[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2023].
artichoke
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 June 2022].
Once again, I'm reminded of why I love photography.
I love to eat artichoke, but it never occurred to me that's what I had photographed in a garden on Mersea Island until I popped the photo into a plant-identifying app.
It also never occurred to me that the artichoke is a flower. I knew we eat the "hearts". I didn't realise that they bloom and become inedible if left to their own devices.
When I saw them, these flowers reminded me of protea and some brassica species, which I love. I photographed them because they were eye-catching despite not recognising them.
Because I have such a massive backlog of photos to edit, sometimes it takes me years to learn from the photographs I've taken. But that doesn't make the learning any less enjoyable.
hollyhocks
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 11 February 2022].
From Wikipedia: During the Victorian era, the hollyhock symbolised both ambition and fecundity in the language of flowers.
beeson's yard
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 February 2021].
A year ago today, Simon and I spent the day in Rickmansworth.
I don't recall exactly, but I don't think coronavirus was even a thing we discussed at that point.
Personally, I was just trying to stay upright!
I was out of my "moon boot" but still struggled with balance and confidence in walking on questionable surfaces. So, after a short attempt along a muddy path, we had to skip the Ebury Way and head in the opposite direction toward Batchworth Lock.
After a wander along the canal, one of the final points we passed was Beeson's Yard, and obviously, the signage caught my eye.
untitled #176
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 January 2021].
So, I'm trying to be a bit more planned and less haphazard with what and how I share my work with my patrons this year.
Although there'll still be plenty of room for me to be spontaneous, I thought it would be helpful for me to have a bit of a pattern/routine in sharing some of my photography.
With that in mind, the past two Sundays I've shared early-access posts featuring newly edited images from my sepulchre series.
I'd been weighing up how to work these into a weekly programme. Having a hashtag-worthy concept without sounding too flippant, morbid, or offensive.
I'd started weighing up #CemeterySunday (I couldn't bring myself to alliterate to the point of #SematarySunday) but, being the semantic stickler I am, I couldn't settle on that. Some images would be from churchyards, graveyards or other burial places, not all would be taken in cemeteries.
I'll likely use #CemeterySunday appropriately on social media depending upon the subject. But, for Patreon, I'm thinking of this collection as #SepulchralSunday, falling back to the (now glaringly obvious) use of my overall series name for the alliterative and catchy collective term for these images.
#SepulchralSunday images will include those from my stained glass series, season's grievings curated series and any new curated series. As well as one-off photographs appropriate to the theme.
Another genre within my work 'upvoted' in my recent polls on Patreon (which are still open until the end of the month!) was my travel photography. So I'm going to default to social media type and declare this the first of my #TravelTuesday posts. It seems particularly appropriate to focus on these one day a week while most of us can't travel far from home.
As these are two genres strongly represented in much of my photography, it seems like an incentive to gradually work through editing images long overdue to see the light.
Without any particular catchy hashtag to accompany them, I'm hoping to share a more in-depth post with you each Friday. A small series of images focussing on a specific place or subject, likely accompanied by a bit more writing than I might offer on other days.
With these new plans, sepulchre and travel images won't be restricted to Sundays and Tuesdays*. But I hope they'll become regular features my patrons come to eagerly anticipate in their inbox.
Along with my new Love letters to London series, I'm hoping to write a new instalment of my postcards from another's life series to share with my patrons each month.
I have more plans for this year, but let's start with these.
And let's start with a view of Bruges taken in 2014.
*I realise that depending upon your location, these may actually be #SepulchralMonday and #TravelWednesday since I have a tendency to post in my evenings ;)
untitled #98
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 September 2020].
This is another photograph I submitted to issue #149 of Shots Magazine.
The Albert Road gasworks in New Barnet looming in silhouette over neighbouring houses during the blue hour in winter 2018.