Piazza Building at Mercia Marina
For the last few months I have been photographing the Piazza building at Mercia Marina in Willington as it was being completed and made ready for the new businesses. It’s a great companion building to the Boardwalk with similarly striking architecture. I have to say I’m thrilled with the images I got of the Piazza, […]
Scarecrows in Duffield
I have just finished processing all the photos of the scarecrows from the Duffield Arts Festival weekend and, as the official photographer, I am in deep despair… I didn’t photograph them all! I captured only 68 out of the 73. I kept saying to people I met on the trail: ‘If the official photographer can’t […]
Duffield Arts Festival
I was delighted to act as the official photographer for the first ever Duffield Arts Festival. As it took place over one weekend, I got a strong sense of the life led by a blue-arsed fly. For a first-time effort, the festival was a pronounced success with a wide spectrum of activities and events – […]
TCH gets some TLC!
I was commissioned by TC Harrison Ford at Pride Park in Derby to take some night shots of their dealership frontage for an advertisement in Derbyshire Life magazine. This was both a satisfying and frustrating night. Satisfying because I took the required shots. A fairly clear night brought me a deep blue sky and I was delighted with […]
Duffield Town Street Tap – Official opening
Having had the good taste to use one of my Duffield images for their new ale Duffield Amber, the Town Street Tap Room has now put six of my Derwent Valley images on the wall of its recently-opened micro pub. Thanks to the Tap Room manager Jamie Traynor for his good taste. So, I offered to […]
Belper Food & Drink Fest 2016
I spent a fair part of Sunday shooting the 10th Belper Food, Real Ale & Craft Festival. My pride in Belper soars with each passing year and, in spite of a rainy start, there was still a substantial turnout and midday arrivals were eventually greeted by sunshine. There were the usual 100 plus stalls, a remarkable figure considering […]
Belper Mill – Part of the Fabric
I visited a fascinating art installation at Belper Mill: Part of the Fabric, created by Tan Draig, OBE. At first sight, it’s a web wrapped around the pillars supporting the cast iron structure of Belper’s North Mill. Remarkably, this maze is one long continuous thread, enough to weave a man’s suit out of. As Tan told […]
When She Was 84: My photos of the Queen
As the Queen marks her 90th birthday, I am reflecting on the time when, as the official photographer for the Derby Cathedral Quarter, I was commissioned to shoot the Queen’s visit to Derby Cathedral for the Royal Maundy. This is the annual tradition whereby the reigning monarch gives a purse of money to the elderly […]
Heage Windmill Sails Away
As a Trustee of Heage Windmill – and the guy who runs the website – I get to take a few photos, which is always a pleasure as the windmill is such a beautiful sight. Not at the moment, though… due to a severe case of wet rot in the main timbers, the sails had […]
Derby Silk Mill – What If? Machine
With my projected photo book of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site in mind, I spent an enjoyable Saturday afternoon photographing at Derby’s Silk Mill as six teams combined in the 2016 What If? Machine project. Running since 2012, What If? sees the design, build and operation of a Goldberg / Heath Robinson ‘chain […]