Loreto Piazza Maddonna

Loreto is an amazing walled town high on a hill on the East Coast of Italy. Napoleon came here on 9th February 1797. There is supposed to be hidden treasure in casks somewhere in this town. But I think the treasure is the fantastic buildings.

PISA

As this blog is titled Photographic Travels, I suppose I'd better put some travel pictures on it. I photographed the leaning tower with the cathedral before it, so you can see just how much it leans, for those who haven't seen it, but while we were there it felt like the world, his mother, and his grandmother were all there. So I expect you all have been there too. The tower was totally amazing and very beautiful, carved out of white marble.

AMY

Thought I'd better put some portraits on my blog. Of all the photos I take, I enjoy taking portraits the most. I'm usually very nervous taking them, I try so hard to make the sitter relax by telling jokes that usually bomb, and I end up feeling very silly. But I love the results of portraits more than landscapes and other stuff. Portraits look best when the sitter looks right into the camera lens, but I love this photo of Amy, even though you can hardly see her face. It's one of my favourite photos.

Albert

Albert couldn't remember what he'd eaten - but it didn't half make his bum taste nasty.

Ruins

We came across these ruins in the Swiss Alps on a very twisted pass. We found a place to turn round so I could take a photo of it. I thought it looked very atmospheric with the late evening sunlight casting shadows over it.

Orange Flowers

CAT

Delemere Forest

I had to travel a long, long way to take this photo!

Capri

'It was the Isle of Capri where I met her' This song came drifting towards us wherever we walked on this gorgeous Island.

An Alley in Lucca

There was a tall tower in Lucca and having walked around its tiny streets for hours I was too tired to climb up the tower, so Warren went up while I had a little wander down the alley ways. I saw the sun shining down on this little alley. Pity about the graffiti.

DAISY

I had this one daisy in a plant pot but thought it was a bit boring so I draped a red cloth behind it. I also used a blue cloth and a green one, but I thought the red had more impact. There was only ever one daisy, no more would grow.

Pebbles

I took this photo on a beach in France. As you can see I am never specific in naming the locations, because my memory is so bad, I can never remember where I have been. So somewhere in France in the South, I took this. As I was kneeling on the wet sand with my camera pressed to my nose, I was suddenly startled by a voice in my ear. I turned, and there beside me was a man peering at the spot where my camera was pointing. I apologised and said I didn't understand him, "I'm English" So he said in heavily accented English slowly and loudly "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Taking photos of the pebbles I told him. He stood up shaking his head and walked off down the beach saying in English loudly so I could hear him: "YOU ENGLISH ARE MAD".
Now do you think I was mad to take this photograph?

Cactus Dahlia

This flower looks a bit like an explosion

Painting on a wall in Sorrento

I found this so amazing. This was painted on a wall. The 3D effect really makes it feel like a real building. A very talented artist.

The streets of Lucca

I took some photos like this in focus, but I thought it looked much better out of focus. This was taken in Lucca, Italy. A medieval walled town.

We camped here at the Polar Circle this is the view from our caravan window

I took this photo at about 4.30 in the morning just as the sun was rising. There was only about two hours of night time, and even then it never went dark. The sun was still shining at midnight. So to get a photo with the sun so low was quite a feat.

What is this? A cicada or a grasshopper?

Up in the Italian mountains we came across this spider

Lake Como