Let us live most happily, possessing nothing; let us feed on joy, like the radiant gods.  –  The Buddha 24mm; ISO 200. 60 seconds at f2

 In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.  –  Alfred Stieglitz 85mm; ISO 2000. 25 seconds at f8. Incandescent

 All of us must indulge in a few small follies if we are to make reality bearable.  – Marcel Proust 28mm; ISO 2500. 30 seconds at f11. Flash

The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.  –  Thucydides 24mm; ISO 200. 60 seconds at f2  

 Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.  –  Dalai Lama 28mm; ISO 2000. 629.4 secs (10.5 minutes) at f11

Not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance.  –  John Petit-Senn 28mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f11. Incandescent light balance

The most powerful force on earth is the human soul on fire  –  Field Marshall Foch (adapted) 85mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f16        

My meditations, my musings are never more enchanting than when I am able to forget myself.  –  Jean-Jacques Rousseau NEWS: My 2013 Night Visions calendar has now sold out. The NIGHT VISIONS book is still available direct, at $40 post-free (signed copies, with 4 x greeting cards as a bonus). The book has had some […]

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. – Leo Tolstoy 85mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f6.3

I mused for a few moments on the question of which was worse, to lead a life so boring that you are easily enchanted, or a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored. ― Bill Bryson, Lost Continent: Travels In Small-Town America 85mm; ISO 2000. 15 seconds at f16. Sodium vapour light […]

Still round the corner there may wait / A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by / A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run / West of the Moon, East of the Sun.                                                                                                             – J.R.R. Tolkien 85mm; ISO 2000. […]

For the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham’s bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home.  –  John Newton 28mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f13

Miracles occur, / If you dare to call those spasmodic / Tricks of radiance miracles. / The wait’s begun again, / The long wait for the angel, / For that rare, random descent. – Sylvia Plath 50mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f9. Incandescent light balance

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. –  Spanish proverb 85mm; ISO 640. 8 seconds at f5.6. Sodium vapour light balance

Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. – Vincent van Gogh (attrib) 85mm; ISO 2000. 15 seconds at f11  

 I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them. – Diane Arbus 85mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f8

Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?  –  Mary Oliver 85mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f6.3

 There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.  –  Rachel Carson, Silent Spring 85mm; ISO 1000. 30 seconds at f11. Sodium vapour light balance

There is no such thing as the pursuit of happiness, but there is the discovery of joy.  –  Joyce Grenfell 28mm; ISO 2000. 192 seconds (over 3 mins) at f11

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. –  Mark Twain 28mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f8

And the only sound that’s left / After the ambulances go Is Cinderella sweeping up / On Desolation Row.  –  Bob Dylan 28mm; ISO 2000. 68 seconds at f8

Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away – Robert M. Hutchins 28mm; ISO 2000. 20 seconds at f5.6  

Nothing is ever the same twice because everything is always gone forever, and yet each moment has infinite photographic possibilities. – Michael Kenna  28mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f5.6  

28mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f8. Flash  

[Only the camera can express] the full majesty of the moment. –  Paul Leopold Rosenfeld Looking down on the tops of the persimmon. You can only do this on a very still night, as the slightest breeze blurs the detail. However, to get a really creative blur, you need a gusty evening – nothing in-between […]