One of my favourite places to take photographs in Madrid was in the vast landscape of the city’s largest urban park Casa de Campo. The park was originally a royal hunting estate and covers more than 1,700 hectares. According to Wikipedia, in 1936–39, during the Spanish Civil War, the front lines of the Siege of Madrid ran through the Casa de Campo when the Republicans had halted a nationalist offensive in November 1936.


Taken at 03:20pm in Casa de Campo, Madrid. Thursday 1st April 2010.

The day before I took this photograph I had travelled above Casa de Campo on the cable car ride. Being in the cable car gave me a fantastic view of the park and the beautiful snow covered mountains in the distance. I’d seen tree plantations and vast areas of land dedicated to regenerating the park from the air and I decided to take a closer look and take some photographs on foot the following afternoon.

I climbed a rather steep path up a hill in order to take this photograph, but I certainly think it was worth the extra effort in the end. The playground hidden amongst the trees and tree plantations in the lower right of the photograph go someway in showing the scale of human intervention for regeneration against the vastness of nature.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM
ISO: 125
Focal Length: 105mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125th sec
F-Stop: f/16

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Tags: Landscape,Madrid,Regeneration,Spain,Travel

Taken at 02:33pm in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. UK. Monday 9th February 2009.

The title and content of today’s blog post are inspired by one of my favourite literary works; Jack Kerouac’s largely autobiographical book On The Road. The book is based upon Kerouac’s own journeys across America with his friends in the late 1940’s and is written in a style he called ‘spontaneous prose’ (which is similar to the ‘stream of consciousness’ method of writing). Kerouac wrote On The Road in just three weeks during a creative literary explosion in April 1951 and is now widely acknowledged as an American Modern Classic.

“It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s” - Bob Dylan (speaking about reading On The Road)

The narrative and characters are throughly engaging and compelling, yet it’s Kerouac’s approach and expressive literary style that has come to inspire me in my own creative practice. His writings manage to instil a sense of adventure and willingness to break both physical and metaphysical boundaries in the quest for original and fulfilling life experiences. On The Road was inspired by many things that Kerouac was passionate and immersed in at the time (jazz, poetry and travel to name but a few) and reading the book has certainly played its part in confirming the need to draw upon my personal passions in order to satisfy my creative inclinations when producing photographic work. A spontaneous and organic nature to producing work has long been the driving force behind the photographs that I take and reading On The Road has re-ignited my belief that its also a great approach for living life in general.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." - taken from Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 24mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125th sec
F-Stop: f/10

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Tags: Landscape,Open Road,Travel,Musings,Snow

Taken at 07:55pm in Wolstanton, Staffordshire. UK. Sunday 8th February 2009.

Saint Margaret's is a church located in my hometown of Wolstanton on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme and is the main focal point of the village (as can be said of many churches in small villages across the country). There are many possible reasons why this is (religious or otherwise), but for me it’s mainly down to the fact that it’s the single largest building in the surrounding area. I have to say that I’ve somewhat struggled to find inspiration in my hometown to produce creative photographic images, but the recent batch of snow and frost has given me a new found hope. The churchyard itself is quite fantastic to photograph (especially in these conditions) and holds a rather morbid mystery.

A remarkable grave is located in the churchyard of St Margaret's. The headstone of Sarah Smith (deceased 1783) includes a short poem written in the first person in which Sarah suggests that she was murdered; “with half a pint of poyson he came to visit me' and then provides a clue to her killer, 'it was C___s B___w who brought me to my end”.
Very spooky indeed...

I’m starting to think that the village isn’t such a bad place to take pictures after all!

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 17mm
Shutter Speed: 20 seconds
F-Stop: f/8

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Tags: Black & White,Church,Snow,Landscape,Staffordshire

Taken at 01:16pm in North Shore Blackpool, UK. Friday 23rd January 2009.

I’ve always loved being on the edge of the seaside fringe, so to start today’s blog post I thought I’d share where I think this fascination originated. As a young boy I spent my summer holidays with my Grandma at her house in St-Idesbald, Belgium. We’d spend our days picking shells along the beach, walking her three lovely Bassett hounds and enjoying being at the seaside together. I think this is were my affinity and affection for coastal life began, yet it wasn’t until I moved to Blackpool in 2003 that I became aware of what a profound influence the times with my Grandma had on me and my relationship with the seaside.

The Blackpool coast is a constantly shifting and morphing landscape which offers a mélange of creative possibilities and the space for conceptual musings. This space where the sea meets the land has been a major theme of many artistic practitioners (including nineteenth century landscape painters such as JMW Turner and John Constable) and plays an integral part of my own personal work documenting life on the Fylde coast. This black & white photograph, entitled ‘Breakwater’ looks at the boundaries between the sea, the land and ourselves. The composition is simply constructed into thirds, focussing on the three main elements of water, concrete and rock in the image.

