by Steve Tanham
Kendal, midweek… the retail day was drawing to a close. A thin fog had covered the town and its surrounding hills for most of the day, and the encroaching darkness at the end of the afternoon made the gloom seem even more dense. I have always been drawn by urban photos of streets where the lights have that ‘just turned on’ look. Collie in … Read More The Light and the Gloom
by Steve Tanham
One of the ‘easy wins’ in photography is to vary the shooting height of the camera by either getting higher… or, as in this case, lower. The large-screen camera phones have made this easy to do, since once you have placed the device on or close to the ground – often thanking your last Pilates class – it’s still possible to see the shot … Read More From Below…
by Steve Tanham
There are many symmetries in life but one of the least remarked on is the complementary states of early and later life relative to where we place our attention. When young, despite ‘trailing clouds of glory’, as Wordsworth elegantly wrote, we are completely in-volved with the physical world ‘out-there’. From the wonder and adoration of our baby state, through the realisation that we can … Read More Embrace of the Inner Age
by Steve Tanham
I was talking with a friend about life – not a generalised view of life, such as we might do in an introductory talk to mysticism, but in the sense of what life actually is… The topic of life led us to consider health… and how we might picture health and it’s inevitable effect on the final stages of our lives. And then I … Read More Mountains beneath the Sea
by Steve Tanham
Late afternoon and a final run on Heysham Beach for Tess the collie. And then strange things began to happen in the sky. Bright sun on a collision course with a front of hailstones. Not the place to be! So I grabbed a final shot and we ran for the car… Only later did this joyful result reveal itself! ©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham … Read More A War of Fire and Ice
by Steve Tanham
In an attitude that most of us would find chilling, Francis Crick, the Noble Laureate who co-discovered the structure of DNA, referred to it as ‘the astonishing hypothesis’. He wasn’t talking about genes, but the proposal that all human feelings, actions and thoughts – right down to the level of consciousness, itself, are the products of neural activity in the brain. In truth, science … Read More The Unmasked Human
+ #Silenti, English Lake District, Lake District, landscapes, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose
by Steve Tanham
Some days define… In this case the cold. The vastness of Morecambe Bay is sometimes defined by its light. In this case the deep blue of an early afternoon with icy winds to match. Ice on the foreshore by the lifeboat’s hovercraft station, clustered into tiny pools on the dark mud. Two small fishing boats – most of Morecambe’s shrimping fleet – provide the … Read More Some days define…
by Steve Tanham
The entire one-mile promenade at Grange-over- Sands is decorated with a series of rock gardens. These are looked after entirely by volunteers whose work is most active in the summer, but continues, in terms of maintenance, during the colder months, when there is little else to be seen. But that is not always the case… Grange town centre is a few hundred metres behind … Read More Hidden Gold
by Steve Tanham
We were walking through a very rainy Ambleside a few days ago. What I smilingly call my ‘camera mind’ spotted how well the lines and colours of the Priest Hole pub contrasted with the wet and uniform grey of the January light. I also loved how the bright ‘double yellows’ led the eye away into the misty gloom… The ‘lead-line’ of the road on … Read More Mystery and the Priest Hole
by Steve Tanham
There are photos that epitomise some particular quality of the natural world. January has a dearth of such moments. Its light is so thin that composition – outside of the contrasts of monochrome – is practically a matter of pot luck. But I was lucky. This part of the promenade at Grange is one of the coldest places you can be at this time … Read More Epitome
by Steve Tanham
We were driving back from Ilkley with a clip full of ‘winter Wharfedale’ photos, many of which were destined be spoiled by the falling light along the riverbank or too ambitious in the first place. In decades gone by, the pain wouldn’t only have been the attempt and failure, but the cost of paying to have them developed and copied to photo paper, only … Read More The Foundations of the Future
by Steve Tanham
New Years’ Day and we traveled from Kendal to Ilkley to have lunch with my son and his family. They live in Leeds and we often use Ilkley as a half-way meeting point to have a walk on the moor and then come down to the Hermit pub/restaurant that looks down on Burley-in-Wharfedale. The River Wharfe is a beautiful river originating within the Yorkshire … Read More The Seventh Day of Christmas
Sun in Gemini 