17
Sep
2009
St Pauls Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral is certainly an icon of London. The images of the great dome standing above the smoke of WWII is certainly one that will live in our collective conscious for years to come. Officially the Cathedral Church of Paul the Apostle, the church is at least the 5th St Paul’s to sit on this site. The first according to Bede was built in 604 AD.
Crossing Over
This photo was taken from the pedestrian bridge that connects Bankside with the City of London. It’s taken at a very shallow depth of field in order to accomplish the dreamy feel of this image. The only thing in focus at all is the dome and the mass of humanity before it become little more than a blur. This church was built after the last was destroyed by the great fire in 1666. The fire leveled the city but remarkably took no human life. The fire shaped everything about the city we know today, built in stone to lower the risk of fire consuming it. The dome was a point of much debate. The architect, the renowned Sir Christopher Wren was determined that the new St Paul’s would have a dome like St. Peter’s in Rome. Several iterations of the design were rejected before Wren decided not to show any more models to the public for criticism. When it was completed in 1708, some loved it, some hated it, and others couldn’t care either way. Today it’s hard to imagine the sky line of the old city without it.
Old And New
Another view of St. Paul’s From Bankside. The view is much changed since WWII. The buildings adjacent to the Thames were destroyed in the war and newer generations of buildings have grown up between the River and the cathedral. And more recently, the millennium bridge was built as a pedestrian walkway to connect the City of London with Bankside on opposite sides of the River Thames. London as a city has never gotten stuck in a particular style. As a growing metropolis, new and exciting architecture is always fighting for space beside the classics. Much as the classics, these are sometimes met with mixed reactions. When the Millennium bridge was completed in 2000, there was a noticeable wobble and the bridge was closed, repaired and reopened in 2002. This led to its nickname The Wobbly Bridge.
Iconic St Paul's
Another black and white image of St. Paul’s. The depth of field and processing was intended to provide a little of the feel of the old images of St. Paul’s amidst the smoke from the Blitz of WWII.
To see more of London and Great Britain, please check out my Britain Prints Gallery.
15
Sep
2009
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge (informally Cambridge University) is the second oldest university in the English speaking world. It was established in 1209 and consists of 31 colleges dotted around the landscape of modern Cambridge.
Kings From The Cam
The Backs is the view of the colleges from the River Cam. The chapel on the right is quintessential Cambridge. This Chapel is both the symbol of Kings and the logo of the city council of Cambridge. Although locally the college is simply referred to as Kings, this is King’s College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge. Established in 1441 by Henry VI, the gothic styled chapel took a hundred years to complete.
Kings
This is the street side view of Kings – you can really feel that gorgeous gothic style in this black and white print. The exterior height of the chapel is 94 feet tall and the interior ceiling contains the largest fan vaulting in the world.
Emma
This college is known as “Emma” locally – it is Emmanuel College. It was established in 1584 and intended to be a place of religious training for puritans. It’s scope has broadened over the years, but it had strong ties to the Puritans of New England. In fact, Harvard University was named for an alumni of Emma, John Harvard. The baroque building in the center is the chapel and was designed by the renowned English architect, Sir Christopher Wren in 1677. The care of the lawn here is apparent down to the little green garden tractor you’ll see waiting parked in front of the chapel!
This is only a taste of Cambridge. It would easily take days to document all the colleges never mind the rest of the architecture in this city. I hope I get the opportunity to some day. To see more of England and the UK, please check out my Britain Prints Gallery.
25
Aug
2009
Stonehenge On The Plains
On my last trip to the UK, there was some repeat stops. Since this was my 5th visit to Britain, this should not be a surprise, however. The truth was, that my last visit to Stonehenge had been over 4 years earlier and before I bought a digital SLR and truly got into photography seriously, so it was time to return.
