water on Oxymoronical

London skyline at night

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 22:42:09 +0000

I was staying near the O2 Arena in London for a conference and went out for a stroll one evening. The skyline was so pretty I had to spend some time trying to capture it. I love taking long exposure night photos but this was tricky because I didn’t have a tripod with me. Still I managed to get a 2 second exposure to come out, partly thanks to my camera’s image stabilisation.

Lifeguard station at sunset

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 19:48:19 +0000

Many years ago me and my family used to live in Ventura County in California. There are many things we miss about the place and this beach is one of them. Silver Strand in Oxnard has fine silky sand, and a wide beach that is never really crowded. We try to rent a beach house here whenever we’re in the area and this is a sunset I caught one evening. A print of this hangs on the wall above my bed.

Raindrops on a leaf

Sun, 30 Nov 2014 13:01:07 +0000

I find water fascinating in all its forms. The way it reflects light and in this case the perfectly smooth droplets refracting light. I was really happy with how well focused I got this too.

Bay bridge at night

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 18:38:33 +0000

Long exposure night photos are one of my favourite things to do. They’re tricky, you have to be perfectly still so normally a tripod is needed. And often you won’t know how it turns out until you do it a few times. The human eye (and brain) is so much better at processing what it sees and generating a great image compared to a feeble lens and sensor. So this photo was kind of ridiculous. A 3 minute exposure, hand held thought stabilised against a windowsill, and I had to lean so far out of the window to get it that my wife had to hang on to me to make sure I didn’t fall out.

Ship at night

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:55:25 +0000

Me and my wife took a cruise down to Mexico and on one of the days when we went to eat ashore it got dark as we were on the way back to the boat. I forget now how I managed a 30 second exposure without a tripod but I guess I must have used a handy post or something to keep the camera stable.

Ripples in the water

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 18:49:18 +0000

There’s something very peaceful to me about looking at water. This is a photo of the pool at the house I used to own in California. I’m still not sure whether moving away from a house with a pool was a great idea but here we are.

Skimming the water

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:54:32 +0000

I’m always impressed at how close pelicans skim to the surface of the sea, no matter how many waves there are.

Willet in flight

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 15:52:53 +0000

Perhaps oddly the thing I most love about this photo is the stream of water from the tips of the Willet’s toes to the water as it launches itself into the air.

Crashing wave

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:56:17 +0000

Water, and particularly the movement of water is something I love to see. Waves are particularly interesting, they can be so powerful yet so beautiful.

Oar splashing in the water

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:00:50 +0000

We took a row boat out on Lake Windermere and I was fascinated with the shapes and colours that the water made as the oar splashed into the lake. So my wife took over rowing while I took some photos. This caused all manner of comments from the other men rowing their wives around the lake!

Shakin her booty

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:14:59 +0000

A wood duck in High Park in Toronto. They have very vibrant colours, the male a little more so than this female but I loved the movement in this shot.

Woman splashed by waves

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:47:26 +0000

I shot this in Hawaii in the very early days of owning a DSLR. As well as being a great candid shot of a woman by the sea it also taught me valuable lessons about cleaning lenses because my camera got caught in the splash. To my credit I already had a UV filter on the lens so I could just take that off and carry on.