Author Archive
Red squirrels at Shap Wells
As a teenager living near Warrington, I used to explore the northern parts of Cheshire on my bicycle and clearly remember seeing red squirrels around Dunham Massey, on the fringes on south west Manchester. I’m sure they are long gone and like almost everywhere else in England, they were wiped out by the larger grey …read more
Grimsthorpe
Cheriton major
Culcheth
Cheriton annual march
Shaw House 2024
Charles I trial at the Cromwell Museum
Charles I memorial march (ECWS)
ECWS plus details from around London and events including The Society of King Charles the Martyr, The Royal Stuart Society, The Order of the Crown of Stuart, and The Memorial of Merit of King Charles the Martyr.
This year – 2024
Waverley
Crowland Abbey
Stanway House
Monmouth
Last year – 2023
Early last year the monarchy was very much in the public eye, with Prince Harry releasing an autobiography and then the coronation of King Charles. Re-enactment photography continued, though street and protest seemed as interesting. Not enough time for the Lake District – that must change in 2024.
Death of the Queen
If they ever let us choose, I’d certainly vote for a republic, yet I appreciated the historical significance of Queen Elizabeth’s death and wanted to capture the atmosphere in London before the funeral. In any case, for those two weeks everything else was cancelled! People left flowers and soft toys, shop windows marked her life, …read more
Ukraine invasion
Ukraine
From the first day of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I’ve been photographing protests around London in support of Ukraine’s resistance against the attack and the rapes, atrocities and other war crimes committed by Russian soldiers. Initial shock and improvised posters then turned to determination organisation, and national pride at victories on the battlefield, …read more
New + Old Favourites
Projects
Covid-19
As 2020 began I was drawn to things falling over (Brexit was finally happening) and in the subdued celebration of Chinese New Year one could sense the first distant ripples of Covid-19. After February’s gales, in March the pandemic stormed across the UK. Even with Johnson’s government packed with ministers chosen for their loyalty to …read more
Cherry blossom time, South London
At this time of year my daily walk often takes a left turn down Winterbrook Road in Herne Hill for the spectacular cherry blossom. The Yoshino trees were planted less than a decade ago as an experiment – Yoshinos are usually for parks – but they have been such a success and I doubt I …read more
The day before
With only one day to go before the UK leaves the EU, Remainers from all over the country gathered for a final, well final-ish, protest against Brexit. SODEM intend to keep protesting and holding the government to account. Although Brexit will have been “done” in the sense of leaving the world’s largest free trade bloc, …read more
Vintage sports cars
I wouldn’t consider myself a car enthusiast, and I doubt I would ever have noticed the Vintage Sports-car Club if I hadn’t been up in the Lake District one autumn and noticed an event at a nearby slate quarry. Knowing that the location would provide wonderful backgrounds, I spent the day high up a fell …read more
BJ forced back to Parliament
The day after the UK Supreme Court’s 11-0 verdict had ruled Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament to be illegal, BJ had just arrived to face the House of Commons.
Ragged Victorians
The ‘Ragged Victorians – The Great Unwashed‘ are a living history group re-enacting the lower classes of Victorian England, c1851.
Whitehall Watch
Parliament has been on its summer break since Boris Johnson moved into Downing Street. The new government’s planning for a kamikaze Brexit is being conducted at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall, and the SODEM protesters have started a daily “#Whitehallwatch” protest in that area. Whatever the weather, they are there – and yesterday was very …read more
Brexit
The 2016 Brexit referendum turned Britain into an international laughing stock. Brexit’s leaders couldn’t agree what kind of Brexit the country had voted for, and the hapless Theresa “Brexit means Brexit” May wouldn’t seek wider consensus to seek a sensible Brexit (big assumption, I know!). She then decided to call a general election but lost …read more
Another 6pm shout
Last Thursday a far right mob had walked from the Old Bailey to Parliament after their leader had again been sent to prison, this time for activity that endangered the trial of child abusers. Some thugs went straight for the anti-Brexit protesters and forced them to flee. Flags were burnt and poles were broken, but …read more
Daily protest
Every evening the SODEM pro-EU protesters go to the gates outside the Houses of Parliament and tell MPs what to do with Brexit. This is with the Fuji X-T2, shot at 4K, and yes, I know I overcooked the sound. As I have been doing more video, I acquired a Rode VideoMic microphone last week …read more
Yellow vests in Whitehall
On Saturday I was in central London just as a protest march approached the Cenotaph in Whitehall. It turned out to be a “yellow vest” protest mixing chants about Lee Rigby (the soldier murdered in Woolwich by Islamist thugs), prosecution of soldiers for alleged crimes, and in favour of Brexit. Once you’ve got the idea, …read more
The British way
This morning I was idly recording close-up clips of flags fluttering in the sunshine outside Parliament, filler material for other videos, when I heard the angry Brexiter. Maybe some words had already been exchanged between them, but I think he had recognised the elderly former Conservative MP John Gummer and was directing his rant at …read more
Guy Verhofstadt visits SODEM
