Gallery updates

As promised, photos from Ellen MacArthur's visit to Greenwich on Sunday have been added to the January/February gallery, along with some scenes from Docklands. The December gallery has also been expanded at long last, with scenes from around London, going to show that even in the depths of winter the city remains appealing and striking.

Ellen MacArthur at Greenwich

It was completely out of the blue that I came upon the chance to see Ellen MacArthur in Greenwich today, who sailed down the Thames to celebrate her successful record-breaking solo journey with the good people on London. That said, there were well-wishers from all corners of the country who made the effort to travel down to London to pass on their congratulations to Britain's Dame of the Seas.
It's a remarkable effort for anyone, and put into even greater context when I consider that Ellen is a similar age to myself. It shows what can be achieved, and Ellen has becoming a guiding light and inspiration for many, not least with the charity in her name which enables sick children to go on sailing trips around the coastline of Britain.


Ellen MacArthur greets the hundreds of well-wishers and supporters in Greenwich today


Ellen's record-breaking tri-maran, which as I understand it is being donated to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich

I'll add some higher quality photos of Ellen and her boat to the February photo gallery soon.

A varied selection from Sweden

What transpired to be a rather odd selection of photos from my trip to Gothenburg has now been added to the January & February 2005 gallery. Due to the weather being terminally grey for the most part, it wasn't the photos of historic buildings in central Gothenburg that turned out the best. Instead, it was odd shots at the distinctively Scandinavian bus station, which I travelled through each day, and the tiny 'City' airport shortly before leaving which made for the most striking pictures. I've added a few others for interest, including one of central Gothenburg, which needed a good deal of tweaking to remove the layer of grey murk, plus a shot looking Earthwards while airborne.



The compact terminal building at Gothenburg City airport, affectionately nicknamed the 'cattle shed'.

The travelling bear in photos

While browsing PBase, one of the websites that gives digital photographers plenty of free space to host their photo galleries, I came across the pages of "Frimpong: The Travelling Bear". If you've seen the film Amelie, you may remember that Amelie's father has a gnome who goes travelling around the world, much to the owner's bemusement. Frimpong does much the same, and, hosted by a PBase photographer in each destination he visits, the travelling bear sees the world and has a photographic diary to prove it. I would recommend it for children if it weren't for the amount of alcohol this bear gets through during his travels!



http://www.pbase.com/frimpong/

New for February

I was away in Gothenburg for most of the first week of February, which is why there's not been much new on the website for a few days. I've a few photos from the trip, but due the generally gloomy weather there's not much of great moment, and if anything I'll only be adding one or two images to the photo gallery.

On the positive side the days and definitely starting to lengthen. When leaving work in the evening the sky is changed from the black of the nightime to a lighter shade of blue. This means it's only a matter of time before some after-work evening photography will be possible. We're not quite there yet, but each passing day takes us ever further through Winter towards the heady wonders of Springtime.

Well done Ellen!

Ellen MacArthur has broken the solo round-the-world sailing record in 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes 33 seconds, beating the current record by over a day. She's due to arrive back into Falmouth harbour tomorrow morning, after more than 2 months, for what will undoubtedly be some mighty celebrations, and a well earned rest.



I was looking at the AISLive website to check out the shipping heading towards the English channel. I don't think Ellen's tri-maran will be shown on it, but it's good fun to have a look none-the-less. You can see just how incredibly busy the channel is, even at 10.30pm on a Monday evening. Once you register on the site you can even click on individual ships for live information and even a picture of the chosen vessel. Remarkable site, and a well used resource by those in the industry by all accounts.