Blasts from the past

I love to look at old family photographs. They bring back so many memories, many of which I had forgotten. I like to capture two aspects in my photography, firstly I like to capture a scene that invokes some form of emotion - a pleasant smile or a special moment - and secondly I like the picture to have a creative, pleasing aspect - in short, something that I will look at and say 'now that's a nice picture'. Just having snaps is not enough, the picture needs to have a clear and simple message - otherwise the scene becomes too cluttered and confused.

Here are a few of my favourite old family pictures.


(Above) This is my daughter several years ago. The light is great and creates a nice modelling effect.


This picture won a competition at the time. This is another one of my daughters, the picture was taken over 10 years ago. She was always very curious and obviously wondered what happened to the washing - a great candid moment.


For those of you who have been to Toronto, Canada, you will recognise this as the CN tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, with a 60's style revolving resturant part way up.


This was from a family holiday in Italy. We were standing by a vast lake and I wanted to take some scenic pictures, but large lakes are always a real challenge for photography. I then saw this jetty nearby and it made a great landscape feature. The reflections work well too.


This was from another family holiday, on Maderia. You can catch a ride down a very long, steep hill in these baskets. The men were waiting. I thought it would make a nice portrait. I like the composition and the balance of light.