September 20th A selection of images taken on our week in The Orkney Islands. From our remote coastal cottage on the cliffs at South Ronaldsay we covered most of the main island visiting Kirkwall, Stromness, Maeshowe, Ring of Brodgar and several more places including taking the ferry over to Hoy. I love the sea and find the rhythm of the crashing waves most therapeutic and these images include a subset of 5 more detailed shots of the breaking waves.The Orkneys are are a very isolated group of islands. Exposed and open to the elements with a permanent bracing wind. It has all of the trappings of the 21st century, with 4G coverage in the remotest of places, but in comparison to England it is extremely quiet, which was something I enjoyed. We rounded off the week with a visit to The Kelpies in Falkirk. A very pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning, which rounded off a most enjoyable week.

July 12th I spent a rather hot day with my camera in Canary Wharf and Greenwich with members of the Halstead & District Photographic Society. For a lot of photographers, a bright sunny day is not ideal for photography, but I revelled in it and armed with my polarising filters made the the most of the blue sky and bright light. To achieve some variation in my set of photo's I used all 3 of my main lenses which allowed me to get some dramatic wide angle shots of the buildings and some discreet long range street photography. A lot of the images leant themselves to monochrome and the adaptive black anf white feature on the latest version of Photoshop came in rather useful. I'm really pleased with this set and think it represents what I saw on the day.

May '25 We arrived in Saigon on May 3rd and any preconceptions I had of the city went straight out of the window, Despite being a communist state, 50 years after the end of the American War, Saigon was very much a thriving 21st Century City. And busy, so very busy. Our time in Vietnam really was an adventure, we went on a rowing boat in the backwaters of the Mekon Jungle, Flew up to Dang An and spent some time in the delightful Hoi An. Then experienced a journey through the mountains to Hue (which reminded me of travelling through the Alps many years ago). In Hue we went on a Rickshaw tour of the city by twilight and then explored it by day on the back of a motorbike, which included visiting the Royal Palace. Then it was a 15 hour overnight train journey from Hue to Hanoi which was an experience to say the least. Whilst in Hanoi we went to the famous Train Street which was a most surreal experience and ended our holiday with a mini cruise and overnight stay on a boat in Halong Bay. It was quite a full on week which at times was tiring, but we had a blast!

April '25 I've finally finished editing the photo's I took in Cambodia. So far, this is my favourite set. I seem to have OD'd on the food market and the children were happy to pose and who could not want to capture their smiles and innocent faces. It starts off with images at Angkor Watt. The light was flat, the images contrasty, there wasn't much colour, so black & white it was. The last few were at the prison in Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields memorial, which was a chilling experience.

July'25 Having returned from our travels with plenty of wonderful memories we thought it would be fitting to have a permanent photographic reminder of what we had seen on our travels, so I created this piece of wall art which is 90cm x 60cm and printed on aluminium. I have tried to create a piece of work with 9 images which tells a story, but also makes a complete singular image. It's still in production at the printers so I'm excited about seeing the finished product.

April '25 We arrived in Bangkok at around 21.00 on Friday 25th April. We had 3 nights there before we joined the Intrepid tour of Cambodia and Vietnam. We spent the Saturday exploring the local area firstly by foot and the by Tuk Tuk. We discovered a splendid Castle and gardens on the bank of the river and then the most beautiful Buddhist Temple complete with huge gold Buddha's and Spire. We then took a Tuk Tuk to the quay where the river trips departed and visited a floating market and 'The Big Buddha' which was enormous but unfortuate covered in scaffolding as it was being restored. The evening was spent enjoying the vibrant atmosphere and the excellent local food.It was only a brief stay in Bangkok, but thouroughly enjoyable. It was a shame we didn't jave longer there.

June '25 On June 5th I made the short journey to Bury St Edmunds for a shoot with Bobbi Castle at the Visions the Venue Studio. Bobbi was a pleasure to work with who had a bubbly personality and had lots of constructive ideas. Here is a small selection of the images I took. As with the session I had there before Christmas with Georgia Brown, they tend to lend themselves to Black & White

May '25 May saw me complete my first full season as a member of the Halstead & District Photographic Society and I would have to say it has been a pleasure to be a member of the club. During the course of the season they hold 6 competition evenings, 2 each for Colour Print, Mono Print and Projected Image and I have enjoyed taking part. I am pleased to say that I ended up winning the Mono Print section and also end of season the Mono Print of the Year competition. The winning image is pictured ; The Girl With The Far Away Eyes. To see all 6 of the images I entered for the Mono Section please click on the link.

April '25 After three weeks of a pretty full on time travelling and road trips, we arrived in Bali on Sat 19th April for some much needed R&R. We were based at the Sevn Legian Hotel which was just a short walk from Legian beach, with its parade of bars and eateries, colourful sun beds and surfers. I loved the vibe down there. Although often cloudy, the weather was hot and humid with temperatures around the 28-30c mark. We did spend some time lounging by the rooftop bar and pool sipping ridiculously cheap cocktails and generally unwinding. We also ventured into the Ubud area of Bali, where we visited a coffee plantation, temple, waterfall, monkey park and rice terrace. It was a busy day and the traffic was testing, but it was good to see a different area of the island. Sadly, we never quite reached the countryside, the city sprawled on forever.

April '25 On April 7th we arrived in Perth for a 12 night stay in the Tuart Hill area of the city where our son is now living. This time we had rented an apartment through Airbnb and we experienced what it must be like to live in Perth. Fortunately Ben had a car and was happy to show us around the local area and also further afield. We visited The Pinnacles which was a 2 hour drive north along the coast and York, which was about the same distance inland as well as Fremantle. It was just as well we did have Ben to show us around as some of these places weren't accessible by public transport. Being in Perth was a totally different experience to being in Tokyo. It was less busy and built up and the climate and terrain were totally different. Gone was the Cherry Blossom, Temples, Neon Lights and bustling, but orderly atmosphere and in was the sunshine, beaches, palm trees and Gallah's. Perth had a lot in common with England which made it easier for us to settle in, but even in the autumn the weather was warmer than a British summer.

March '25 From March 31st - April 7th we had the pleasure of spending 7 nights in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. We timed our visit to coincide with the famous Cherry Blossom season and although the weather did it's best to spoil our time there, the Cherry Blossom didn't disappoint. It was absolutely stunning. We also visited the Hakone area south of Tokyo where we saw the more traditional side of Japan. Our only disappointment was that Mt Fuji was shrouded in clouds and wasn't visible. I have narrowed down the 400+ photo's that I took to 65, just to paint a picture of what we saw.