Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
The above photo is one of my favourites from the few days I spent in Venice back in 2004. It was taken from St Mark’s Campanile and shows the amazing St. Mark’s Square. The small round dots in the shadowed area on the left side of the square are tables for people to enjoy a coffee around. It is definitely another place I want to revisit sometime in the future and some of the best views of the city can be seen from this point.
There was a big communications tower on top of a large hill close to the city centre of Zurich, so after discussing this with Zoe and Andras my hosts and consulting the map, I took the 40 minute train ride up to the top of Uetilberg. This was a lovely forested park with dozens of walks and cycle tracks down into the city. The above image is the best I could capture, due to the diffused lighting conditions and my relatively short 200mm lens.
Getting up the hilly areas around cities such as Edinburgh, or in this case Barcelona, can be hard work, especially with a lot of heavy camera gear in 30 degree heat, but it was worth the effort for the above photo. This view of Barcelona’s Harbour was taken from edge of the Gardens of Joan Brossa. Just behind this viewing platform was a small cafe for refreshments.
Todays treat was my first ever flying lesson thanks to a generous birthday gift. I couldn’t have picked a better day for it, the weather was cold, but sunny and not a lot of wind. Taking off from Barton Airfield (now re-named Manchester City Airport) I flew a 1975 Cessna 172 Skyhawk II light aircraft. It was only a short flight and being in the pilots seat meant very little opportunity for photography. This is the only publishable photograph I took in the air. According to my research on Google Earth this picture shows the town of Swinton and the main road is the East Lancashire Road. When I landed back on the airfield I did however take some better photographs of planes and helicopters. Aviation and aerial photography is definitely a keen interest of mine, maybe one day when I’m not a poor student I will have the money to afford such an expensive hobby. For now, I will stick with my photographs and this website!