Friday 9 December 2016

BENCH IN BLACK AND WHITE

Bench at Burton Bradstock, Dorset, with view out to sea.

Burton Bradstock, Dorset

Monday 5 December 2016

SEA AND LAMPSHADE

Looking out to sea in the evening with pink and yellow sky and a thing which looks like a standard lamp but isn't.

It looks like a standard lamp - but what is it really?

Sunday 4 December 2016

CWU BANNER

Communication Workers Union Banner with Shelley quote.

Here we are, back in the summer and the Tolpuddle Martyrs March.

This time with the banner for the Great Western Branch of the Communication Workers Union - people who transport and deliver our letters and parcels; it includes people like call-centre workers and postal drivers.

Printed on the banner is verse 91 from a poem by Shelley - the Masque of Anarchy - which he wrote in reaction to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 (in Manchester) - in which ordinary people who had come to hear speeches about reform and the right to vote were attacked by more than a thousand soldiers with guns and with swords, on foot and on horses. Hundreds who had come to the event were wounded and fifteen people died.

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many - they are few.

People who belong to the CWU are not necessarily high earners or in conventionally influential jobs - and this is one of the reasons I'm moved and inspired that these are the words for their banner. David sometimes defeats Goliath. Those who are not well off (or are women!) have, by joining together, gained rights which we now take for granted - like being allowed to vote!

Here are some links. 
Wikipedia entry about the same event.
Here's a link to part of the poem
(It's a very long poem. The link I've given offers further link to the whole thing.)

Saturday 3 December 2016

MAN BEHIND WINDOW

Man reading letter in office with files. Seen through window in pale brick building.


This is cropped from 'Flags' posted on 20th November 2016. 

And in it I'm deviating from my overall approach which is to avoid people but I doubt anyone will recognise this man except those who already know where he works. 
I like this as a picture in its own right, which is why I've put it here. But it's also because by taking photographs one comes across things (and people) one would never have noticed with eyes unaided. Photography becomes an inadvertent treasure hunt. So I'm celebrating it!

Friday 2 December 2016

BUOYS

Red buoys sitting in the reflection of the sides of a tidal harbour

Friday Reflections

Thursday 1 December 2016

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Four photographers along edge of sea at sunset having taken their pictures.

A moment before - these and others were pointing to the right with their cameras.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

METAL COIL

Coil of metal rope wound into blue machine. (At foot of crane?)

Machine. Crane?

Tuesday 29 November 2016

GMB BANNER

GMB Banner - Wiltshire and Swindon - before the Tolpuddle Martyr's Parade July 2016

Wiltshire and Swindon.
Preparing for the Trades Unions March, Tolpuddle, Dorset, 2016

Monday 28 November 2016

WHITE HOUSE AND COASTGUARD AND THE STORM WHICH NEVER CAME

White house on top of hill, coast guard hut nearer beach - with black sky beyond.

Burton Bradstock. Dorset

Sunday 27 November 2016

BENCH

Bench with sea at early sunset, Burton Bradstock, Dorset

Burton Bradstock. Dorset. November 2016

Saturday 26 November 2016

COOT IN REEDS (OR MAYBE RUSHES)

Coot among reeds reflected in water.

Blue water.

Friday 25 November 2016

BRIDGE SUPPORTS AND THEIR REFLECTIONS

Posts supporting bridge with their reflections, reflection of bridge and handrail.

Some bridge. Some reflection.

Thursday 24 November 2016

POLE (OR MAYBE POST?)

A pole which holds a ribbon guide for people in a queue

With a little square.

Wednesday 23 November 2016

NEW FOREST AUTUMN

Long view of bracken-land, gorse and trees in the New Forest, Hampshire. November.

I've just about learned now that the Hampshire New Forest is not full of trees!

Tuesday 22 November 2016

SHOE

A shoe hangs from a wooden style.

Lost.

