All of these photos have been taken in or close to the French Pyrenees.

I would appreciate any help in correctly identifying any of the flora and fauna in these pictures. If you can help please use the comments buttons to get in touch and then it is easy for me to identify which photo you are helping me with.

In 1992, we took our wooden boat to the biggest classic boat festival in Europe. It was a very colourful affair and one heck of a party.

The Dartmoor livestock markets at Tavistock and Chagford hold sales of the young ponies born on the high moor each autumn. The success of these sales is vital to the future of the the Dartmoor pony as a breed and to the grazing regime and thus the appearance of the Dartmoor that we all enjoy.

Like all such markets in this very rural part of England, they are social events where the farmers responsible for the ponies get to meet and chat.

Here are a few photos of the market at Chagford in October 2008

The latest volume of photostaken in and around my home and work area

One very noisy day out

A dramatic landscape in minature, Brentor rises up on Dartmoor's western side standing clear of the surrounding countryside on all sides. A 13th century church sits atop an Iron Age fort.

A weekend in Paris in April 2008. The weather was kind to me, the light good and as ever the city crackled with life

Photos from locations throughout the Westcountry, inland and out to sea

Not exactly landscapes but a few photos of our cats. Altogether now....aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thudding across the lagoon on a rusty Vaporetto, one island faded back into the mist before the next appeared. The sense of suspended animation was such a contrast to the vibrancy of the city.

No roads, so no white vans. Food and drink, building materials, office supplies, everything is distributed about the city by barge with most of the loading and unloading still done by hand. Work that we take for granted elsewhere calls for unique solutions in Venice: Imagine erecting scaffolding on a building surrounded not by solid ground but by water.

The Venetian Carnivale is justly world famous and it is hardly surprising with the masks, the costumes and, of course, the fabulous backdrop of the city. In addition to the individual Masquerere seen in different parts of the city, here you can find photos of the huge outdoor spectacle that was the opening ceremony of the 2008 Carnivale.

If you enjoy these photos, you will find links to my other Venetian collections on this page. Have a look at them too.

A trip to Hartland Quay and Clovelly on Devon's Atlantic coast to blow away the cobwebs from the party the night before

In June2007 I went to the airfield at St Girons in Ariege and took a promenade a l'air over the top of the Pyrenees into Spain. As you can see, the weather was not especially kind. Once high up the turbulence was appalling in the southerly gale that rose and fell over the summits. It was a lively experience for one who suffers from vertigo and the little Robin plane was hardly the most stable of platforms to take photographs from.

The days of the small country livestock market are all but over. Many across the country have closed for good but Chagford's still exists for the time being. These photographs have been taken in the knowledge that it may not be possible to see this sight for much longer. They were taken on various occasions:: The summer sheep sale in August 2003, a sale that is no longer held, and the annual suckled calf show and sale in November 2007 and 2008.

Whatever one may think about the raising of livestock for the table, a market has been part of the Dartmoor landscape and way of life for many centuries but it is likely that these few pictures will have to stand as its epitaph.

Especially unusual these days is to see stock being taken through the town to the market on the hoof in 2007. It had not been seen for some years and may not be seen again.

These are scans of various Cibachrome prints I made in pre-digital days

The images here were taken over several years in the 1980's on second hand medium format equipment such as an old Pentax 6x7 and then printed onto Ilford Galerie. These are present day scans of those 20 year old 10x8 prints.

The majority of images are taken on or near the west and north coasts of the mainland but there are some Inner Hebridean locations as well. On good days the light can be stunning and usually capable of dramatic variations in a short time period.

The further north you go the more dramatic the landscapes become. The moors and mountains of Sutherland are elemental in extreme and understandably unpopulated. In the lifestyle the old ways persist and in the few towns and villages even English is a modern intrusion.

22nd September 2007