Well let’s all hope so, although I have a feeling it may be wet and cold a bit yet before it properly gets there.
It was great to get out into some sunshine with no biting wind. Here’s a short video shot using a GoPro HD, mounted on a chest harness, in the woods around Cardiff (Fforest Fawr, Wennault and the ridgeway, dropping into Cefn Onn) For once it wasn’t a mud-fest….
Milk Race stage winner Ben Luckwell punches the air as he crosses the line, Stage 6, Leicester, 5th June, 1993.
The Milk Race, 1993, Briton, Ben Luckwell (Team Raleigh Banana) steams to victory in Leicester at the end of a 165km stage in the English Midlands.
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Just before the snow hit my home city of Cardiff pretty hard the other week, I headed to London by train and bike. Not to escape it (honest!) but to shoot pictures and do a bit of networking at the Outdoor/Cycle/Boat show at the Excel in the docklands.
After a couple of days cooped in at the expo I’d had quite enough, so my mate, with whom I was staying, and I, took a walk in the snow. First port of call was Greenwich Park where the meridian and observatory is. The place was heaving with kids and adults and sledges. It’s unusual to have extensive snow cover in the UK’s capital and also to fall on a weekend so everyone was making the most of the opportunity.
Slopes covered in people enjoying the weekend snow at Greenwich Park, London, in the shadow of the Royal Observatory.
Striking out along the snowy summit ridge, ice axe in one hand, walking pole in the other, in misty conditions. Beware corniced edges.
(Click to enlarge this and other pics.)
The most southern of the peaks over 3000ft catalogued by Sir Hugh Munro , Ben Lomond rises out of the east side of the tranquil and deep waters of the loch by the same name. A peak within easy access of Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, it’s a familiar and benign introduction for many people to the ancient kingdom’s larger mountains. Benign in most seasons that is: go in the grip of winter and it can be another beastie altogether.
I had a few days in Scotland last week and whilst the weather was reasonably good i.e. not throwing it down – rain or snow, my bro and I headed out into the hills just North of Glasgow.
The following is a 14.5 km (9 mile) walk taking in Ben Venue which is a modest hill of 729m.
A rarity in Scotland this path is pretty much way-marked right up to high levels (click to enlarge pics)
We chose this one as the cloud base was fairly low that day and we wanted at least a chance of seeing a view from the top!
Parking up in a lay-by in Ledart we headed up the track off the road there and made our way across the small burn (stream) on a way marked path into the woodland.
Digital copy of hand print – negative shot on 35mm film in summer 1994. (click to enlarge)
Pyg Track, Snowdon, Wales, UK.
I found this print again the other day whilst having a rummage for something else. Given the current liking for digital effects filters such as Instagram and as of today, Twitter, offer and the superficial similarity with the way this image looks here, I thought it would be worth talking about.
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3/12/12 Cardiff. International Day of People with Disability and anti-ATOS protest held by disability rights campaigners Disabled People Against Cuts at the foot of the statue of Aneurin Bevan – founder of the NHS. Campaigner Netta Chachamu lights the last of the flames and holds her candle in silent vigil.
On Monday 3rd December, in Cardiff, protesters from Disabled People Against Cuts spelled out their message for International Day of People with Disability on the pavement, in front of the statue of NHS founder, Aneurin Bevan.
Protesters claim that Atos – a private company contracted by the UK Government’s Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) – has been pressurising many people with their current Work Capability Assessment (for Incapacity Benefit), to seek work who in no-way can or should be asked to; sometimes, seemingly, with dire consequences.
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Sharon, ~ 8, from Katwe, Kampala, Uganda
It’s 2012 and so much stigma still surrounds HIV/AIDS. It’s sad, completely unnecessary and most of all it gets in the way and leads to more tragedy.
Sharon, pictured above, touched my heart. She was the first person I ever met who subsequently succumbed to this dreadful disease. She would have most likely been infected either during pregnancy or when she was born or possibly through breast-feeding. When she sat for this portrait in June 2004 she would have been around 8 years old – her exact age wasn’t known.
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Hyde Park, London, 10th January 2009. Protest against the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Those gathered at the rally held the more common placards and also these large painted masks several feet tall above them.
This image was made on 10th January 2009, but it could have so easily been today. Hyde Park was literally freezing cold that day and as the rally finished, press photographers were allowed up on stage; this was the rather eerie yet symbolic view on a 80-200mm lens looking towards the back of the assembled crowd.
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Sunlight falls across the leafy Bulmore Road, Usk Valley, Monmouthshire in Autumn
After I had taken the new site live to the world the other day I decided it was high time I went out for a ride on the bike. For those that don’t know me well, I’m more than just a bit of a keen cyclist. On this occasion, it being one of those rarities in Wales; a bright and sunny Autumn day, I headed out into the Usk valley via Newport, slung a camera into a back-pack and saw what interesting landscape images would catch my eye.
From Cardiff it’s about a 45-50 mile return trip if you cycle all the way to Usk – the market town that sits on the river of the same name ; and given the days are short now I made up my mind not to go as far as that but cut it short. (see cycle route map & stats here)
