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Spring for the photographer is a magic time, well it is for this photographer anyway, the emergence of life after a long and bitter winter offers a fantastic opportunity to head out and add that optimistic splash of colour into your portfolio and revel in the majesty of spring! Start Of SpringThe moment that snowdrops start appearing through the final snowfalls of the year mother nature seems to go into overdrive and it is almost as if not a week goes by without something new, different and exciting appearing in gardens and parks. As a photographer it is my favourite time of the year,...


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I have been posting on my 365 project for weeks about the lack of winter about the lack of winter and that I was terribly excited about the forthcoming planting season. Well since my last post here we certainly had our share of winter, very much like the rest of Europe, we got hit very hard over the last fortnight! February 1st our weather fortunes tanked massively, we'd had our coldest day, year to date, and at 2am in the morning we had a power cut and it was out for 14 hours after an accident took out the power cable carrying the only power into the village. But it was a one-off so not a major...


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I have been asked a lot recently how on earth we ended up here in the middle of Rural Hungary, I guess I have been fortunate to pick up lots of new followers with my new website so thought it would be a good idea to recap how on earth a former Commercial Property Manager and Electronic Engineer ended up as small holders in the heart of the Hungarian Great Plain! Early 2007 First of all I should say that there was no epiphany and no grand master plan... I assume many great adventures have been ignited by the same spark a drunken conversation after a night out ;) I can not remember anything...


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...but our thoughts are already looking towards the garden! Before moving to Hungary neither myself nor my wife could be accused of having green fingers, however, given that we now have 5,500m² of land devoted to growing our food we have become a little obsessed! We are now in year three of growing food after spending our first year renovating the house, and three years in the crop rotation plan is now getting a little more complicated! So following on from blogs about photography, cooking, travel nightmares and public art why the hell not add one about gardening into the mix? We...


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I took a stroll out of the village yesterday to amble to our nearest ATM, a mere 8km round trip, naturally I took my camera and was musing on the way back how big the sky is... We live in the middle of the Pannonian Plain in the east of Hungary, the flattest plain of land in Europe which is bordered by the Carpathian Mountains, the Alps, the Dinarides and the Balkan mountains, all very well and good but living in the middle as a photographer means that I am at least over 160 Kilometers away from the nearest hill! This presents a special challenge to the photographer, shooting landscapes when...


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2011 was a fantastic year for us, it seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye and it is hard to believe that we have been in our rural paradise for over 3 1/2 years! January January is the month when Winter really hits home for us we have generally spent 3 months relaxing and we are chomping at the bit to get stuck in out on the land. However as is normal, January 2011 was a cold and frozen month with the exception of a couple of days when I managed to take a picture of the complete rainbow above, we had no idea at the time but we had a fair whack of winter left ahead of us! However life...


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A couple of weeks back my wife started suffering with a bit of toothache that started getting a little worst so after an unsuccessful trip to a local dentist we bit the bullet and took a trip into the Big City! Budapest is an incredibly beautiful city and a place that we used to enjoy visiting a lot, however our 3 1/2 years in our rural paradise has turned one of Europes most vibrant, beautiful and interesting cities into a noisy, smelly and sprawling monstrosity. As you can see from the image above, the beauty certainly has certainly not left the city so I guess the changes must be within us, despite...


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One of the undeniable truths of being an expat is that there are just some foods that you yearn after and I am no different, I would not necessarily describe myself as a "foodie" but I love to eat and I love to cook and as we grow some of the most fantastic produce it has ever been my pleasure to consume it is only natural that I eulogise it here. Traditional Hungarian food is wonderful, it is rich and hearty fare that serves as fantastic fuel for a day working the land, but there are flavours from your upbringing that you dearly yearn for and there are but two options; "Red Cross" parcels from...


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Winter is meant to be a time for rest and relaxation for us but as yet this year we have not stopped and this last week I embarked on an unexpected foray into the world of teaching photography. If you have been following me on either Twitter or Facebook you may have seen that I was approached a few weeks ago to give an individual some photography lessons. It was somewhat of a surprise e-mail to receive, but it was an enquiry from a guy who is from Buenos Aries in Argentina who was spending winter in Debrecen and wanted to spend some time improving his photography skills but was struggling to find...


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If you read my previous blog you will know that I recently took a trip back to the UK and thought I would take an opportunity to take some photographs of something a little different! Unfortunately due to travel delays, a lack of a Tripod and typically depressing weather I did not spend much time taking photographs however I did stumble upon something that came as somewhat of a surprise. The image at the top of the page is the sort of thing I had planned to photograph whilst I was in the North East and it is the glorious Infinity footbridge in Stockton on Tees, however the marvelous Temenos...


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