Thank You ...

Thanks to Abi, thanks to Simon, thanks to Will ... the 3 of them are responsible for me having my first professional photography shoot here in England. 

And thanks to Kim too.  I'm not sure it would have unfolded had she not stopped at that church, the one in the mist, gifting me time to remember the sheer joy I feel when I work with my camera.

Long story short ... a couple of days later I was asked if I was interested in photographing the food that Drift Bar serves.  Of course I was.  And then I couldn't resist trying to capture their spectacular smoking cocktails.

I took this photograph for Miss 11.  We have spent more than a year, lying on my bed in the evenings, reading right through the entire series of Harry Potter.  This scene seemed very Hogwarts.

So last night was a great night, full of food photographs, taken in those 3 seconds I had them - between kitchen and table -  good people and really fun photo opportunities.  It's so good to be back. 

London tomorrow.  Let's see how that goes.

A Rainy Day in Southsea, at Drift, in England

I was searching through photographs taken just before I left Belgium.  This caught my eye, taken in our end-of-summer Belgian garden.

Today, it's raining.  It's 4.32pm as I write this and already it's dark.  Winter is coming, at speed.

The good thing ... I found a bar/restaurant/night club/diner ... a true social hub.  Everyone comes to Drift.  All ages, all walks of life.  It seems that if I sit here by the entrance, I will surely see a cross-section of the Southsea community.

It's warm and I'm glad to be here, quietly eavesdropping on the people around me. 

Meanwhile, a little bit of summer ...

Yesterday ... in Southsea, Portsmouth.

My desire to photograph all that I'm curious about is back.  Yesterday I wandered into the Drift Bar, here in Portsmouth, just needing to be around folk for a while but I ended up racing out for my camera. 

Simon, the handyman, was hanging an unusual set of lights.  Using ropes, pulleys, and fashioning a wire cage for the light bulb ... I wanted to hotograph them.

Unfortunately my packets (and packets) of AA batteries are back in London, waiting for me to return, and so I ended up grabbing my tripod and seeing what was possible.

Hopefully you get a sense of these rather extraordinary light fittings below.