Forthcoming Exhibition News - I’ve been selected to exhibit my work at Keele University’s Three Counties Open Photography Exhibition 2009. I’ve exhibited at this annual exhibition in my hometown for the past seven years and its always a pleasure to have my work next to other photographers from the area. This year I have one photograph (entitled ‘Ballroom Dancing’) in the exhibition and I’m really looking forward to the preview night on the 25th February 2009. If your in the area on the day, feel free to come down and take a look at the work. The exhibition will officially open on the 26th February 2009 and will run until early April 2009.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 250
Focal Length: 24mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200th sec
F-Stop: f/8

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Tags: Blackpool,Black & White,Exhibitions,Landscape,Waves

Taken at 01:06pm in Coney Island, USA. Saturday 31st March 2007.

Today I thought I’d post this photograph that I shot during a day trip to Coney Island in 2007. While I was writing my MA dissertation on contemporary views about Blackpool I came across an article written by J.K Walton entitled ‘The People’s Playground’ which discuss the similarities between Blackpool & Coney Island. They were both mecca’s for working class popular entertainment in their hey-day, but what had become of them now? Well, I went for the today during a week long trip to New York City in March 2007 to find out for myself. I love going to places that I’ve never gone to before, yet Coney Island felt rather familiar to me. Perhaps this was due to the reminisce of by by-gone era all around and its seaside locality. If Blackpool should be twinned with any other town in the world it should be Coney Island. There is an interesting blog article on the Coney Island Blog ‘Kinetic Carnival’, which offers some interesting thoughts on the Coney Island/Blackpool debate.

This photograph shows the Playland building occupying a space on what is now derelict wasteland, while in the foreground several seagulls fly up and out of the frame. I only recently started work on this photograph after finding it during another look at my New York photographs from 2006 & 2007. Sometimes its best to go back to what you’ve shot before with a fresh pair of eyes and I think I’ve found one of my favorite images from the day. More photographs from my trips to New York City can be found in the portfolio section of this website.

On another note, I’ve just added a list of useful links relating to my photography practice.
Take a look if you so wish.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 85mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200th sec
F-Stop: f/14

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Tags: Coney Island,Playland,Landscape,Derlict Buildings,Seagulls,Wildlife

Taken at 09:49am in Hong Kong. Saturday 29th November 2008.

Victoria Peak (known locally as The Peak) is a popular destination for tourists as it offers spectacular views of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon & Victoria Harbour. I took this photograph from the new sky terrace at the top of the peak and spent a good hour enjoying the wonderful view and taking lots of photographs. Going to Victoria Peak was certainly one of the highlights of the trip as the view was simply stunning. I went early in the morning and took one of the first trams to the summit (which meant there were very few tourists to get in the way of the me taking the photographs I wanted to take). I always make an effort to get the highest vantage point that I can and Victoria Peak certainly didn’t disappoint. You can see many of Hong Kong’s most prominent buildings from the peak (such as The Bank of China Tower & the International Finance Centre). I thought that New York City was a fantastic city to photograph but I’m starting to think Hong Kong could now give it a run for my money! I took enough photographs to make a massive panorama of the view from The Peak that I’m hoping to start work on this month.

In other news, I’m really pleased to announce that I’m going to be a North West artist represented by Visual For Business which is “a unique and flexible service from Arts & Business bringing high quality contemporary art to businesses”. If your interested to learn more about Visual please do take the time to view their website. I will have my own profile on their site in the near future, so I’ll post any further details here on my blog as soon as I know more.

Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 17mm
Shutter Speed: 1/100th sec
F-Stop: f/10

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Tags: Hong Kong,Architecture,Landscape,Cityscape,Travel

Taken around 4:50pm on South Shore Promenade, Blackpool. Tuesday 8th April 2008.

This is a panoramic photograph made from nine images taken of the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool back in April 2008. The backdrop features one of the town’s premier attractions, the Pleasure Beach’s biggest ride, ‘The Big One’. It is Europe’s largest roller coaster rides and certainly needs the panoramic treatment. To the right of the image are several of the new sculptures produced by contemporary artists (for example, those of Sir Peter Blake) that now feature on the newly revamped promenade. It is a great walk from Stargate, past the Pleasure Beach and onwards towards the centre of town, with plenty of attractions to enjoy and things to experience.

Technical Information
Made from nine photographs all taken at the following exposure:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 40mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
F-Stop: f/22

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Tags: Blackpool,Landscape,Panorama,Pleasure Beach,Promenade,Seaside Attractions,Sculptures,South Shore,The Big One