On Friday May 10, 2019 the former Belgian PM and now head of the EU Parliament’s Brexit committee Guy Verhofstadt was in London to help kick off the Liberals’ campaign for the EU elections. Hold on a second, I thought the EU was supposed to be undemocratic? Anyway, as part of his trip, he arranged …read more
Extinction Rebellion
I’ve just added a couple of new collections of pictures to the site – one on the Brexit protests and another on Extinction Rebellion. A year ago I remember telling a German friend how I have never really felt at home in London, even after 30+ years and how I’ve always thought that in 5 …read more
XR
Musical Monday
Almost three years after making the country an international laughing stock, the Brexiters still don’t agree what Brexit means and Theresa May has failed to force through her “Brexit means Brexit” on March 29. So protesters remain outside Parliament, Brexiters alleging betrayal and treason, Remainers more hopeful that Brexit can be reversed. It’s busier when …read more
1640s timelapse
After experimenting with the iPhone’s standard timelapse feature at the Brexit and Extinction Rebellion protests here in London, I thought it might suit a historical re-enactment that I was going to over the Easter weekend. The phone was left on the tripod while I carried on photographing, and the files were automatically imported into Lightroom …read more
Another day in Brexistan
The scenes outside Parliament continue to fascinate me, and on a nice day it’s too tempting to continue my daily walk round Dulwich and carry on the 4-5km into central London, or I’ll just catch the bus up to Westminster and spend an hour or two there. This was a Wednesday, usually more busy thanks …read more
Brexistani Times
The video does have a few rough edges, but I hope it gives a good impression of the scenes outside Parliament every day. It’s a combination of stills taken on my Fuji X-T2 and video from my iPhone.
Ploughing on….
One morning last week I got home from a brisk walk around Dulwich, pleased to have done my daily exercise and ready to spend the rest of the day working. But I was straight back out of the door soon after turning on the computer and seeing that a local pub had tweeted a video …read more
Street candid
I have always admired “street photography” which I see as essentially observational or candid and regardless of the physical location (I like this definition candid public photography), and some of my earliest “serious” photographs like the couple in Trafalgar Square fitted squarely into the genre. It’s a challenge to spot the amusing side of otherwise-ordinary …read more
I often post new pictures to Instagram and odd videos on YouTube. Don’t take this as evidence of any burgeoning or semi-coherent social media strategy, let alone of any ambition to become an “influencer” or whatever. It’s partly a demonstration that I am still alive, if anyone out there is kind enough to wonder.
The public
Living History displays
Commemoration
2017 has been and gone
I knew I was struggling to keep the blog going, but I just realized that I hadn’t made a single “real” post in the whole of 2017! I am still alive, I do tweet, quite often, I still help people in forums, occasionally exchange harsh words too, and Facebook a little too, which I am …read more
Author
I’ve written about 10 books teaching aspects of digital photography, though my background wasn’t in photography or graphic arts and I had to figure things out. Photography had been a passionate hobby, and I loved darkroom printing, then working for the printing press manufacturer Heidelberg I first tried Photoshop in the early 1990s and slowly …read more
Consultant
My knowledge of Lightroom has origins in my murky past as a spreadsheet warrior. As a chartered accountant, in the 1990s I learnt to program Excel and databases and then moved to financial IT consulting, implementing big accounting systems, OLAP cubes and “business intelligence”. That background happened to be ideal for managing photos and the …read more
#2016top3 3/3 – Grange Crags
The third of my #2016top3 favourite images, a birch and bracken on Grange Crags, has in fact already been on the blog. The photo was taken in mid January, and what I like so much is that the scene was completely different when I first noticed its potential but developed exactly how I imagined it. …read more
#2016top3 2/3 – Honister Pass
You’re looking up the Honister Pass from the Buttermere side, and the lights at the top belong to the quarry. It’s a scene I’ve shot in daytime with the light coming down the valley and picking out the curves of the wet road, but the idea of shooting it at night has been in the …read more
#2016top3 1/3 Rainbows
In the last few days there’s been a Twitter hashtag going round, #2016top3, for your favourite 3 landscapes of the year, and as I had joined in I thought it was a good excuse to get myself back into posting to this blog. I like to get up to Borrowdale early each November. It can …read more
Fuji XT-2 – an easy camera to like
I can’t be the only photographer whose head has been turned by the new Fuji XT-2, and this week I had a great chance to play with one at Fixation in Vauxhall. So if anyone else is wobbling or wondering – and if anyone still reads this blog – I thought I’d jot down my …read more
Lake District V
Hadrian’s Wall
Sometimes re-enactments seem to come to me, rather than me finding them. In September 2015 I was up in the Lake District, in fact cooking my evening meal, when I caught the words “re-enactment” and “Hadrian’s Wall” on the television in the other room. It turned out that a 100+ strong group called Legio I …read more
Lake District III
Lake District I
Lake District IV
Sealed Knot hi res photos
These photos are copyright of the photographer but may be used freely for Sealed Knot publicity. Try to give a photo credit to the SK and the photographer. We’ve reviewed the photos for authentic details and other potentially-awkward content, but contact John if there’s something you notice.
