Brian’s Blog

Robert Burns, the famous C18th Scottish poet, wrote in his poem ‘To A Louse’: “O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!” I ran my Blueberry Photography course session in Ellesmere Port this morning, whilst next door, Lisa Bell was running her Cake Decorating course. During our joint coffee…

We have all heard this popular idiom. But what does it mean? The act of concurrence, cooperation or shared opinion? Well in fact, it’s all three. Over a professional career of 35 years I have worked for and with many organisations on a full time or contracted basis; architectural practices, professional bodies, local authorities, schools, colleges…

Pale amber sunlight falls across The reddening October trees, That hardly sway before a breeze As soft as summer: summer’s loss Seems little, dear! on days like these. From Autumnal by Ernest Dowson

I took two lovely ladies, Mandy and Beryl, out on one of my 1 2 1 Photo Tuition sessions at Chester Zoo today. Fantastic weather, sunny but with a cool wind, perfect conditions to photograph the elephants, zebras, camels, warthogs, butterflies, chimps  …. the list goes on. Superb animal sightings and both my ‘students’ got some…

‘Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower’ Albert Camus Today is the first day of autumn, well, Meteorological Autumn that is. The meteorological calendar splits the seasons into four equal periods, with spring, summer, autumn and winter all lasting exactly three months of the Gregorian calendar. This means autumn on the meteorological calendar falls…

We have all iconic, powerful images that stick in our mind. There are several that I can’t forget, and one such image is by Robert Howlett, English photographer. Many of you will have seen it, the iconic portrait of the great Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, taken in 1857, part of a commission by The Illustrated…

I’ve just posted my first video on YouTube. It’s a colourful and diverse selection of lovely images taken by participants from the Photography Workshops I ran at Dillington House, Ilminster, Somerset in July 2016. Some very imaginative and beautiful images were taken by those taking part over two days. I hope you enjoy and please forward…

I love this part of summer when the late blooms appear and especially when the rowan berries appear on the trees. The Rowan or Mountain Ash‘s myths go back to Classical times. The rowan is also prominent in Norse mythology as the tree from which the first woman was made, (the first man being made from…

Just back from my second annual visit to MCSS, and what a great week it was. I met some wonderful people over the six days, staff, fellow tutors and course attendees. My course ‘THE HEAT IS ON’, about the Anthropocene, went well with some positive feedback from a small but enthusiastic group who enjoyed discussing the…