New Zealand War Memorial
Posted: Wed 23 August, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, London, Photography, Sculpture, Sociable, Travel, Walking Leave a comment »Last Sunday, I was in London to meet friends and eat food. (I know, it’s a shock)
I was hugely early (also not a shock) but semi-intentionally so, as I’d originally planned to do a decent-ish walk (still no shocks) and then meet up. But other plans from the day before had changed, so I started off by knocking the planned 8-miler on the head, and instead taking the Tube in to London, have a smaller more sensible walk, and then meet up.
And then I walked, and it all changed a bit, so I ended up still doing a nearly-eight-miler. Because I’m an idiot. (Hey, where are those shocks? Nope, still not happening)
The route was a bit different to my usual ones though, and on a couple of occasions ended up with “Oh, I could go that way, but I’ve done that before. So let’s go this way instead”. On one part of that, by Hyde Park Corner, I opted to cut through by Wellington Arch instead.
And in there, it turns out that there’s a huge sculpture piece for the New Zealand War Memorial. It really is quite epic – and yet dwarfed by the buildings, arches and other stuff nearby.
I really liked it – and although this time I was on a bit of a stomp, I’ll definitely go back on an occasion where I’ve more time, and look at them properly.
2017 Inspirations – Photography
Posted: Sun 8 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017 Inspirations, Change, Creativity, Day Trips, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Photography, Single Life, Thoughts, Travel 3 Comments »As things change for me in 2017 – well, as I do new stuff, or restart old stuff – I’m hoping/intending/planning to write more about it here on D4D as well, along with things about what’s driving those choices. So there’s a new subject/category to cover it all. And this is where it all starts.
As long-term readers know, I was into photography for a long time, did pretty well at it, and even ended up taking a course while I was in Norfolk in order to better understand what the hell I was trying to do.
But since Norfolk and Suffolk, I’ve been doing a lot less photography. Some of that is due to my mobile phone, where the pixel count is higher than the SLR I still have. It’s also about faff – lugging an SLR around for the day (particularly when doing anything else, like one of my idiotically long walks) is a hefty job anyway, and it’s simply never ready for a quick photo. Using the SLR is a much bigger commitment in many ways, and over the last four years, I really haven’t been making that commitment.
This year, I want to change that, and do more where I actually go out with the SLR, with the intention of taking photos.
The first real inspiration for that has been this story on the BBC, of Dean Saunderson’s photos of a deserted Nottingham on Christmas morning. It’s something that works for me, having been to many places at ungodly-o’clock, and seeing them with very few people around. Oxford, for example, is beautiful at 5am on a summer Sunday morning – and the same applies for many other cities. So this is a theme/topic/idea I could get into, and will probably have a few goes at over this year.
We’ll see at the end of the year how I do on these inspirations. It’s going to be a year where I (hopefully) figure out more about the things I want to continue doing, and which ones I’ll be happier to leave by the wayside in order to do other things.