Ancient Plains
The second time through, I skipped the audio tour. They may well have updated it in the past four years, but I really just wanted to wander around and take photos and enjoy the view in relative silence. Unfortunately, a large road is nearby, which somewhat kills the feeling of those still plains that must have once existed, but it’s still an incredible place to visit. The skies shifted a lot during our time there as clouds rapidly passed by and the light (when there was any light) was special.
Round The Henge
The day we visited, I noticed that a professor I’d seen on the history channel, Mike Parker Pearson, was filming a piece on Stonehenge. The professor has put forth one of the newest theories on the purpose of Stonehenge. He believed that there would be a second site near Stonehenge and discovered a wooden contemporary village down a nearby river. He put forth the idea that the wooden village was occupied primarily at the spring and fall equinoxes and that on those days, the people who built Stonehenge visited it to celebrate and to mourn the fallen whose cremated remains where left behind here. It makes logical sense for a people who were far more tied to the seasons than most of us are today. But you have to wonder if we will ever really know the minds of the people who built this place 5,000 years ago.
Ruins Of The Lost
A last view of this incredible ancient monument to a lost people. I’ve been twice and although I would love to see more of these ancient stone age sites, I would gladly visit Stonehenge again. I’d love to get the chance to visit on an Equinox and see what the ancients saw. Sadly, I’ve heard from more than one person that Stonehenge was a disappointment. It failed to live up to their expectations! I find it hard to believe, but it’s not as large as some people think it is, and for understandable reasons, you are not allowed close to the stones anymore. Still, try to imagine building something like this yourself with nothing but stone tools, creativity and ingenuity! I know I wouldn’t know where to begin designing it never mind erecting it! You absolutely have to put a site like this into context when you visit it.
For more prints from around Great Britain, please check out my Britain Print Gallery.
20
Aug
2009
Saint Catherine’s Monastery
There was one part of the journey that I felt I only walked away with one shot I really liked. I’ll explain that in a minute, but first, that one shot.
Side By Side
This photo was taken outside the walls of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. Inside the walls is a bush revered to be the original burning bush from biblical history. It’s also the site of the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, founded in the 6th century by Helena, mother of Constantine I. It’s also a place where Muslims and Christians exist side by side. Within the grounds of Saint Catherine’s is both a church and a mosque. It’s a place of incredible and rugged beauty as you can tell from this black and white photo.
It’s also the base of Mount Sinai, and the starting point for many for the 3,750 steps of penitence. When you climb this route, you are supposed to be following in the footsteps of Moses. And that most of my group did. Frankly, I probably should not have. I was in no shape for such a climb, but I went anyway, just arriving at the top as the last of the sunset finished. And just in time to turn back around! It was an incredible trek and I’m very proud to have completed it, but I’ve done my penitence and if I was ever near Mount Sinai again, I would take the camel route up if I went up at all!
For more prints of Egypt, please check out my Egypt Gallery.
2
Jul
2009
London Calling – Print Available
To date, my most popular print was taken on my second trip to the UK in May of 2005. I have always had a fondness for the traditional British Red Telephone Boxes. There’s something about them that immediately says Britain. I simply cannot tell you how many photos I’ve taken of them in previous and subsequent trips. In some ways, they have very much become dinosaurs in this age of mobile phones, but from Scottish Islands to city streets in London, you’ll still find these boxes dotting the landscape.
The first Red Telephone Box was the result of a competition in 1924 and was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. There were a few iterations culminating in the current design in 1935 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V. This is the familiar design that has found its way throughout the United Kingdom and beyond today.
London Calling - Red Telephone Box
This particular phone booth was photographed near the Embankment Tube Station near the Thames. It was taken with my simple point and shoot Olympus camera. Obviously, I then utilized photoshop for the final product, converting the image to black and white and then with a virtual brush, removing the black and white layer just from the phone box to allow the booth to really shine. While I’ve seen this type of selective color treatment done frequently, it’s definitely a style that requires just the right image. I believe I found it in this case.
Although so far I have mainly created work that was destined to be printed for display, this is one work that I have also converted into a popular t-shirt which is also available.
London Calling T-shirt
