I have made some updates to the Photo Galleries to the right.
I have added a new album called Valencia, but this is not yet complete.
I have added to the Performance album with some photos from Les Contes D'Hoffmann and Iphigénie en Tauride. Again, this is not complete. And also, neither collection is anything like as good as they should be: the best curtain call photos happen when they take place on an open stage with good back lighting. Being very near also helps but isn't decisive. Most significantly, there are no photos from June 2007 to October 2008. This will be remedied in the fullness of time. I am also going to do an album called Stage Door.
Some of the 'Old Photos' album especially including my trips to USA and Canada in1989 and 1999 are far from complete. Some other albums will be updated from time-to-time indefinitely.
Some of the albums, notably Summer, Boring, Me Myself I, Boats and Ships, Other People's Homes, Naked Statues, Steam, Winter, Autumn, Himself, Spring, and Water Fowl, comprise mainly of duplicates from various other albums.
Most significantly, I have added an album called Favourites. The order is a bit random, reflecting the order in which the photos were originally added to this site, which barely reflects chronology. If I remember, I will occasionally edit it to change the photo that appears by default in the sidebar. It currently stands at 98 photos, and I think I am going to be strict in not letting it get above 100. I tried to avoid it being some sort of proportional representation of all the albums, but selected photos that, for some reason or other, have a 'wow' factor.
These aren't necessarily my favourite all-time photos, many of which are portraits of people, or indeed other photos that have a special meaning or memory for me. There are very few 'Performance' shots because what I take generally are low quality shots from a distance in poor light. Just for fun; like snaps of friends and family the greatest value is who is in them rather than any intrinsic photographic value.
I also realise that quite a high number of my photos are standard tourist snaps of well-known tourist landmarks. With the best will in the world, my attempts are never going to emulate the professional and highly skilled versions that proliferate on the net. Where I have included standard tourist subjects, it may be because there was an unusually good light quality or maybe I got an interesting viewpoint.
I also realise that many of the photos don't amount to much as 'standalone' but as part of a set or sequence, they start to tell a story. Indeed, perfectly conscious of my inadequacies of ability, equipment and time, I never set out to create photographs of any artistic merit. I originally got a digital camera in 2001. Initially my use of it was no different from how I had used film cameras - an occasional arty insight* - but mainly people and uninspired tourist snaps. When I started blogging, I began to get inspired by other bloggers, and go for slightly more quirky viewpoints or seemingly mundane details. I am still very poor at capturing the smaller details, but I welcome the 'development opportunity'. Nevertheless, the fundamental principle is to tell a story - my life.
*eg Aberystwyth 1974 I saw a sailing dinghy heading out to sea and saw the potential for a great photo, which I insisted on taking. I later copied it for an Art lesson at school and that was probably the best picture I ever drew. One of these days I shall get hold of it and scan it! It was bloody good for a six year old and 'not bad' by any standards, IIRC. Similarly a great shot of Lincoln Cathedral 1977.
