Thursday 25th September - Antiques Roadshow

Hellooo again,

We had a super weekend last weekend. Bright blue skies and warm sun, it really took me back to the days when we used to have four seasons in one year, and one of them being warm and sunny.

Unfortunately a photography trip lost out to a house and garden maintenance weekend. So instead of pointing my lenses at interesting places I was pushing my paintbrush up and down window frames and sorting out an overcrowded garden. My wife did her bit too whilst the little one contented herself with riding up and down the lane and making friends with another same named girl up the lane. Although I missed out on the photographs the house and garden definitely benefited from the work put in.

Frank Matthys, he of the Bruges in 3d book, has made contact and explained that the time he is spending in completing another two 3d books prior to their planned launch has prevented him answering my questions. He has reassured me that the questions will be answered as soon as his work schedule cools down.

As I mentioned last week I was in Wells last Thursday taking 3d photos of the Antiques Roadshow that was being filmed. These pictures will not be appearing on the 3d site, Wells not being a town or village, so you'll have to wait for the 3d book to come ot to see the results. However, I have posted below a small sample of 2d versions for you to peruse. The programme should be aired sometime in January 2009. I'll advise you nearer the time.

This weeks update is of the lovely village of Combe Hay and the last page of the new Bruges pictures have been made active.

Finally, I would like to leave you with some advice given to the British public back in 1939. With another war looming and economic oppression ahead, the Ministry of Information decided a morale boosting message needed to be put out to ensure the British stiff upper lip was kept, er, stiff. Their message was to...

...'Keep calm and carry on'.

Fantastic stuff. Just as apt today I think. This website thinks so too.

Till next week. (Photos below).

Thursday 18th September - Man-Flu

This weeks blog is a great task for me as I am in the strong clutches of Man-Flu.

It's often hard to convince the female of the species just how severe this strain of the flu virus actually is! I'm often reminded of the struggle M.E. sufferers had in convincing practitioners and work colleagues that their ailment is real and not imagined. Man-Flu renders the victim helpless and unable to help themselves, constant attention is required to ensure they are kept well hydrated. An ancient mixture of hops, barley, a special yeast and water is the preferred remedy. The attack can last days, sometimes weeks, and only a true man will endeavour to ignore the distressing symptoms, and force their limbs to operate as near as normal to be able to attend work to ensure their families don't starve.

Well, before the 'Devils Disease' got hold of me we had a good weekend attending to the garden, giving it a much needed clean up and make-over. I also found time to visit a couple of villages to add to the 3d stock. Expect photos of Dundon and Butleigh to be coming your way soon.

Providing I am well enough I shall be in England's smallest city of Wells today (Thursday) where the BBC's Antique Roadshow is making an appearance. I shall be taking a couple of hours out of work to capture some 3d's of the event. These pictures will not be featured on the 3d website, instead they will be kept until I'm ready to produce a book on the city, sometime soon I hope. Talking of books, the photographer of the Bruges in 3d book, Frank Matthys, has yet to get back to me after I posted a set of questions to him. I was hoping to be able to round off the Bruges updates with his book review. We'll have to see what happens.

This weeks update is of the pretty village of Priston and the penultimate page of the new Bruges 3ds are also available to view. One of the pictures included is not one you'd expect to find in a Bruges portfolio. I came across this science-fiction shop in one of the many back streets of the city and came face to face with one of my favourite characters, the T100 from the first Terminator film. A fantastic creation and a wonderful piece of engineering I think. There are some more pictures of Bruges below for your perusal.

Right, I'm off to find another box of tissues. More next week.

Thursday 11th September - Holwell & Bruges

Hello to all,

Once again the skies are full of grey and damp and people here are getting rather fed up with it. Not only do we not get a summer but now we appear to be going straight from a dull spring right in to winter. The nights are getting darker much earlier now. It's a good job I'm an optimist.

Anyway, first of all I have some more news on the Bruges in 3d book I talked about last week. The photographer, Frank Matthys, has been in touch and has agreed to do a short feature for me to help promote the book. I've already sent my questions off and I'm hoping to have all the answers and some sample pictures back in time for next weeks blog. In the meantime you can purchase the book for €24 plus p&p but, at the moment, the ordering page on his website is only in Dutch. Has has informed me that the page will eventually be translated to English, French and German so, unless you speak Dutch, you may want to wait. His website can be found here and the order page is here. Please mention Somerset3d when you place your order.

Another website I'd like to draw your attention to is a blog by a fellow Sheptonian Stu Capon. I came about his blog via his entry in Flickr. I think his photos are excellent and really show off my home town with some fantastic images. I like his humour too so I'd like to help raise his profile a little. His blog can be found by clicking here and his Flickr entry here.

This weeks update is of the hamlet of Holwell. Many people drive through the place without realising they've gone through anything at all. This is because all that can be seen from the road are the entrances to one of the many quarries and the upper half of the Bear Inn. If you want to see where I've photographed then you are going to have to get out of the car and do a little walking. The second page of the new Bruges photographs is also featured.

Well that's all from me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some fine weather this weekend in anticipation of visiting a boot fair.

Have a good one.

Thursday 4th September - Bruges in 3d

Hello and welcome to September,

Well I'm back from my holidays and have spent most of the week catching up with the paperwork. I'm just about getting there.

