Although I don't get as much time to spend on it as I would like, photography is another of my hobbies.
I thought I'd share some of my favourite pictures here. I've taken these over a number of years, using both 35mm and digital cameras. Some pictures taken onto conventional film were scanned in from prints rather than negatives and have lost a little bit of clarity in the process.
It used to be the case that a lot of my digital pictures survived 'as is' with only a relatively small number getting any sort of manipulation in the digital darkroom, aside from the occaisonal bit of cropping. These days, though, I'm spending a bit more time experimenting with different editing tricks (on both digital and scanned non-digital images).
In no particular order, the categories available for you to browse are....
| Buildings (35 images) These are a few photographs of various buildings which I have encountered whilst out and about. |
| Castles (20 images) I take a lot of photographs in Northumberland, and that county has a lot of castles, some of which I've captured on film. |
| Churches (16 images) I'm not a prolific photographer of churches, but they do present some nice photo opportunities. |
| Churchyards (19 images) Some people might find it a slightly morbid subject, but I find churchyards offer some very effective photo opportunities. |
| Landscape (35 images) These are various views, generally taken near my home in north Northumberland. |
| Trees (16 images) I take quite a lot of landscape photographs, and these often involve trees of one sort or another. Here are a few of my favourites. |
| Florals (29 images) I started taking flower photographs to get something for the Flower category in my local show's photography section. |
| The Alnwick Garden (28 images) Despite living so close to Alnwick, it took me far too long to get around to visiting the Alnwick Garden. Now that I've got around to it, I have been able to get some very pleasing photographs. |
| Animals (62 images) Animals always seem to sense when I want to photograph them, and move away just in time to spoil the picture. Here are a few pictures where I was lucky, and managed to get something before they moved. |
| People (8 images) I'm not really a photographer of people, but I have taken a few shots over the years. |
| Light (52 images) A collection of interesting (and sometimes dramatic) pictures of natural and artificial light. |
| Fireworks (9 images) These photographs all come from my first attempt at shooting fireworks, and were taken during a display on 5th November 2006 at Blyth in Northumberland. |
| The Seaside (44 images) Some pictures taken at various places along the north-east coastline. |
| Harbour Life (12 images) Views taken at various harbours along the coast of north-east England and south-east Scotland. |
| Lakes and Rivers (19 images) These are some pictures of lakes and rivers, both local and not-so-local. |
| Waterfalls (10 images) Various waterfalls around Northumberland. |
| Farming (14 images) Farming scenes from around Northumberland and elsewhere |
| Home (11 images) Views from near my home in Glanton, Northumberland |
| Berwick Bridges (5 images) Berwick-upon-Tweed has three very different bridges over the river: and old road bridge, a modern road bridge and a magnificent railway bridge. I had a few photographs of these, so I thought I'd put them together here. |
| Winter's Gibbet (7 images) Winter's Gibbet stands on the moors near Elsdon in Northumberland. It is something of a local landmark (albeit a little macarbre) and makes an interesting subject for photography. |
| Aeroplanes (5 images) I spent a bit of time at a spot near the end of the runway at Newcastle International Airport, armed with a camera and a long lens. |
| Astrophotography (5 images) I wouldn't really class myself as an astrophotographer, but now and again I do photograph the night sky |
| Cricket (15 images) A selection of pictures taken during a 36-hour cricket marathon held on 26-27th May 2007 at Red Row in Northumberland, aiming to raise money for Asthma UK and get into the Guinness Book Of Records |
| Melrose Abbey (14 images) Melrose was under a blanket of snow and rather grey skies when I visited, but I did my best to get some photographs of the magnificent abbey. |
| Alston Station (5 images) Some pictures taken at Alston, in the north Pennines. These were all treated to give an aged effect which I felt were in keeping with the subject matter. |
| Wedding Bentley (6 images) I went for a walk down Jesmond Dene in Newcastle one Saturday and made a pleasant discovery down there - a 1952 Bentley Mark VI drophead, all dressed up for a wedding. The chauffeur kindly let me take a few photographs while the happy couple were away having their photographs taken. |
| Miscellaneous (39 images) A few pictures that don't really fit into any of the other categories. |