Showered. Arriving in London's Trafalgar Square at 6:00pm one evening in early August, I was attracted by the late afternoon sun shining through the spray of the fountains. Under the previous administration photographers could be told off for taking pictures in Trafalgar Square – for reasons that no-one really could understand – but I shot seven or eight pics quite quickly, of which this was the last. The arrangement of the water droplets is a matter of chance of course, especially as there was some gusty wind, but I was pleased with the single drop in focus in front of the statue's chin. Presented as a 20-inch flush-mounted print, just like the old days. [posted 29 December 2011] / more...

Windows. A reflection of the 368-metre high Fernsehturm (the TV tower) in the glass shell of a nearby building close to Alexanderplatz, to the east of Berlin city centre. Obviously I was on the ground, not standing square-on to the centre of the building, so both vertical and horizontal perspective – and lens distortion – have been adjusted so that the grid of windows is absolutely square. In competition the judge liked the print a lot and gave it 20/20 (thanks Ron!). [posted 29 November 2011] / more...

Lovelocked. Travelling in Germany I'd noticed the fashion for modern young people to proclaim their love by marking a padlock and fixing it to a railing somewhere; the engineering equivalent of carving initials on a tree. Some of the names are even machine-engraved. But on the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge over the Rhine in Cologne I found a magnificent display, of which this image is only a tiny part. A bit of fill-in from the on-camera flash, to add some saturation in the flat misty lighting. A slight lack of focal point perhaps, although the heart on the lower-left third should be good enough. In competition – despite the title and on a 7-foot screen – the judge thought it was taken in a hardware store... [posted 29 November 2010] / more...

The Colosseum at Night. From my recent 'Grand Tour' in Italy, details of which are in the Grand Tour blog. In Rome I was staying about 20 minutes walk from the Colosseum, and went down there one evening with the camera to arrive at twilight. I wandered up and down the road for a while, waiting for most of the light to fade. Then walked round the Colosseum and took a few photos; one side has a road and traffic lights, so pics are impossible there. It was very dark and the Nikon D300 was working hard: set to ISO3200, -2.0EV compensation, and reporting low exposure. In fact it did 1/6 second at f/6.3. VR of the Nikon 18-200mm lens turned on of course. [posted 24 June 2010] / more...

Cycle Path. I guess this image would be labelled a pattern picture. Certainly a mix of textures, from the hatched lines of the terraced planting to the intersecting circles of the red paving. A strong diagonal from bottom right to top left, crossing a 'curved diagonal' from the cyclist round the top of the image to the top right corner. The photo was taken from a footpath beside a railway bridge over the river, near the huge cathedral in Cologne [Köln], Germany, as I set out on my Grand Tour in 2008. I think the two people in the background are important in blocking off that corner of the image. A small but careful crop. [posted 6 February 2010] / more...

Berlin: Remains of the Wall. Not all of the Wall came down, 20 years ago. Preserving a section of it as a reminder of man's inhumanity to man is so important. I took this photo on my first visit to Berlin, in 2008, from the 'Western' side. An exhibition below it here, Topography of Terror, documents the course of 'official terrorism' from the 30s till the fall of the wall; it's very moving and thought provoking. Along the road is the Checkpoint Charlie Haus; nearby are boards with many quotes and comments and photos, including the well-known picture [attributed to Reuters: I can't find the photographer's name] of the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich – 'Slava' – playing Bach cello suites at a breach in the wall a day or so after it fell. [posted 9 November 2009] / more...

Cornered. Placing the head quite tight in the corner of the image – behind the silhouettes of the bars – gives it a feeling of being imprisoned. Which, in a sense, it is. The sculpted head is let into the wall of the Heldendenkmal [the Heroes' Monument] in Vienna. It overlooks a stairway to the roofless 'hall of honour' on top of the memorial, and this image is shot through the gates at the bottom of the stairway. It's essentially a straight shot, with not much adjustment apart from the normal fine tuning; and there was some strong sun on the wall, so the top-left needed to be brought under control. The monument was designed by Rudolf Wondracek, a student of Otto Wagner. [posted October 2009] / more...

The Japanese Camera Dance. A wet day in Vienna, in front of the Neue Burg wing of the Hofburg palace. A small group of Japanese tourists were taking photos of each other with the Neue Burg in the background, and here in front of the statue of Archduke Karl on his prancing horse (out of the picture to the left). Like me they were fighting with umbrellas in the strong wind, and probably feeling as fed up with the weather as I was. This couple had a practiced routine and were clearly looking for perfection. I liked their co-ordinated colours. Just time for a couple of grab shots. [taken on my Grand Tour, and posted March 2009] / more...

Leaving. The wonderfully restored St Pancras International station in London – built originally by William Henry Barlow in 1868 – with Paul Day's new statue The Meeting Place. On one of several brief visits to the station since it reopened in November 2007 I had the Nikon D300 and 12-24mm lens with me. Perhaps because I had departure on my mind (St Pancras was soon to be the starting point for my first Eurostar trip and the beginning of the Grand Tour) I had more of a feeling of leaving than of meeting. Luckily I caught a passing commuter as he walked away out of the picture, to make the point and give the statue some scale. [posted August 2008] / more...

The New World Trade Center. In May 1972 I travelled with a colleague to visit a customer in Connecticut, USA. In a moment of uncharacteristic generosity our boss had agreed that we could fly into New York and stay a couple of nights before moving on to New England. So after arriving late we awoke to a dull Sunday morning to go sightseeing. But by the end of the morning the sun was shining. Late in the afternoon we took the ferry to Liberty Island. On the journey back to Manhatten everyone was excited by the view of the New York skyline, and the two huge towers that were just being completed... For obvious reasons I've steered clear of using these images on the Web in recent years. [posted April 2008] / more...