Thursday, 18 June 2015
Rudston...
In the village of Rudston, near Bridlington, is the tallest standing stone in the country: 26ft high. Dating back to about 2,000BC, the stone was quarried in nearby Cayton...
Monday, 15 June 2015
Leeds...
The Leeds-Liverpool canal in a more urban setting: the centre of Leeds... with a train pulling into the station...
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Muggy...
Left my camera behind and took a stroll along the Rochdale Canal, near Littleborough. Weather warm and humid - ‘close’ and ‘muggy’, as we say in Yorkshire - with a thunderstorm likely, later on. Time seemed to stand still. The water in the canal was black, like pitch; it looked thixotropic, as much solid as liquid. Plenty of people on the towpath, all ready to stop and exchanges a few words… about something, or nothing…
Friday, 12 June 2015
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Small talk...
One good thing about travelling is the reduction in small talk. People have no real interest in your welfare, and I’ve slowly come to realise that the opening gambit of “Are you OK?”, in the places where I hear it, isn’t a question at all… and can safely be ignored. The answer to this pseudo-question is “a Big Mac, please” or “a pint of bitter”, rather than sharing intimate details about my health or finances.
I was in a branch of McDonalds this morning (hey, don’t judge me: clean toilets and free wifi), and the girl at the counter asked what I wanted. “A bacon roll”, I said, “with ketchup”. “Would you like ketchup with that?”, she asked brightly, before correcting herself. A curse on the managers, who hide in their offices, far away from the punters, and make the McDonalds minions parrot these scripts like robots. I ordered a cup of tea as well, which immediately initiated another question: “Would you like to make that a meal?”. McDonalds is the only restaurant I know where the addition of a hash brown magically transforms a bacon roll into a meal. And is it even a restaurant at all if there’s no plates, no cutlery and you’re supposed to tip your personal detritus into a bin on your way out?
A few weeks ago, while enjoing the clean toilets and free wifi in another branch of McDonalds, I asked for a cup of tea. “I’m sorry”, said the girl at the counter. “The tea machine is broken”. I spotted a box of tea-bags, and another source of boiling water, and wondered if tea-bag and hot water could be brought together in a paper cup, given a stir and - voila - a cup of tea. “You don’t understand”, said the girl, pointing behind her where an engineer had the front off the machine and was ferreting around inside. “The tea machine is broken”.
Time to stop sniping at McDonalds, perhaps; they’re losing customers, around the world, as bargain basement burgers don’t cut the mustard any more. Kids no longer get taken to McDonalds as a treat; a visit to Ronald McDonald is now a punishment for bad behaviour. I wonder, idly, what the future might be for a global franchise whose food is crap, and whose reputation is shot. Soon the only customers left will be businessmen with laptops and spreadsheets, who need clean toilets, free wifi, a sit-down and a cup of tea… provided the machine is working…
I was in a branch of McDonalds this morning (hey, don’t judge me: clean toilets and free wifi), and the girl at the counter asked what I wanted. “A bacon roll”, I said, “with ketchup”. “Would you like ketchup with that?”, she asked brightly, before correcting herself. A curse on the managers, who hide in their offices, far away from the punters, and make the McDonalds minions parrot these scripts like robots. I ordered a cup of tea as well, which immediately initiated another question: “Would you like to make that a meal?”. McDonalds is the only restaurant I know where the addition of a hash brown magically transforms a bacon roll into a meal. And is it even a restaurant at all if there’s no plates, no cutlery and you’re supposed to tip your personal detritus into a bin on your way out?
A few weeks ago, while enjoing the clean toilets and free wifi in another branch of McDonalds, I asked for a cup of tea. “I’m sorry”, said the girl at the counter. “The tea machine is broken”. I spotted a box of tea-bags, and another source of boiling water, and wondered if tea-bag and hot water could be brought together in a paper cup, given a stir and - voila - a cup of tea. “You don’t understand”, said the girl, pointing behind her where an engineer had the front off the machine and was ferreting around inside. “The tea machine is broken”.
Time to stop sniping at McDonalds, perhaps; they’re losing customers, around the world, as bargain basement burgers don’t cut the mustard any more. Kids no longer get taken to McDonalds as a treat; a visit to Ronald McDonald is now a punishment for bad behaviour. I wonder, idly, what the future might be for a global franchise whose food is crap, and whose reputation is shot. Soon the only customers left will be businessmen with laptops and spreadsheets, who need clean toilets, free wifi, a sit-down and a cup of tea… provided the machine is working…
Monday, 8 June 2015
Shooting stock...
I’m not a ‘natural’ stock photographer, but, then, who is? Does anyone harbour childhood dreams of taking pictures and adding therm to a great big pile, in the hope that the people who buy pictures will look through them and pick yours? I don’t think so. I’m also a writer and, over the years, writing ‘on spec’ has always been understood as the mark of a rank amateur. Proper writers follow the pragmatic advice of Samuel Johnson: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money”. That’s changing too, of course, as an increasing number of people seem happy to write for nothing, or ‘peanuts’, and plenty of people seem happy to give their pictures away too (or post them online, which can be much the same thing)…
So how is it possible to make a living out of stock photography (or, more likely, make a supplementary income)? I joined the world of stock photography about five years ago, from a standing start, knowing next to nothing about the particular and peculiar requirements of the stock market. It’s been a bumpy ride, watching my favourite pictures fail to sell, while other pix are, bafflingly, licensed again and again. I had to rethink so many aspects of photography, it was like starting afresh…
So how is it possible to make a living out of stock photography (or, more likely, make a supplementary income)? I joined the world of stock photography about five years ago, from a standing start, knowing next to nothing about the particular and peculiar requirements of the stock market. It’s been a bumpy ride, watching my favourite pictures fail to sell, while other pix are, bafflingly, licensed again and again. I had to rethink so many aspects of photography, it was like starting afresh…
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