Stories from my voluntary community projects: documenting village life, performances and shared experiences, and exploring how photography and the web can help preserve them for the future.
Welcome to my blog. What excites me about technology is what we can do with it. I explore that through community projects, photography and the web: putting ideas into practice, learning from the results and sharing discoveries that may help others. This blog began with photography, and those earlier stories remain part of it. It … Read full article
I see enormous potential in True HDR Photography to revolutionise still photography and yet my own photography journey has been held up by weaknesses in current commercial image web delivery systems. I have used Smugmug for many years, but it does not currently support HDR images. While WordPress currently allows HDR AVIF files to be … Read full article
“Communities have the opportunity to bring information together in one place to address the weaknesses of social media and reinvigorate community websites.” This is the first in my Building Community Websites series. It aims to provide practical, researched guides to help communities improve their existing websites and social media presence. In this article, I present … Read full article
With an estimated 100,000 war memorials in the UK, memorials took place up and down the country on Remembrance Sunday to remember the fallen. In my local village, over 90 villagers gathered round the war memorial to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedom. You can view the photos here: Remembrance … Read full article
It definitely feels like spring, with daffodils flowering and temperatures rising. I cannot believe that it is nearly a year since I took photographs of a deserted Spaldwick in lockdown. As shown above, the A14 was empty. View the photos of Spaldwick in spring 2020. One casualty of the last 12 months has been the … Read full article
While the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the world, England entered its second nationwide lockdown on the 5th November 2020. The lockdown is planned to end on Wednesday 2nd December. Remembrance celebrations across the country were unable to go ahead in their normal form. Here are some photos I took of the war memorial … Read full article
Working from home in a rural Cambridgeshire village, I have noticed the massive effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of villagers have been on lockdown in their homes. Schools and key local businesses (such as the village pub) have closed, and there has been a dramatic reduction in road traffic. During this time (as … Read full article
This photographic record follows Manor Farm in Spaldwick from my first photograph in 2006 through successive stages of its restoration to March 2020. Returning over the years allowed me to capture changes that a photograph of the finished building alone could not show. Manor Farm in Spaldwick was built in 1547, and proudly stood as … Read full article
I am currently building up an online library of old photographs of the village where I live so that these amazing images can be shared as widely as possible. Thank you to the people and local museums that have provided these. These images have proved immensely popular, being viewed about 50,000 times in the year … Read full article
I really enjoy working with Graham and Sarah Wilkinson (below) at Spotlight Productions – which is a youth musical theatre group based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. I’ve now taken photos of several productions. Graham and Sarah are an inspiration and have made such a difference to young people in the area. By February 2020, they have … Read full article
I was asked to take a photograph of villagers in the nearby village of Easton in Cambridgeshire. Easton is a very pretty village and I often go walking there. Click on the following link to see my other photos of Easton: Easton Photo Gallery
I was delighted to photograph the dress rehearsal of Sister Act by Spotlight Productions, helped by my two daughters. After seeing the West End version of Sister Act, which I remember being distinctly unmemorable, I was rather apprehensive about the show. However, I was completely taken aback about how good the Spotlight version was. I … Read full article
In order to produce some interesting publicity photos for the production of Sister Act by Spotlight Productions, we decided that it would look great to have photos taken in a real church. Spaldwick Church was the venue for a photoshoot with the Sister Act cast, and I think the photos certainly add character. You can … Read full article
In order to get more experience with stage photography, I volunteered to photograph a dress rehearsal of a show put on by Stageworks, which is a specialist performing arts college in Cambridgeshire that offers classes and full-time college course in acting, singing, dance and musical theatre. The event took place at the Performing Arts Centre … Read full article
My daughter Bethany I enjoyed photographing the dress rehearsal of Legally Blonde by youth musical theatre group Spotlight Productions. I’m not sure if I should admit this or not but I really love the 2001 film Legally Blonde with Reese Witherspoon, and so I was really looking forward to the Spotlight Productions version. It was … Read full article
I was delighted to photograph the dress rehearsal of Disco Inferno, produced by Spotlight Productions. I was assisted by my daughters. You can view all the photos here: Gallery of Disco Inferno Photos Other pages you may be interested in: Other Posts About Spotlight Productions
I enjoyed photographing the dress rehearsal of Singin’ in the Rain by Spotlight Productions, at the Performing Arts Centre in Huntingdon. You can view all the photos here: Singin’ in the Rain Photo Gallery Other pages you may be interested in: Other Posts About Spotlight Productions
As a regular photographer of our local village fete, I love taking ‘snaps’ of local people and musicians and performers taking part. Here are a few of the photographs. You can view all the photos here: 2014 Spaldwick Fete Photo Gallery
I was having a conversation with Chris Abington, and he mentioned that he was drummer in Les Misérables being put on by a local youth musical theatre group based in Huntingdon called Spotlight Productions. I wondered if they would be interested in me taking photos and I got in touch with Graham and Sarah Wilkinson. … Read full article
I’ve known Rob Burton and his mother and father for many years, and Rob was in the same school year as my daughter Bethany. It’s always a pleasure to photograph or record Rob when I get the chance. The earliest photos I have are when I recorded Rob at a concert in Grafham back in … Read full article
In July 2012, I photographed The Harmonia Singers led by Kirsty Body.
I photographed the Saxology Jazz and Swing Saxophone group in July 2012.
In 2012, I photographed my local village fete and the band performance, featuring Spaldwick’s Mark Sturdy and Mark Hunter. View more photos
2010 represents an appropriate date to start my personal blog – when I had my early experiences of ‘event photography’, photographing my local village fete. Looking back, although these were far from my best photos, if I had not taken them there would be nothing to mark the event and remember the people involved. I … Read full article