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Photos - Mine

I like photography as something of a pseudo-hobby. I don't especially know much about it, but sometimes I get lucky anyway. Here are some.

Originally I only included photos here if I especially liked them. However, these days I often include photos in the diary. Different selection criteria apply. For the diary, I might include a photo that isn't especially impressive, if I especially want to include a photo of the subject to accompany the diary text. But that means I have all these photos already available on the site. I've therefore started including them here, because I might as well; it doesn't take any more work or space on the site.

Perhaps later, I will include a separate category for photos I have especially liked...

• UK Day Trips
• Dad's Visit (August 2002)
• Ironbridge Weekend (May 2002)
• Peak District (March 2002)
• Rhine Valley, Germany (February 2002)
• Scotland Trip (July/August 2001)
• Yorkshire (May 2001)
• York (May 2001)
• UK Trip (May/June 2000)
• Various other photos

Or, you can...

• See them all (HUGE download)

York (May 2001)
	Shambles (112 KB). York, England; 26 May 2001. York still has many streets with medieval origins in its city centre. They're a little tangle of streets with great names, with a strange mixture of buildings from all ages--1300s beside 1600s beside ugly concrete 1900s. The Shambles is a particularly well-preserved street; it still has houses from the time when property taxes were based on the building's ground footprint. People built upper storeys that jut out over lower storeys, thus getting more space without additional tax liability. There's one pair of opposing houses where people with long arms could probably have passed objects from one window to the other. However, the houses have since sagged and drooped in all directions, so the upper-storey windows don't line up quite like they used to.
	Flowers and brick (187 KB). York, England; 26 May 2001.
	Chocolate mice (134 KB). York, England; 26 May 2001. You just have to love a country that has tea shops where you can get, in addition to any of a zillion other sinful delights, chocolate mice. (Or chocolate cauliflower, for that matter.)
	Gargoyle (137 KB). York, England; 26 May 2001. This guy, along with some friends, was just sticking out of a wall beside an entrance, seemingly randomly.
	Monks (167 KB). York Minster, York, England; 26 May 2001. York Minster is huge (one of the largest cathedrals in Europe) and it's absolutely covered with gargoyles and gingerbread and guys like these, standing in little niches on the wall. They're cool enough at first glance, but when you look closer they really get interesting. Look at their toes, for example. I love their toes sticking out over the edge. And one of them looks like he's walking out of his niche. And then have a look at the far left side of the photo--beside the left-most monk, there are a cluster of fantastic gargoyles. I especially like the one with his hands over his mouth. Also, looking at these monks it seems clear to me that they've been restored. (Bits of York Minster are always being restored. It's very old. Parts of it date back to the Normans.) Their edges are far too crisp for them to be original. Plus look at the monk clutching books to his chest--he looks like he's wearing a cucumber anti-aging masque. I think the lighter-coloured areas all new material.
	Stained glass detail (186 KB). York Minster, York, England; 27 May 2001. This is one tiny panel (maybe a foot wide) from the tennis-court-sized stained glass window in the eastern end (choir) of York Minster. The entire window consists of tiny panels like this, rendering it very busy-looking overall. Its enormity and detail are all the more impressive considering that the window dates from 1405-8. Just wow.
	Crossing (119 KB). York Minster, York, England; 27 May 2001. Cathedrals are generally built, not surprisingly, in a cross shape. The place where the two lines cross is called, again not surprisingly, the crossing. This is the ceiling of York Minster's crossing. It's very, very far above me. Each of those bosses is about 3 feet wide.
	Ruins of Kirkham Priory (165 KB). Kirkham, England; 27 May 2001. We weren't even trying to find this; it was just there, beside the road, on our way from York to try to find Wharram Percy. Stuff like this is everywhere.
	Kilburn White Horse (84 KB). Kilburn, England; 28 May 2001. This horse figure was created by clearing an area of the hillside and covering the space with chalk pebbles. There are apparently many such figures still remaining in Britain. This one isn't especially old, but it's still impressive.