El Fugitivö

These houses look so small and sad I wouldn’t want to live here The weather is so bloody bad I wouldn’t want to live here These people have such narrow minds I wouldn’t want to be them They live such little lives I wouldn’t want to be them The fear of those that are not their own I don’t know what possesses them Lives led with such a small horizon I don’t know what possesses them Crumble down the once great pillars of state Crumble down You can’t survive without care Think I’m going out of my mind This country lives in past glories No hope for the future The dim and dumb are safe and proud unaware they’ve been taken A land long run by spivs and shysters Into the ground Crumbled into the ground

My Dad always used to recite a little rhyme:         The Earth belongs unto the Lord         And all that it contains         Except the Kyles and the Western Isles         And they are all MacBrayne's

Calanais is on the isle of Lewis and is famous for its standing stones.  Stones have been standing there for over 5000 years and the site is older than Stonehenge.  The stones are smaller and finer than the huge pillars of Stonehenge and are very beautiful.  We visited Calanais this summer on a wonderful bike ride where we visited most of the inner and outer Hebrides.

So I visited the V&A last week in the hope of getting to see the Pink Floyd exhibition before it closed.  No such luck alas, so I consoled myself with taking a few pictures of some of the public exhibits!

Battersea is a traditional working class area of London that is undergoing an astonishing amount of change.  Many of the old buildings are being redeveloped or demolished, and whole new areas of waterfront apartments are being built.  London brick is making way for glass and chrome.  I though I'd take a few photos to document some of the more interesting old and new architectures in the area. Battersea Power Station A massive structure that was left derelict for the best part of 20 years.  Now it's one huge building site and a great thing to photograph.

The South Downs Way is an ancient 160km road from Winchester to Eastbourne. It's been used for around 8000 years and has numerous ancient sites along its route. We normally get the train from Clapham Junction to Amberley as it's cheap.  Amberley is almost halfway along so it's possible to go back to Winchester, on to Eastbourne or head off route to Brighton or Worthing.

ISO200 | f2.8 | 1/320 Lulu is a perfect model.  Today she was kind enough to spare some of her valuable time so I could take some photos of her.  To be honest we were both interested to see, in an entirely unscientific way, what differences there were between the photos from a SLR, an iPhone, and a Point & Shoot compact camera.

So while Herne Hill is usually used for Track, every Sunday afternoon it is transformed for a Cyclocross race. ISO200 | f9 | 1/320

Herne Hill is one of the few remaining sites of the 1947 Olympics held in London. Nearly lost to developers in the 90's it now has a huge following and a brand new stadium.   Saturday morning is 2 hours of fast track bike action.  No gears, no brakes - exciting! ISO 200 | 1/25sec | f3.5