These are all the portfolios on the site. Click on a portfolio thumbnail, or name, to see the contents in detail.
:: Seaside
Coastal images, seascapes and details. Mostly of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, in Southwest England, but also some from my other visits to the UK coast, for example, Wester Ross and the Scilly Isles. (You'll find other seaside images in
Lyme Light and
Beach Huts for example.)
:: Field Studies
There are lots of arable and pasture fields near my house, and they have proved a source of great inspiration to me - whether newly ploughed in autumn, frosted in winter, full of sighing ripe corn, or reduced to shaved stubble. Here are just a few of the photos I have taken - enjoy the rural idyll with me!
More can be found in Harvest Home and Flowers of the Field.
:: Beach Huts
The English have a habit of building small wooden huts at the seaside, some for daytime shelter from the sun (and often, the rain), and others that are like little homes from home, for extended stays. They come complete with dinghy, TV antenna, and, I fondly imagine, a huge selection of well-thumbed airport paperbacks.
Lyme Regis, in Dorset, UK, sports many examples of both kinds. These photographs try to capture some of their quixotic charm - I do hope you enjoy my harmless obsession with what are, essentially, very expensive sheds.
:: Flotsam and Jetsam
I love the rocks, sand and seaweed of the beach, but also find the brightly coloured things that wash up rather interesting - especially the contrast in colour, surface and form between the man-made and the natural.
Monmouth Beach, to the west of Lyme Regis, is my favourite haunt. Here, currents and tides conspire to wash up large quantities of stuff, especially during winter storms.
Every spring there is a communal Beach Clean and all the plastic and metal is taken away, but in a few weeks, it starts sidling back again for my perusal.
Why flotsam and jetsam? In legal terms, one is floating wreckage in the sea, the other is stuff thrown (jettisoned) from boats, but the term has now come to mean most strandline rubbish.
:: Lyme Light
Lyme Regis is just a mile from my home. It is much-photographed, as you will see from the postcards if you come to visit. I like to find some slightly less formulaic images of little details and odd corners in this charming old-fashioned seaside town in Southwest England. I hope you enjoy sharing them with me.
(More local scenes are in my Flotsam and Jetsam portfolio, which may be of interest to beachcombers, and Beach Huts, where I explore the charms of the British seaside beach hut. Jurassic Coast contains several views of the cliffs seen from Lyme.)
:: Four Elements
A small selection of photos that explore the interaction of earth, water, air and fire. Given my coastal home, many involve just water and air, as the surface of the sea is a source of endless inspiration and delight. (I like to think of light as the fifth element, one that is the essence of all my images here.)
:: Black and White
Monochrome images, mostly of the same local subjects as my colour photos, but since these have a more specialised appeal, I have collected them here in one place.
:: Bran Tub
Everyone has a few odd photographs that do not fit in tidily with the rest: here are mine. You may be lucky and find something that appeals - or you may pick the equivalent of the melted penny chew at the bottom of the Lucky Dip.
:: Harbour Lights
Lyme is a delightful seaside resort, very old-fashioned in the main. However, there is a small estate of mobile homes at Monmouth Beach, which to me has a curious charm all of its own. I am intrigued by the contrasts of a wonderful natural setting and suburban accessories (the barbecue, the new car, the big boat, and lots of fences). Thus, the idea of a portfolio exploring the juxtaposition of beauty and the mundane came to me.
Often, a stroll along the beach of an evening reveals the owners sitting in their lounges watching the TV. Behind net curtains, they are apparently unmoved by the sun going down like thunder.
A more charitable correspondent of mine has a much kinder interpretation, which makes me rather ashamed of my own cynicism. He sees "modest trailers that don't try to compete with an awe inspiring natural setting. So often, you see huge, opulent mansions on the edge of the sea - here a simple structure is enough to accommodate basic requirements of shelter, yet the homeowner has a vast horizon to explore each morning at breakfast..."
(By the way, Harbour Lights was a rather cheesy UK TV series set just up the coast at West Bay.)
:: Devon/Dorset Landscapes
Local scenes, mostly of the hinterland of the
Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. This lovely countryside is itself designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. These are the photos that don’t belong in more specialised portfolios, like
Field Studies for example.
:: Jurassic Coast
Landscapes / seascapes of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, which stretches 150 km from Orcombe Point in Devon to Old Harry rocks near Swanage, Dorset. As I live at its centre, near Lyme Regis, most of the pictures come from that part.
:: Colour Studies
Minimalist seascapes and skyscapes, where a limited palette and subtle patterning conveys, I hope, a dreamy quality.
:: Harvest Home
Field Studies taken at harvest time: ripe corn, bales, and stubble. A bittersweet time: the blissful experience of warm golden sunshine, ripe blackberries in the hedge, and the robin singing, all evoke a slight shiver of anticipation for the darker, colder times to come.
:: * new works *
One or two selected images added recently to the site.