I stated last week that I would let you in on a real find my wife made whilst looking around Bruges. When she handed the item to me, gift wrapped, she said that I'd be both, disappointed and pleased. This puzzled me but once I opened the package I knew what she meant. She had found and bought for me a book of 3d photos of Bruges. I was very pleased, stunned even. I've been looking to do my own book of Bruges for some time, hence why she said I'd be disappointed, but the fact that someone had beaten me to it was not a problem, as the pictures are fantastic, and there are several that I would not have been able to achieve, pictures from the air. Since my return I have contacted the photographer, Frank Matthys, to ask some questions and for a link I could paste so visitors to this site could buy the book online, as well as permission to show some of the images on this website as a taster. Alas I have yet to have a reply. So I can only provide you with this link to his website. It's not clear to me if the book can be purchased via the website but I can offer you the ISBN number if you are interested in obtaining a copy via your local bookstore. It is 978-90-8113871-0. If you can get hold of a copy I'm sure you will be as delighted as I am with mine. If any of you find it for sale online then please let me know and I'll put a link on this website for all.

So, this weeks update on the 3d site is of Dunkerton in Somerset and of some of the new 3d's I took whilst in Bruges. The Bruges page has been revamped to enable faster loading and better navigation. The new pictures start at page 5 and more pages will be added over the coming weeks.

There are also some new pictures added to my other photography website.

More next week, happy book hunting. (Pictures below of Bruges).

 

Thursday 28th - France

Bonjour and hello,

I'm still in France so another early blog.

Since the last posting I've been to Le Touquet, Bruges and Amiens.

Le Touquet (if I've spelt it right) is a very pleasant seaside resort on the French west coast. It's very tidy with lots of things for the children to do. The perfect place for people in northern France to take their families. Indeed, it felt like they all did exactly that on the day we visited. It took an age to get from the end of the motorway to the resort itself. Although once there, it didn't appear that busy. Anyway, as it wasn't a 3d day we'll have to head back there again to record it for the website.

In Bruges we had a good stroll around and enjoyed the ambience. My wife came up with a real find, more of which I'll share with you next week, as I want to do a little research before I tell you more. If you're a 3d fan it will be worth the wait, promise.

Amiens was a very enjoyable day. The cathedral is the biggest gothic example in the country and was well worth the visit. The old part of the city was equally as interesting. Needless to say I took a fair number of photographs/3d's and they will be coming your way in the non too distant future.

The weather has been rather hit & miss since we've been here, but hey, there's nothing we can do about it so we've enjoyed ourselves regardless. In fact we've been rather lucky on our days out and we have escaped the worst.

We are heading home on Friday so normal service will be resumed as of next week.

My other photography website will be updated next week too, so make sure to pop by for a visit to check out the new additions.

I hope you have all been good whilst I've been away.

Please forgive any spelling mistakes. A French keyboard does not a good typist make!

That's all for now, more next week.

Thursday 21st August – Journey to Work 2

Hello to you all,

Continuing on from the blog a couple of weeks ago, one thing that I have been made much more aware of is the varied wildlife that surrounds me.

There is rarely a day where I don’t see a buzzard flying by, or a squirrel scampering off to the nearest tree. In the fields next to our house rabbits are a constant sight, as indeed are deer and foxes. I’ve spent many an evening trying to get as close as possible to photograph the animals as they show themselves at dusk. Unfortunately the lenses I have at my disposal do not enable me to get close enough for decent photographs to be taken.

Last week, when cycling to work, I had a special treat.

From my house I have to go up a lane before coming to a junction that joins on to the old main road to Frome (Called Brottens road). After turning into the road and travelling about 20 metres I was aware of a large bird sitting on the fence to the right, just ahead of me. As I got closer I could see that it was an Owl of some sort. I expected it to fly away but it just sat on the fence and carefully watched me as I peddled past. It was a good sized specimen. At a guess I would say he was about 60cm height at least, maybe bigger. I passed within about 2 metres of it and found it fascinating to be able to see one so close without it being in captivity. Once I got to work I spoke to my boss, who is a keen bird watcher, and after giving him a description he was able to tell me that it would have been a young Tawny Owl. Apparently it’s quite a normal thing for them to sit on fences. An older Owl would have flown off. The picture shown is not one of mine but was found in Flickr and belongs to a set by Joanpix.

My knowledge of wildlife is rather limited but seeing these wonderful creatures on a regular basis really encourages me to want to know more.

My biggest problem is that I have too many other interests and so find it difficult to spend as much time as I’d wish on learning something new.


This week's update is the village of Hemington.

I'm on location in France at the moment, hence the early updqte, so next week's blog will have news on where I've been and what photographs you have to look forward to viewing to on my return.

Thanks for reading, more coming your way next week.

Thursday 14th August - Combe Hay

Good morning,

Last weekend was a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise, but I managed to get out and about on Sunday to capture some more Somerset villages for the 3d site.

The initial plan was to visit Peasdown St John and then to explore the area around the town. Peasdown is a place mostly filled with housing estates, so it was a bit of a challenge to find subjects that I felt would be interesting to the viewer. So challenging in fact that I'm going to have to go back for another search to ensure I have enough pictures to post.

After Peasdown I then ventured off to a nearby village called Carlingcott, then on to Withyditch, followed by Dunkerton, Combe Hay, Southstoke and, finally, Priston.

All the locations had their individual appeal and, in each case, I had never been to any of them before.

At Combe Hay you will find a Cotswolds stone marker at the entrance to the village. Many will be surprised to find such a marker in Somerset as, to most people, the Cotswolds are in Gloucestershire. Well, that's partly true. The Cotswolds lie mainly within Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire but also extend into four more counties, in the form of Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and good old Somerset(shire). Not many people know that.

The photo-shoot at Combe Hay was in two parts as I was rudely interrupted mid-way through by a violent storm. I had to take refuge in a nearby pub and console myself with a cheese sandwich and a glass of fizzy carbonated pop (No product placement here!).

The second half of the shoot ended with me witnessing the many attempts 3 stables girls took to convince their nervous horse that it was ok to get into the trailer (Photos below).

The 3d's will be coming your way soon. This week's update is of Chard.


More from me next week, have a good one.