Monday 21 November 2016

TALKING TELESCOPE

Bright blue and yellow telescope pointing out to sea with 'talking telescope' written on the side

Peace?

Sunday 20 November 2016

FLAGS

Three Union Jacks outside the Randolph Hotel in Oxford

We are never un-seen. No CCTV but a man reads a letter in his office.

Saturday 19 November 2016

CLIFFS

Bare cliffs after landslide on west side of west bay, Dorset.


These are the tops of cliffs on the west side of West Bay in Dorset. On the east side of the harbour, the cliffs are dramatically rippled and gold. Here they are stark and stripped and bare and grey and layered by millennia, Walk only a few steps further and the path is blocked because of landslides.

This is not always how people think of Dorset!

Friday 18 November 2016

CRANE

This is how it came out of the camera - and is how I like it best.
This is the same photo in black and white.
In some ways, it doesn't look much different but I miss the blue-ish sheen.
When changing a photo from a grey day into black and white
 I often like to go for shapes rather than tones.
Here is the same photo with the brightness and contrast adjusted. Pretty bold, eh?



Thursday 17 November 2016

BIKES IN AFTERNOON HAZE

Front wheels of bicycles in a row with afternoon light and wet pavement

With very little adjustment, the haze can be removed from the photo - but then the bikes would no longer be as they were; they would be without magic. A few seconds earlier - and the light behind them was so strong they were invisible. But this was how they were - slightly touched with gold.

Wednesday 16 November 2016

CURVED WALL

Wall made from large, curved rectangles of different sizes in pale stone

Ashmolean Museum. Oxford

Tuesday 15 November 2016

YELLOW UMBRELLAS

Two huge yellow umbrellas with a gull sitting on the top of one.

31st October 2016
Five Wires Making a Stave.

Monday 14 November 2016

BRAMBLE IN JULY

Blackberry flower with Portland Harbour beyond. Dorset

July 17th 2016
Portland beyond.

Sunday 13 November 2016

ANOTHER EQUITY BANNER

Brightly coloured, stained-glass style banner from the Union Equity.

Waiting for the Trades Union March to start in Tolpuddle, Dorset. July 2017
Equity is the union for members of the performing arts.
For more about this series of photos - 'Save Our Steel' Man

Saturday 12 November 2016

CLIFFS AT WEST BAY IN LATE AFTERNOON LIGHT

Golden light on gold cliffs at West Bay, Dorset.

Although it may be hard to believe, these colours are accurate. The sea is sea coloured. The pier is concrete-when-in-shade coloured. The sky is evening sky coloured. And the cliffs are the colour golden cliffs go when the sun catches them before it sets. (Dorset is rather a good place to live!)
October 31st 2016.

Yesterday's post on my other blog - Loose and Leafy - was about Golden Light in Oxford. You might like that too!

Friday 11 November 2016

SWAN AND FLAG

White swan with reflection swims towards reflection of Union Jack - neck parallel with pole.

Union Jack.
West Bay, Dorset.

October 31st 2016.
You may also like today's post on my other blog, Loose and Leafy - Golden Light at The Ashmolean (spilling onto a wet pavement).

Thursday 10 November 2016

PINK ROCKS AT WATCHET

Long strands of rocks and pooled water on bleak Somerset coast.

May 2016
Watchet at low tide.

Wednesday 9 November 2016

BRUSH AND TAKEAWAY

Coffee mug and yellow handed brush in blue container? machine? can't remember!

Brush and take-away.

Tuesday 8 November 2016

JACK IN THE PULPIT - JULY

Jack in the Pulpit beneath Topuddle Tree.

July 17th 2016
Arum maculatum
Nestled against the Tolpuddle Tree. (The most famous tree in England?)

Click for a National Trust video about the Tolpuddle Tree. It's a little repetitive but hang in there and you get to see not only its branches but right down inside the trunk

Monday 7 November 2016

FUNGUS IN QUANTOCK WOOD

Small round fungus amongst moses on a rock near a path in a wood in Somerset.

