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Category: street

  • A change of perspective

    Many visitors to Tuscany bypass the town of Pietrasanta. There is no single, iconic sight associated with the town. The appeal comes from small galleries and workshops. Temporary exhibitions of sculpture, usually featuring the local Carrara marble. And partly, perhaps, that’s because there’s no direct train from the main tourist hubs – from Florence, Cinque…

  • Olympus “keep warm color” menu option

    What’s all that about then? Dig into the menus of your Olympus camera, and you’ll likely find two different options for auto white balance. There’s the regular, default mode, and there’s another mode that says “keep warm color off”. Now, much as I love Olympus – and I’ve been shooting Olympus for long enough to…

  • Where are your photos from 20 years ago?

    Do you know where your photos from 20 years ago are?  The big social network of the day was MySpace. Theoretically it still exists, but a botched server migration in 2015 led to the loss of most user data – over 12 years of content – so if you were hoping to find your Christmas…

  • When inspiration fails

    Picture the scene. I am standing underneath an old railway clock with a group of friends. The railway station is long-gone, over 60 years ago. The clock isn’t even in its original location because it’s been relocated to the side of the road, a victim of Edinburgh’s relentlessly increasing traffic. This is a regular catch-up…

  • Scotland Street Tunnel

    King George V Park is one of Edinburgh’s hidden spaces. Maybe not an obvious place for casual visitors because it’s just a local park – a green space for local folk who don’t have their own gardens, and a place for children to play. And it’s also, bizarrely, the site of a disused railway tunnel…

  • SEX before marriage = HELL after death

    Every year during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, preachers make their way to the city centre to spread their message of hell and damnation. This image from 2003 captures a fleeting moment of tension on the bustle of the Royal Mile. The image is anchored by the preacher’s placard bearing a stark message: SEX before marriage…

  • Cane chair, Kelso

    I have no clear memory of taking this photo. From my notes, I know that it was taken using Kodak T-Max Pro 400. And from the context – the photos on either side of the negative were all shot in and around Kelso – I presume that that’s the location. But beyond that, my memory…

  • Liminal spaces

    According to the internet, liminal spaces are empty or abandoned places that appear eerie and forlorn. as such, I’m often drawn to photograph them. Reddit has a whole community dedicated to liminal spaces but beware – the posts there are often of back rooms or empty shopping malls with no real liminal qualities. Which begs…

  • But I don’t want to be a pig farmer

    If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style. It’s no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, ‘really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.’ By then, pigs will be your style. There are many variations of this quote from Quentin Crisp. They’re all slightly different, and…

  • Convertible in the snow

    An MG Midget parked on a residential Edinburgh street during the Beast From the East in 2018 I had often seen and admired this car while out walking in Portobello. Some people like their vintage cars immaculate – concourse ready, as the phrase goes. I go more for the “gently distressed” look, so this car…