Retired Teacher, Musician, and Traveller

 

Just a matter of principle: sorry, but anyone favouriting or commenting on my photos who then has nothing available to me may be blocked, and anyone with inappropriate or explicit content on their page certainly will be!

 

My Buddy Icon - I try to stay the right side of the camera, but at an historical re-enactment event in the Czech Republic, and aritist doing portraits for money grabbed me and insisted on doing this quick sketch free of charge. In a few minutes, he got me far better than any camera ever has!

 

To anyone who might be in my candid shots...

 

I tend not to point my camera at random people in the street, but I enjoy capturing people performing (music, dance etc.) or as participants / the audience at events - and in a way, all the people coming over Vyssi Brod Weir are performers - a sort of choreography they have varying degrees of control over. I try to spot subjects who are distinctive in some way and hope that the image flatters them. It's impractical to ask permission and anyway, I don't really like posed photos. Most subjects are probably unaware they've been photographed, but some of my favourite shots are when they realise and give a spontaneous smile. If anyone makes it clear they don't want to be photographed, I never persist. If you spot yourself - or your child - and like my photo, I'll be delighted - please let me know! If you don't, or you're unhappy with an image being on a public page, let me know and I'll delete it.

 

I try to produce a documentary of events and make no apology for taking so many photos (especially when around half the photos I take end up in the recycling bin!)

 

Please show respect to the unsuspecting subjects! I like to watch a set as a slide show as often there are several pictures of the same dance, event, or boatload, reflecting the excitement and variety of emotions in the activity. Capturing the action and the facial expression is far more important to me than the clothes (or lack of them!)

 

I don't post photos from the children's music theatre I direct or from the school where I worked. They have their own websites.

 

Finally, please don't be offended if you favourite or comment on one of my photos, or become a contact and I don't reciprocate. It's simply due to pressure of time and the inability to keep up with everyone!

 

Some of my photos are on the JSGroup website - song and dance in the Czech Republic children-festivals.e-vision.cz/en/reference-/

 

One - of the Dancing House - is on the Schmap online guide to Prague www.schmap.com/prague/home/#r=none&mapview=Map&ta... (clicking on the thumbnail links back to the photo on Flickr.

 

One of the flea market in Sofia, Bulgaria, is published in the Thomas Cook City Spots Guide to to Sofia www.flickr.com/photos/27911027@N00/461709882/ tastefully cropped!

 

Some photos of Buxton Festival Fringe's Fringe Sunday in July 2008 have been posted on the Fringe website www.buxtonfringe.org.uk and they've been kind enough to use one of my photos on their Flyers advertising the 2009 Fringe Festival.

 

A photo taken in Brno, Czech Republic is used on this website www.happytellus.com/brno/czech-republic