Tower Bridge...

Poetry in motion

I went to Wimbledon and saw some pretty impressive matches there. This image I took while Mr Haas got rolled over by Mr Murray. Also saw Mr Federer, and that was really cool.

By no means less exciting though was a baseball match of a bunch of 10-year olds. Poetry in motion, indeed.

You lookin' at me?

A rather bizarre scene when the photographer was trying to find the right angle. Made me laugh.

Wheels in the sky

Passed by a field where a bunch of people was trying to launch their kites....one was particularly impressive....must have been one of the largest kites ever made....

Music Man

A stroll along the Southbank...and a bizarre setting with an old man playing his instrument surrounded by graffiti...

Tiger and Dragon

Today I passed by the Mayor's office and there was a not-quite-so-scary dragon. Unfortunately there weren't any tigers.

Strange place for snow

A few days over New Year's Eve by the sea. Weather was fine, so a long walk along the beach was on the agenda. I was experimenting with long exposures during the shooting and thought this image was actually nice.

Forbidden City

Another opportunity to travel to China, a fantastic country. The first day I had a few hours on my own so visited the Forbidden City again. Beautiful as always...

Fragile, now the night is here...

Lonesome Cowboy

So I went to New York City for a week just the other day. Still, I had some time to walk around Broadway, including running into Matthew Broderick and Ewan McGregor after their shows. While that was fun for sure, I thought the lonesome Cowboy on Time Square was a bit more impressive.

Olympic Park

It has been a while since I last went to the Olympic Park. So I returned this weekend to see what it would look like post the Games. I really like the venue; it's an interesting mixture between wildlife and formal architecture.

One of the more interesting buildings is the velodrome, with its hyperbolic paraboloid shape and a red cedar timber outside it simply looks fantastic.

You can bring your race bike along or simply rent one for the day and off you go...

I also liked the Aquatics Centre, and some features seem to stem directly from the movie "I Robot", although those are just the spectators' seats....

Life thru a lens

The team I work for got invited to a wedding of one of our colleagues. Great fun, beautiful bride, everything you could possibly hope for. I had my little camera with me and pressed the shutter button just when my colleague Ellis was trying to take a picture. Proper example of "Focus on the important things", ha ha.

On the beach

A one-day excursion with my cousin to Dungeness. Classic British seaside pursuits are just not possible at Dungeness. What you do get is a hard, unyielding shingle beach and lots of isolation and strangeness. But then - when the sun shines - you can enjoy the sky stretching over flat marshland and surprisingly very few visitors.

Breakfast at ... London Bridge

Ok, so it is not quite Tiffany's, but surely it is just as exciting to have your first cup of tea right on London Bridge in your bridesmaid dress at 8am on a Monday morning. The two girls caused quite a stir, very funny.

Cricket

I think it's fair to say that for someone from mainland Europe the obsession the English have with Cricket is somewhat on the quirky side of things. Anyway, while I acknowledge I will never fully understand the rules it was actually quite an entertaining evening at the Oval.

Mont St Michel

A four-day Normandy trip on the bike over Bank holiday. Thank you Benon for a nice ride along the French coastline down south to Mont St Michel. Oh, should you happen to be in the area, you can skip the village with the promising name "Camembert", it's not worth it.

Shadow of a man

Since I decided to walk to work (rather than using the bicycle) I get a few shots every now and then during my commute. Great fun.

Artware

The V&A museum is certainly amongst my favourite London museums. However, I didn't want to shoot just plain statues. Given I felt inspired by the exhibition by Tony Ray-Jones (showing in the Science Museum, definitely worthwhile seeing!) I tried to capture a different side, a bit funnier, a bit more interesting, or so I hope...

Gehry House

Frank Gehry - according to the New York Times one of the most successful architects of our times - created some odd looking but very cool houses in the "Zollhafen" in Duesseldorf. Unfortunately, no one seems to live in them, they all appear to be occupied by very creative people from the media industry.

Too much information

Went for a walk on Oxford Street with the intention to shoot a few images at night. The one shot I liked was this one, a woman in front of a huge display..."Too much information" was what I thought that moment.

Highgate Cemetery

This weekend I went to a photography course to Highgate Cemetery. A cemetery? A bit pathetic, you may think. True. But then it was all about trying to capture the cemetery in Black & White. I didn't like too many of the images I took, but thought those three were ok....

Once upon a hill...

So I have been trying to find a decent subtext for this picture, but I have given up. I wanted to give the image some sort of meaning, but I guess it simply doesn't have one. It's just a picture I like.

Last night, when we were young...

London Jazz Festival

Great things happening at the Southbank. The London Jazz Festival is on, and some great artists are playing, you can even enjoy free concerts. Marcus Miller, Kenny Wheeler and a few more made for some great fun on Saturday, I just had to spend all day there.

Desert Rose

Last week I spent a few days in the middle of nowhere, or to be more precise, in Phoenix, Arizona. As I came in a bit before my conference started,  I took the opportunity to cruise around the desert on a motorcycle (I would call that heavy metal "agricultural" at best). Anyway, it was great fun and you get the sense how lonely one can feel out there.

The trip was some 200 miles, and some of the views very truly impressive.

The temperature was certainly on the high side, with peaks reaching 33 degrees Celsius. Not bad for mid-November, is it?

Ah! What pleasant visions haunt me....

...as I gaze upon the sea...
Like the long waves on a sea-beach
Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
Flow its unrhymed lyric lines....

Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The secret of the sea", 1850

Shoe shining man

Another image I took while on holiday in NYC, but only managed to put online today. The bloke was waiting for customers to get their shoes shined. I do love his facial expression. He could with no doubt also play a major role in a gangster movie, I thought...

There is something...

There is something....something about the quietness when the sun has gone down and the city comes to a peaceful rest....have to admit that when I spent a few days in NYC recently it was really nice. Been to the Big Apple many times, but this time it was holidays, and discovering new areas was a lovely experience.

Growth

A stroll along Finsbury Avenue. Finding the right angle puts the perspective into context, whether it is a skyscraper or a a branch of a soon-to-be flower....