We were just twenty-four hours into our first visit to Marrakesh. We had arrived in the city with high expectations. It had been on our wish-list for some years; and as this was the first holiday of any length that we had been able to take together for over a year, we were determined to enjoy it. But on the evening of our first day I stumbled on the edge of a tiled basin in a fancy restaurant and broke a bone in my foot. I spent the rest of the week on crutches ...
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The Gardens at Kew in west London date back to the mid 18th century, when they were founded by George III’s mother Princess Augusta. Today the gardens’ plant collections are the most diverse of any botanic garden in the world.
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Studio photographers can spend a lot of time getting the light just right, changing the angles, adjusting the brightness and colour. Landscape photographers don’t have that luxury; we have to work with the light we have, or wait until it changes naturally.
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Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil as it is also known, was an art and architecture movement of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, at its height 1890–1910. As an artistic philosophy it proposed that art should be a way of life, and that everyday items could be beautiful too. It was inspired by nature – flowers, animals, natural forms. In the old buildings of Riga it is at times at its most flamboyant and exuberant.
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The Empty Quarter, otherwise known as Rub’ Al Khali, is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world. It is so-called because this huge stretch of unbroken sand has defeated kings, adventurers, and nomads for thousands of years. In a region defined by deserts, the Rub’ Al Khali has come to be known as among the most daunting and inhospitable. And it is on an unfathomable scale.
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Visiting other countries, meeting people from different cultures and beliefs to our own, helps to narrow the gaps between us. We start to appreciate all the things we have in common, and to understand why some may see things differently from ourselves. We learn that having a different belief from our own doesn’t make a person less of a person; likewise wearing different clothes (or indeed different shoes!), living in a different type of home, or having a different way of life. As someone once said, ‘There is more that unites us than divides us’. Oh, and most of us…
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Artist Ben Wilson is the ‘Chewing Gum Man’. While he has produced many other artworks, it is his minute and detailed creations on discarded blobs of chewing gum that have brought him fame. And one of the best places to see them is on London’s Millennium Bridge.
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At half-time during Newcastle United games at their home stadium, St James’ Park, one song is always played. 'Coming home Newcastle' was written by Ronnie Lambert, the Geordie busker. In it he captured the feelings of exiled Geordies returning home from abroad or London. He also reflected the love that Geordies feel for their native city.
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I am often asked where we get our inspiration from when deciding where to travel next. What makes us choose one destination over another, when there are so many places we could go?
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If like me you enjoy a wander around an interesting neighbourhood just as much (if not more) as seeing the major sights of a city, Santiago’s Barrio Lastarria is likely to appeal. This is the perfect area to stroll through and enjoy for its ambiance and street life. And it's a great district in which to photograph street art.