August 26th
Mosses and rock.
I should have found out what this is.
But haven't.
So if you have ideas, do say.
About an inch across. So . . . not very large but very noticeable in the gloom and the green.

Sunday 6 November 2016

EQUITY AND LEGS

Equity banner. Purple with gold faces of drama. Comedy and Tragedy.

Waiting for the Topuddle March to begin.
Equity is the Union for 'professional performers and creative practioners'.
Here, banner bearers are waiting for the 2016 Tolpuddle March to begin.
See this for more about the Tolpuddle March and Martyrs see post from 23rd October

.

GMB BANNER; DORSET

BANNER - GENERAL AND MUNICIPAL WORKERS UNION - DORST

Last Sunday, I posted a photo of the GMB banner for the South of England. Here is one for Dorset, leaning against a hedge before the procession starts.

In it I think I see
Gold Hill (a steep street in Shaftesbury)
The Topuddle Tree  (a sycamore)
Chesil Beach and the Fleet
Durdle Door and the cliffs of Purbeck
Wimborne Minster
The thatched cottages - not sure . .  there are cottages like this all over Dorset, including Topuddle. But they may also be a reference to Thomas Hardy's Cottage
The Sculpture of George Loveless

To find out more about the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival, see the first post in this series.

Saturday 5 November 2016

A PLEASANT PLACE TO SIT AND READ

Man sitting on a red and grey cylinder. Maybe a mine? Maybe a gas cylinder? Maybe some other kind of bomb?

A mine? Or an extra large gas cylinder? Or what?
Watchet. Somerset.
May 20th 2016

Friday 4 November 2016

CRANE

Part of a crane and its cables. Inverted black and white.

A different angle on the crane I posted last Friday. (Scroll down to see pictures posted between then and now.)


Thursday 3 November 2016

LICHEN

Pale green lichen on the trunk of a tree with moss. Somerset.

May 20th 2016
Quantocks

Wednesday 2 November 2016

WATCH OUT. THERE'S A CLIFF BEHIND YOU!

End of eastern cliffs at West Bay seen between block of flats and row of cottages, with boats in the foreground. Dorset

October 31st 2016
Bay.
Dorset.

Tuesday 1 November 2016

SEEDHEAD CLOCKS

Seedhead clocks in front of wooden fence.

June 20th 2016 

Monday 31 October 2016

FACE IN THE STONE

Face made by geological chance.

On shore.
With Seaweed.
July 20th 2016

Sunday 30 October 2016

GMB BANNER AT TOLPUDDLE FESTIVAL

GMB banner at Tolpuddle Festival. Unity is Strength.

July 17th 2016

For more about the day this was taken.
GMB is the General, Municipal and Boiler Makers Union.
The banner here is propped against a hedge while members gather. It will soon be taken into the road to take its place in the procession.
I think I see in the banner . . . Stone Henge (Wiltshire) The White Horse at Westbury (also Wiltshire) Windsor Castle (Berkshire) Brighton Pavilion (Sussex) A mine wheel (representing the Kent coalfields?) Is that Tower Bridge (London) poking up at the back . . . or . . . ? And what about Dorset? Maybe the fields being ploughed? Or the procession of banners itself?

Saturday 29 October 2016

CANOE ON CAR

Orange and yellow canoe on the roof of a white van / car facing railings and sea

This is evening. Down on the beach (beyond the railings) fishermen are setting up shelters. Soon, very soon, it will be dark.
West Bexington. Dorset. August 28th 2016

Friday 28 October 2016

CABLES

Metal cables in black and white


Black and White
May 20th 2016

Thursday 27 October 2016

RED BINS

Two large rubbish bins on wheels

May 20th 2016
Somerset

Wednesday 26 October 2016

RED VEINED SORREL

Red veined sorrel. Part in focus. Part out of focus.

May 17th 2016
Focus.