American life

Danville by monqey
Danville, a photo by monqey on Flickr.

Im a little slack on the posts since leaving the UK on Monday but then i have been getting use to a little thing called summer sun. yes unlike the UK, California definitely has a real summer with hot weather and sun shine instead of the usual cold damp dark summer back in the UK. Sitting in starbucks having breakfast watching the world go by and driving down to Danville for lunch is enough to keep thoughts of blighty at bay. This weekend my new nephews christening in St Helena what better way to spend a day with great family.....ah American life.

How hard can it be?


this is only part of a post that i will pick up when i get back from my hols but i had to get this posted as im just pleased as punch with my outcome. im really getting into my photography at late and starting to play a little bit more with film rather than digital, this is time consuming and unpredictable but its also very rewarding and being someone who loves processes i get a buzz out figuring out how things work and having a go. So i built a camera, it is in a sense a pinhole camera but after finding the P90 on the net i have adapted it to take medium format film. at this point i have mostly been testing it with photopaper to get the exposure times and work out the fstop on the camera, once i have this down perfect i will start to put in the film.

what you got under ya hat?

what you got under ya hat? by monqey
what you got under ya hat?, a photo by monqey on Flickr.

8 days left at work, 13 days until we fly off on our holidays and boy am i ready. i cant wait to to wake up and not have anything really to do apart from sit in the sun and relax. all the work over the past year will all be soon worth it and we will both be starting a new chapter in our life (cheeeeese). i just have to get through the next 8 day and ill be rocking.

Paul Trevor


I’ve had relaxing couple of days and took some time to go and see the Paul Trevor exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. Those who don’t know who Paul Trevor is, he is a Photographer who in 1975 came to the city to document the deprivation of post war Liverpool instead what he captured was something quite different. There backdrop may be the dereliction of post-war Liverpool. But these images go beyond this bleak cityscape and get close to his real subject: families and children.
His honest street photography shows life as it was lived in a community defiant in the face of poverty, unemployment and the state of their surroundings. He depicts a place where the streets and wastelands became playgrounds, the family was a constant, and where children seem fun-loving and free.
Now we live in a city which has changed dramatically since these times, on the surface it looks rich and affluent but I’m pretty sure underneath its quite different a once safe place for children to play is now a secured monitored playground and high walled back gardens and our streets are silent from the sounds of children playing. If anything these photos are priceless as never again will people let alone a young man take photos of innocent children playing and being. Oh how things have changed, look at how we have evolved.