Penny Lane: In my eyes.

Everyday I walk along Penny Lane, twice a day minimum taking my daughter to nursery with her sister in the pram, both blissfully unaware of the history of this famous ‘lane’.

Fans of the Beatles can regularly be seen standing alongside this sign doing the ‘tourist’ thing, getting their picture taken and owning their own little part of Liverpool.

Now it was my turn! I live just off Penny Lane and I was child free so I headed out with my camera and no real plan other than to just take some pictures and this image was just one of many that I took.

You would think that I would be sick of the sight of the place having to walk up and down it in all weathers, day in, day out but the truth is im not. I love where I live and consider myself very fortunate to live in Liverpool.

I think someone once wrote “Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes”.

Penny Lane in my eyes and now in yours.

No Parking?

I think this image may have come from the mood I was in and have been in for a few days.

More and more I’m struck by how people lack respect and are severely lacking basic courtesies and manners.

No Parking? Not bothered!

On the same day whilst driving I must have stopped at several pedestrian crossings and non pedestrian crossings to allow people to cross. Any thanks, no! Not even an acknowledgement!

Not really a photographic point today just a little rant. Rant over!

Stick with me I’m not always this miserable! 😂

Childs play!

Not posted for a while for various reasons, the primary one being my health. It put the boot in before christmas and has taken some time to get back to ‘normal’.

Anyway, the image was take some time ago now and was captured whilst out with my partner and two young daughters. I hadn’t intended on taking any pictures to publish but I guess just like anybody who has a passion for photography old habits die-hard.

This particular ‘artwork’ was on a wall just behind the big slide!

Ordinarily I wouldn’t feel comfortable using a camera in a childs playground thanks to some of the pond life that have made every single person have to think twice about what is appropriate when it comes to children but we were on our own so captured this and carried on enjoying some family time.

Childs play this photography lark!

His head was in a bucket!

This particular photo was taken a little while ago and I seem to remember it being exceptionally cold.

Here was a homeless man doing a headstand, only his head was in a bucket!

I had to admire him because it was a very original way of trying to get a few quid so he could eat or drink, it’s certainly nothing I had seen before anyway.

The sign he had written to explain to people why he was doing was pretty straight to the point too, it read something like…..”Go on have a good laugh but this is my only way of making money”.

Again, I had to quite admire that. He was being honest, there was no delusion or belief that this was some incredible, unique skill. He simply wanted to do what many of us take for granted and that is to eat and drink.

It certainly made me think if that is the level a human being would go to to just eat and drink then things must be quite desperate.

Find more @ www.capturedphotograph.com

Thank you,

Craig

The drink isn’t too bad either!

One of my latest additions to my gallery at capturedphotograph.com is an image taken inside the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam.

The building itself is a mish mash of the old-fashioned and the modern. On this particular day I was drawn more to some of the more old-fashioned features and this old fashioned street lamp.

What I noticed was the mish mash of the old-fashioned and the modern can be seen in this picture. In the foreground the old street lamp and in the background a modern lighting gantry.

This image could be seen as symbolic of my attention on the day – enjoying more of the traditional with the street lamp being in focus as opposed to the out of focus, slightly blurred modern lighting gantry.

All in all an enjoyable experience and the drink isn’t too bad either!

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Im no Scorsese but……..

I’m led to believe the “youth” love a good video so I’ve decided to create one of my own. Im not saying its good but it’s definitely a video!

Seriously though, have a look, you dont have to be part of the “youth” to enjoy it or indeed hate it but any feedback will be greatfully recieved.

You can find this video at the top of my homepage @ capturedphotograph.com

or on my Instagram profile.

 

Green means GO!…

This image was captured in Amsterdam and its one I’ve glossed over when I’ve been looking through my photos but always found myself going back to it many times and considering it as one I would publish.

I was trying to reason why it was that I kept returning to it and came to the conclusion that It makes me aware of the contradictions that are all over Amsterdam, not least on the roads, tracks and walkways.

Even when there are traffic lights and signalling signs from trams you still need eyes in the back of your head because at any point you could be ploughed down by a cyclist or made into mince meat by a tram!

Green lights, red lights it doesn’t really matter the whole place is one huge contradiction, a dichotomy of chaos and calm. The sublime to the ridiculous. The walking green man does nothing to calm or to make you any less hyper-aware and that’s something that this picture reminds me of and a further reminder of what a great city Amsterdam is.

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One from the Docks…

Taken at the Albert Docks, Liverpool late summer 2017. I was there with my friends and family for a pirate festival event but, as any other keen photographers know your eye is always looking at the surrounding scenery with a different perspective, always looking for something that resonates with you.

The sun was in a great position here and seemed to illumunate the building in a way where it didnt cast shadows at the front but managed to backlight the image perfectly. Ideal for a black and white image (but i would say that).

What do you think? Does this resonate with you? Let me know @ capturedphotograph.com

Thanks for reading,

Craig

Why me? Why Photography?

The photo above is one of the first pictures I took after three stays in hospital and a long road to a diagnosis of an Auto-immune disease called Churg Strauss Syndrome. This was to be a diagnosis that was to change my life in so many ways – some of which were incredibly profound.

I was sat in an infusion unit waiting for my second dose of chemotherapy, my first as an outpatient. I had never felt as lonely as I did that day and this photo, to me, captures exactly that. I was in a lonely dark place.

 

 

Little did I know, I was in complete, all encompassing denial about what was happening to me, my life as I used to know had gone but I refused to accept it. This wasnt a deliberate action, I just didn’t know how to deal with so many changes all at once and chose to bury my head in the sand, that included burying my head in the sand, lying to myself and to those closest to me. An ostrich could have learnt a lot from me.

So, this kind of answers the “Why me?” portion of the title as this was the number one question I continued to ask myself instead of dealing with what I was facing. This is by no means a sob story as im fully aware of those that face and have faced a lot worse it is merely a narrative to how I discovered a passion for photography.

Being forced to lie in a hospital bed for weeks on end tends to give you a lot of time to think. I was no different. I thought about my past, and my present, but in that time my future didn’t exist. Previous work, my family, my children and my friends were areas that continued to go round and round in my head. The realisation of how much we take for granted is a stark one and it takes something genuinely life changing to make us wake up to life.

The majority of our lives are consumed by things that don’t matter, we walk around with our head so far up our backside we never see or appreciate the things and the people that we should all be relentlessly appreciative of.

Photography allows me, and most importantly reminds me to appreciate everything we were put on this planet to see. When I capture an image it generally makes a memory and the feelings of that memory as fresh as the time I took it.

“Why Photography?” If the answer to that isn’t “Why not?” after reading this then perhaps you are just like the old me that just needed a good kick up the backside in which my head was located.

Craig

#Captured