We are still in lockdown here in the UK, This lockdown seems to be so much more difficult than the previous two. Perhaps it is because we have been under some kind of restriction for a year now. Perhaps it is because the British weather is doing its worst. It’s cold, windy, rainy, dank and miserable, apart from about half an hour one day last week. For just thirty short minutes the sun broke through, and I made a dash outside to see whether I could collect some new shots for my A Good Half Mile project.

Sometime last year, I am not sure when since last year has now blended into about three hundred near identical COVID lockdown days, I came across a photography competition. I rarely enter competitions, but this once caught my eye as it is was being run by the lovely people at Fujifilm and there was a chance to win a special edition Fujifilm X100V.

We are still deep in lockdown here Dear Readers. The Delightful Mr F and I have not gone completely stir crazy as yet, but with the vaccine being rolled out at an impressive rate, we hope that we will be able to leave our immediate surroundings soon. In the meantime, I though it was about time I shared my lockdown project. It’s called “A Good Half Mile”.

I took this photo during a workshop with Kevin Mullins on the 31st January this year. COVID-19 hadn’t really made it anywhere close to the UK, and this poster from the previous day’s news seemed of little importance. I only took it because I was trying to “warm up my creative eye”. As it turned out, it was probably the most relevant photography I took all year in terms of documenting what was going on.

And so the lockdown continues, and I can’t see it being lifted in any significant way for sometime to come. My daily walk takes more or less the same route, with the same cheery wave to the same runner on the opposite side of the same street, at the same time. I always take my camera and have noted a pattern to what I am photographing.

Well Dear Readers, what can I say? Life is very topsy-turvy* at the moment isn’t it? I hope you and your family are all safe and well.  I know it feels like a lifetime ago, but on the 31st January, you would have found me on a train heading to London for a Street Photography Workshop with Kevin Mullins.

I have been a very bad blogger indeed. I have failed repeatedly to schedule any blog posts whatsoever in the last few months. To make matters worse, I am, at this very moment, committing that terrible blogging sin of typing this post straight into Squarespace. No drafting, no editing, no checking for grammatical or typing errors. This is blogging on the edge. It's risky, but hey, you never know, I may produce blogging gold. Or maybe not. 

… and then there was rain.

For all my best intentions for getting a grip of 2019, 2019 seems to have got a stronger grip on me. I went for a whole three weeks without shooting a single frame, between work, travel for work and the fact that I forgot to take my camera when I was travelling, August was a complete wash out.

with apologies to Emily Dickinson and Kate Atkinson.

Well, it has been a while hasn’t it? I do apologise. I have been out shooting as normal but blogging time seems to have been at a minimum recently.

The Delightful Mr F and I decided we needed some sea air to blow away the cobwebs, and generally give us a lift. So, this morning at 04:30, we got up, grabbed our camera gear and headed for the coast.

The Delightful Mr F and I had a few days off recently. With the sun shining, we headed down to the coast for some sea air. I thought I would take the opportunity to experiment some more with Intentional Camera Movement. Arriving at the sea front, it was what one can only describe as bracing. The wind was biting, but we were at the seaside, and so didn’t care.

A few weeks ago, The Delightful Mr F and I headed off to Bath for a photography morning. I wanted to try out my new Fuji lens, the XF 16-55mm f2.8, and The Delightful Mr F wanted to try his new 21mm f2 lens on his film OM1. Also packed in our kit bag was the marvellous Brain’s Foto Guide for Bath.

It has been a while Dear Readers, and for that I can only apologise. The long and the short of it is that MS has laid me low these last few weeks. MS is a horrible, insidious disease, which comes and goes as it pleases. When it arrives, it brings pain, fatigue and total frustration with it. I have been getting through the day on what the Delightful Mr F describes as sheer grit and courage.