Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

Enduring Decisive Moments

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There are times when photographers ruin your day. It happens to us all and there’s one such annoyance that I recall many years later. I’d positioned myself early, ready for the sunrise when another photographer put himself in my frame. He knew I was ahead of him in time but behind him in space. I called across the harbour and he squatted down, as if that would help. He might as well have said ‘Just a second’ knowing the exposure for his decisive moment wouldn’t last that long. But no, he brazenly stayed put for thirty minutes. My enduring decisive moment was just a quarter of a second and it’s lasted eight years and counting.

An enduring decisive moment I captured in 2013. Sunrise in Coliemore Harbour, Dublin
Ruining My Sunrise © Simon Robinson 2013
Coliemore Harbour, Dublin
Canon EOS 5D | Canon EF24-105 F/4L IS USM | 24 mm | 1/4s | f/16 | ISO 100 | tripod
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Renaming These Islands

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Back in 1171, there was an English invasion of Ireland. They say English Pope Adrian IV had issued the Papal Bull Laudabiliter which granted English King Henry II the right to invade Ireland and Romanise the church. Though the existence of this document has been disputed, Ireland’s future was nonetheless subsumed when Henry declared sovereignty and Dublin became the centre for his enforcers.

Rugby: Leinster v Lyon 12th January, 2020 before the pandemic.
Fuji X-T3 | MTO-11CA | 1600 mm | 1/640s | f/10 | ISO 1600 | handheld
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Fascinating Developments

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I’m fascinated by how one image can be manipulated to shape different stories. What is the essence of a shot given that there are an infinite number of photographs you can take from where you are reading this? Are there an infinite number of stories to be found in one shot?

  • 735 seconds © Simon Robinson 2013
  • 1/60 seconds © Simon Robinson 2019
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Dog Walk HDR II

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This day eleven years ago, trapped for the weekend in Uxbridge by heavy snow, I thought I’d walk to Windsor for lunch. Some 16 km and five hours later, I was cold, tired and very hungry. I’d missed Sunday lunch by a few hours so I settled for a dinner before catching the train back. But trains that serve Windsor don’t go by Uxbridge so it took a few hours to return. I’m glad I did the walk because the Berkshire countryside was utterly transformed in a way that I only saw that once.

Deer appeared as I skirted the M25 along the treed banks of the Colne Brook.
© Simon Robinson 2010
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Dog Walk HDR I

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Like all dogs, Gus is getting slower as he ages. His main pump is failing; slowly but inexorably. If you accept that there is there is a relationship between the mammalian heart rate and overall life expectancy, you will already to know to expect late life heart issues for otherwise healthy pets. This may say nothing about their enthusiasm. For example, Gus loves the snow and today, he was out and about, running on snow and slipping on ice. He was segmenting and ranging on familiar paths, back and forth, excited by the snow while I was taking photographs. Today’s ambition, for me, was to take a series of high dynamic range photos of relatively mundane subjects as I walked quickly around our local hill.

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