How long before London?….

….or anywhere in the UK for that matter.

Theres an old adage that suggests that trends here in Britain usually follow trends in the USA. I hope this one will be the exception.

This morning, whilst trawling one of the many photo forums that I keep tabs on I noticed the following thread ( I have credited the writer and his site):



I was on a shooting trip to New York City couple weeks ago on a shooting trip, I was told by more than 2 NYPD officers that the Tripod use is NOW prohibited in all of New York City without a special permit. Could that be true?????????? On my first day I was told by an officer that I could not use a tripod in time Square, and on my second night I was on 42nd and again was told by another officer that I can not use the tripod. On my third night I was shooting outside Grand Central (again outside NOT inside) and again I was told that I cannot use it, in fact I was told this time the following: "you can not use it and in fact we don't like to see anyone carrying it around here" What is happening to us? What has happened to NY? Hisham Ibrahim www.PhotoV.com


Ok, I can understand and fully sympathise with the fact that community sentiment still lingers after the events of 11 September 2001, but frankly, if your tripod isn’t glued into your free hand or strapped to your back, you’re no photographer and you can’t work…..as we shall see shortly.

Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky...

...all we are is dust in the wind

So if nothing lasts forever, when is it going to stop raining? I have been back here for over a week and it hasn’t stopped at all yet.

I thought I had seen enough dust to last a lifetime in Amman and Damascus. Eat dust, drink dust and breathe dust.

But I am beginning to think the reverse is happening now with the dust being replaced by water.

This morning, out in the car for a short local trip I noticed an ominous looking leaden cloudbank which was moving toward me. Inside five minutes it began to rain. Now I don’t mean a shower. I had to stop the car altogether. Now I have never been scared by the elements (save for lightening – had a friend killed by lightening years ago), but this was different.

It wasn’t the ferocity of the rain which worried me. You see, I was on my own on a deserted road which skirts the base of a very steep mile long hill. The worrying part came when I noticed areas of the hill in front of me starting to slide downhill and across the road. A quick glance in the rear view mirror confirmed the same thing was happening behind the car too. Then the words of the song by Kansas popped into my head Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky... the earth was sure moving and the sky was full, and I though the end was nigh. Fortunately the downpour eased enough for me to see my way out of trouble. Definitely don’t want to be in that sort of situation again!

Its been a long time.....

In fact it’s getting on for two years since I disappeared into a haze of dust sand and harissa fumes.

Now I am back and a little bewildered in more ways than one. Last night as I trawled trough my bookmarks for my favourite blogs, I found about 30 % had bitten the dust. Other useful links to several websites are generating error 404.

I had a wander down to The Local, a quaint little country pub usually populated by about 8 or 9 regulars, always cheerful, always up for a laugh. I was met with a sea of unfamiliar faces and stony silence. New Landlord too. The saving grace I suppose, was that I had a quiet hour or so to ponder.

What am I gonna do to occupy my time without any work in front of me following my absence?

What shall I blog about until Christmas? (which is about as long as it will take to generate some trade).

If anybody is still reading, give me some ideas, I’m leaning towards writing some guides on selling your own prints. Well writing this post has occupied ten minutes of a very quiet afternoon.

The dog at least, remembers who I am.

The Golden Hour

When I started this blog, I considered calling it just that – The Golden Hour, but I reconsidered. You see, the term Golden Hour means different things to different people and different professions. The Golden Hour has, I am sure, far more importance to bloggers like King Magic over at Purple Plus, and Tom Reynolds at Random Acts of Reality, than it does to me as a Photographer. The definitions in our respective professions can be found here.

Over the last few weeks or so, I have been far to busy to update the blog, and have only merely posted comments on the sites of others that I follow. My nights have seen me simply sink into bed and dissolve into a warm state of unconsciousness. Normal blogging should resume next week, I apologise to those who have awaited the next tutorial and are still wanting…..

……..I love the Golden hour as much as my Labrador Sadie does. This is the time I get my most rewarding images, and she, her quality time with me. We will return to the Golden Hour shortly, and a tutorial on Copyrighting images.

Enjoy this sunset. My Labrador certainly did. Even though I took the shot during the Magic Hour. Apologies to King Magic, no pun intended mate!