091125 Hotel Oriente and the Image Diary

Looking out of the window to see yet another morning of grey skies and dripping rain I decided to step back a few years and see what I was doing then. One of the most useful features of a digital photo collection is that it acts as a kind of visual diary. If you file your photographs by date taken, which I do, you can turn back to any particular day and instantly see where you were, and this often reminds you of what you were doing. So, five years ago this month I was - according to the image diary - staying in the Hotel Oriente in Barcelona. And the sun was shining. And it was warm. If I look back five years from now what will I see? Nothing, unless I venture out quickly and take my camera with me.

091123 Poole Harbour

Isn't it strange how some photographs stay in your mind, even if they are neither artistically good nor historically significant. I took the above photograph almost fifty years ago. It shows my mother and father and the location - according to the penciled information on the back - is Poole Harbour in Dorset. But there is something about the image that has stayed in my mind over all the decades. Something about the poses, the shapes, the haphazard rowing boat. The photograph is old and faded - but it remains one of my favourites.

091122 Bangor University

Another of the photographs I took in North Wales last week. This is the main building of what is now called Bangor University. You may be interested to know that it was originally called the "University College of North Wales" (Coleg Prifysgol Gogledd Cymru in Welsh). It later became "University College, Bangor" (Coleg y Brifysgol, Bangor) and then "University of Wales, Bangor" (Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor) before settling on "Bangor University" (Prifysgol Bangor). But there again you might not be interested in knowing this and simply want to look at the photograph.

091120 Garth Pier Bangor

Another of the photographs from North Wales. The pier at Bangor - known as Garth Pier - was built in the 1890s and finally closed to the public in 1971. In 1974 the Borough Council took the decision to demolish it, but a campaign led by the City Council opposed the plans and, over the next twenty years, managed to raise enough money to fully restore it. At 1,500 feet long it is the second longest pier in Wales and a lasting monument to Victorian engineering.

091119 Colwyn Bay

A few miles on the coast from Bangor is Colwyn Bay. I took this picture as we headed west on Monday afternoon. On the horizon you can make out the new wind farm and in the foreground you can make out the old breakwater.

091118 Bangor Harbour

The first of what will be a short series of photos I took earlier this week in Bangor, North Wales. It shows the sunlit hills of Anglesey set against the boats in Bangor harbour.

091115 Sheffield Tenements

The cameras are packed for a short trip to Wales. So tonight I have dredged up an image from out of the archives. I took this picture in Sheffield in the late 1970s. At the time the building was tenements. Later, no doubt, it would be called flats and now it will contain apartments. Plus ca change ....

091114 Lamp Cleaning

Some years ago I became rather obsessed with the subject of lamp posts (I was somewhat eccentric back in those days). People still send me the occasional e-mail about the latest developments in lamp-post technology and I still take a proprietorial interest in the local lamp posts. Thus I was pleased yesterday to see one of my good friends getting a much-needed wash and brush up.

091112 Shepherds Thorn Lane

For a brief time this morning the weather was fair. Amy and I went walking down Shepherds Thorn Lane. But by the time we got home the clouds were closing in and the rain has come down ever since.

091109 Bonfire Night

The Annual Atkin Bonfire Night on Saturday. The photograph is out of focus and poorly composed. But somehow it captures the spirit of bonfire night. It reminds me of a most enjoyable evening - what more could you want from a photograph.