Cinema America

8th July 2012

Somewhere in Roma, the old Cinema America.

A sea of sunflowers

6th July 2012

In the beautiful hills of Umbria, somewhere up behind the hill city of Todi, lies a mythical sea of sunflowers…

The view down to the water garden

19th March 2014

Sigiriya is a massive  rock monolith in central Sri Lanka.  At over 200m tall it towers over the surrounding plains and has been inhabited for several thousand of years by various peoples, from Buddhists to regional kings.  These days the water gardens have long since fallen into disrepair and the buildings atop the rock are nothing more than brick foundations.

Misty

19th March 2014

Early morning mist hangs over the hills around Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Tenby

30th Dec 2007

Early morning in Tenby, Wales and all is calm.

Fishing

10th April 2009

Local folk fishing on the Malecon in Havana- looking towards the Hotel Nacional de Cuba from Centro Havana.

Panama Viejo

24th June 2009

Panama City is a hectic place, the streets full of people and the local “Diablo Rojo” (red devil) buses – highly decorated old school buses – that ply the streets at high speed (although these are now being phased out and replaced with bland modern buses).  It’s also a city of contrasts with areas of high rise apartments (the tallest in Central America) and North American style shopping malls rubbing shoulders with shanty towns and market stalls.  In it’s drive for modernisation much of the ‘old’ Panama City has been lost, however some of the old colonial charm and character can be found in the relatively small area of Panama Viejo.  For a long time this was a seedy, run down and dangerous neighbourhood, but is now slowly being gentrified, as artists, designers and even posh ice cream shops move in.  Even film crews can be found there these days – this building featured in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace”.

Making Tracks

17th April 2009

If you have the chance to visit Trinidad in Cuba then do so, as it’s a wonderful little town with some good food and even better places to stay (if you can escape the ‘casa mafia’).  Whilst there you can take a steam train out to an old plantation – it’s old and slow, but, this being Cuba, there’s no health and safety, so you can climb up on the engine and watch the country side roll by.  On our journey back from the plantation the driver abandoned the train and all his passengers to go and have a catch with some friends in a house near the track, and then when we were on our way again it started to rain and the train eventually broke down just outside of town and we all had to walk home.  Worth every peso.

linear

1st Sept 2011

A different view of the ‘Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias’ on the outskirts of Valencia.  This ‘city’ was mainly designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava and is situated in the dry river bed of the river Turia (which was diverted years prior).  Initial construction was finished in 1998, although additions were being added up to 2005 – these days it’s a huge tourist draw and a great place to take photos, although it’s starting to look decidedly rough around the edges.

3 of a kind

23rd April 2012

3 lada cars in a back street of the town of Ohrid, on the banks of Lake Ohrid (which sits on the border between Macedonia & Albania).