Others
Earlier periods
Every historical era has its re-enacting enthusiasts. Imperial Rome has an obvious attraction, and lets people research authentic uniform and tactics, but others enjoy being Saxons or Vikings for the weekend and are not deterred by a relative paucity of evidence. By the Medieval period, documentary records and paintings again offer plenty of assistance, and …read more
History Pages
These pages share my pictures of recent historical re-enactments with participants. Only recent events are here but I can easily upload other galleries if you want to see something from previous years or look at a certain group or topic. If you are shown, I happily send you copies of the pictures for your own …read more
Historical re-enactment
In recent years I’ve been fascinated by historical re-enactment, especially depicting the English Civil War
Landscape
Mostly the Lake District
Photos
I’m not sure one should ever explain one’s photography, and categorising it here into projects, landscape and historical re-enactment is obviously crude. My liking for long term projects like Speakers Corner or events like the death of the Queen may have developed from admiring the work of photojournalists like Don McCullin, Brian Harris in the …read more
Favourites
Lake District II
The Shard
This project took shape in late 2013 as London’s and western Europe’s tallest office building neared completion. With its elegant, instantly-recognisable profile, I always appreciate how the Shard appears to photobomb so many other scenes in this big city and offer a new way to illustrate 21st century life. Like the project’s inspiration, Hokusai’s series …read more
England
English Civil War
The 1640s and the English Civil War has always been my favourite period, so the heart of my historical re-enactment project is on the Sealed Knot, Europe’s largest re-enactment group. While I do shoot in colour, I didn’t see paintings from the period until I moved to London, and I grew up seeing the likes …read more
Italy
These pictures are all from southern Italy – mainly from periods based in Tropea, Calabria. I suppose what I like about the south is that there’s less “perfection” than one encounters elsewhere in Italy where everything has been tidied up and restored, and there’s also more of a connection to earlier Mediterranean cultures.
Life during wartime
The re-enactment scene isn’t just about pretend fighting, and the “living history” side allows people to depict camp life, music, crafts and other non-military aspects of their chosen periods. Since many events are based at historic houses, I particularly enjoy looking for anything happening indoors where the surroundings often provides strong echoes of those times.
Books
Speakers Corner
Back in the early 1990s I seemed to photograph Speakers Corner almost every Sunday. Before or after going for dim sum in Soho, it had a similar mix of serious political and religious debate, humour and weirdness. Christian evangelists waved their bibles, someone claimed he was Jim Morrison, a British Muslim convert was heckled about …read more
USA
Over the years I’ve been to the US many times on business and as a traveller. I certainly feel very at home in New England, not surprisingly, but I am more drawn to the much less European appearance and culture of the South West, California, the North West, or even Las Vegas (and I certainly …read more
Blog
Welcome
About me
20th Century
Re-enacting 20th century wars seems a distinct part of the re-enactment scene with more interest in collecting original kit, some having family history, and also the occasional intrusion of contemporary interests. These can be as innocent as the Italophiles baking pizza and ciabatta in a 1940s Italian army kitchen, or how a group portraying US …read more
American Civil War
Napoleonic
Not surprisingly, the Napoleonic re-enactment scene is pan-European, and although the TV series Sharpe seems to have drawn in some British enthusiasts, it’s my impression that they seem to share more Europhile attitudes than their English Civil War counterparts.
