BLUE SKIES AND WARM STONE

Church Street, Honley A walk from Netherton to Honley and back again - down, up, down, up - and the day decides to practice at being Spring. The skies are blue and the stone is thinking about trying to absorb the coming heat.

TICKETS PLEASE

Vintage Bus Tickets (Alan Burnett) There is something rather beautiful about old bus tickets. Those stout cardboard ones from seventy or so years ago, or those brightly coloured paper ones of forty or fifty years ago - there is both a tactile and visual pleasure in both. Where they exist today, bus tickets are meaningless … Continue reading TICKETS PLEASE

FROZEN IN TIME AND SURROUNDED BY HISTORY

Two Unknown Women At The Seaside (1940s) This little two inch square print fell out of my "Unknown Photos" box whilst I was rescuing another print. It clearly was determined to be scanned and processed and shared with the world - so here it is. Whoever the subjects are, they were frozen in time and … Continue reading FROZEN IN TIME AND SURROUNDED BY HISTORY

MARINE HOTEL

1920s Photograph : Marine Hotel, Barmouth A photograph from a collection of unknown and unloved old photos which I acquired for a few pounds on eBay. It is captioned "Marine Hotel, Barmouth" and probably dates from the 1920s. It was in monochrome: I have taken the liberty of adding a dash of colour to its … Continue reading MARINE HOTEL

ROMEO REMEMBERED

The Edwardian actor, Harcourt Williams, As Romeo (1905) The absence of Instagram and the like back in Edwardian times meant that celebrities had to turn to other methods of "getting themselves out there". Luckily they were able to climb onto the great postcard craze bandwagon. Ernest George Harcourt Williams (1880-1957) began his career playing Mr … Continue reading ROMEO REMEMBERED

ON THE MOORS

Looking back through my negative archives, it seems that I had captioned the original negative as "unknown moorland location". Forty years after taking the photo, I still have no idea where I was when I took it. Time has added even more uncertainty - and so have a variety of Photoshop filters. The result is … Continue reading ON THE MOORS

A Different Frame Of View

This is one of my photographs from forty or fifty years ago. The building is, of course, instantly recognisable: it is what was then Halifax Parish Church, and is now Halifax Minster. The frame will not be as instantly recognisable: the railway viaduct that carried the line from Halifax Station to North Bridge has been … Continue reading A Different Frame Of View

Around The world In 80 Words : 14. Winter

Last year I embarked on a silly project - to go around the world with just eighty word changes to my what3word geolocation code. It is the kind of thing you do when you are lucky enough to have nothing better to do. I am accompanied by my faithful, but argumentative, dog, Lucy, and with … Continue reading Around The world In 80 Words : 14. Winter

Negative Vibes In Elland

When the modern world is getting you down, you can always climb aboard your chemical-powered time machine and revisit former times. The chemicals in question include dimezone, phenidone, sodium hydroxide, and sodium thiosulfate - otherwise known as photographic developers and fixers! - and you don't even need to reopen the bottles. Just take an old … Continue reading Negative Vibes In Elland