Politics by other means
My historical re-enactment photography reflects my fascination with 17th century history, and I’m less interested in details of weapons or uniforms or military matters. So while most re-enacting is about the fighting, I am always hoping re-enactors will depict the underlying issues of the Civil War. This first set of pictures shows the Sealed Knot‘s …read more
Front page
The face of battle
Filming
Action
A war for religion
Religious difference was a major cause of the war and the reason cited most often by individuals for their choice of sides. Some re-enactors are drawn to Puritan firebrands such as the preacher Hugh Peters (who helped found Harvard while exiled in the American colonies), but others like to portray the established church. I’ve even …read more
List View
ListView is a plug-in for Lightroom (3 or later) that displays images in a list style just like in most other DAM (digital asset management) programs. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to review your metadata entry in a list than by scanning through a grid of thumbnails. Other things you can do with List View: …read more
Capture Time to Exif
Capture Time to Exif is essentially an in-Lightroom interface for Exiftool. Its main purpose is to allow you to edit EXIF data, particularly dates, without having to understand much about command lines. So you can: Update the Date Time Original EXIF field of scanned images. Lightroom’s filter panel and smart collections can then find the …read more
FolderSize
Big note
Big Note is a very simple free plugin which adds a custom field to the Metadata panel. This lets you add notes about the picture. You can store any text in the field, and it can also be searched by smart collections. I am cautious about encouraging people to enter custom metadata in Lightroom. It …read more
Workflow smart collections
Locktastic
Locktastic is a simple plug-in for Lightroom 2/3/4/5/6 that: Marks read-only or “locked” files with the red label Selectively imports read-only files from a folder, bypassing LR’s standard import dialog When photographers review images in the field, it’s common to “lock” those that they particularly like. This simple procedure makes it that little bit harder …read more
Syncomatic
Syncomatic (available here) is a Lightroom (3 or later) plug-in that synchronises Library and Develop settings between groups of files: names are identical or differ by a suffix like “-edit” from the top item of a stack to the other stacked items capture times match for processing jpeg files in Lightroom Mobile and updating raw …read more
Bridge scripts
These scripts are all cross platform JavaScript: Copy iView colour label iView_ExMedia _File_Info_Panels_for_CS4.zip iView MediaPro scripts Pseudo ratings for Lightroom contact sheets.zip Set filename to metadata CS2-CS6.zip
Expression Media & iView Mediapro
Scripts – Windows only Browse to custom field url Copy User’s HTML Theme Filename to title Get_MS_Office_document_properties IPTC from first item to rest Keywords from first to rest People to keywords Place as Smart Object in Photoshop Place finder to keywords Run a Photoshop action Search_and_replace Select modified files Select yellow label Sync_files_with_same_names Update records …read more
About the re-enactment project
about the historical re-enactment project What I think makes my historical re-enactment project different is that it combines photography with my long-suppressed aspirations to be an academic historian, specialising in the English Civil War. In a sense, I’m trying to report and explain the war and its lasting impact on British history. Too much Don …read more
Books
I’m a writer who can take good pictures and a photographer who can use words effectively – a combination that doesn’t always go together – and so I hope that my publishers don’t waste time or money correcting grammar or spelling, or sourcing the images that help make the book jump off the shelves. On …read more
Open Directly
Open Directly is a plug-in for Lightroom 2/3/4/5/6 that opens images directly in another program. That other program may be another raw converter, or any program the user chooses. In either case, the plug-in simply sends the original file and invokes the other program. Other raw converters Some Lightroom users want to manage raw files …read more
Search Replace Transfer
Search Replace Transfer is a Lightroom (2 or later) plug-in designed for bulk changes to text in Metadata Panel fields. It searches through the chosen metadata field looking for a word or phrase, and then replaces all its occurrences with alternative text. Searches and replaces text like a word processor Appends text before or after …read more
LR etc
As one of the leading experts on Adobe Lightroom and on DAM systems such as iView and Extensis Portfolio, I work with leading photographers to help them establish robust and efficient workflows. Lightroom pro training Based in London and the North West (elsewhere by arrangement) One to one or small group Screen sharing over the …read more
Contact
You can contact me by email. Please make your subject line obviously human or leave it as set by the link. My Italian is good, and I am OK in French and German. Please don’t blame me for Brexit – it’s really not my fault. Seven years on, that still makes people laugh (and cry). …read more
Photography
I’m not sure one should ever describe or rationalise one’s photography, and categorising it into projects, landscape and historical re-enactment is obviously crude but at least it offers a few signposts and hints. As a teenager I remember seeing the work of photojournalists like Don McCullin or Robert Capa in newspapers and magazines, and was …read more