doug kennedy Archives - Doug Kennedy Website and Blog

Autumn In Norfolk

By Doug Kennedy on October 21, 2014 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Photos, Projects

Doing landscape photography in Norfolk is a subtler business than in, for instance, Yorkshire or the North Downs (all books to be published by Oxbow Books) as most of the county is rather flat and agricultural. The south-wast of the county is mostly ‘marshland’, which is a continuation of the Cambridgeshire fens and well drained for agriculture, or flat forest and heath around Thetford. The south-east is very flat ‘Broads’ country, with a lot of lakes and waterways, many of which have been dug out to

Photographic Safari 2 to Norfolk – Fens and Brecks

By Doug Kennedy on August 7, 2014 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects / Leave a comment

South-west Norfolk is flat! The borders with Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are fens, that is, reclaimed marshland that is mostly below sea level and drained by pumps feeding into rivers and channels. The land is very fertile and easy to till, so it’s great for agriculture, and the fields are vast, like the sky. Everything is done in straight lines, so the rivers mostly run like an arrow between dikes, and the roads don’t bend, they run straight then there is a corner and you are on

North Downs – An Extra Photography Trip

By Doug Kennedy on July 24, 2014 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects / Leave a comment

[singlepic id=671 w=400 h=300 float=middle] I am making really good progress on the text for North Downs Landscapes (to be published by Oxbow Books early next 2015) and the theme is developing nicely. I was completing the East Kent section when I found that there were some more images of Kent villages needed. This is because I meant to go back, having spent a day dashing around and exploring, () but didn’t as I wasn’t sure what was needed: until now. So yesterday I decided to

North Downs Landscapes – Putting it all together for publication!

By Doug Kennedy on July 5, 2014 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects / Leave a comment

Having signed a publishing contract with Oxbow Books, I now have the pleasant task of actually producing the book content before the autumn deadline. I have started assembling images into a book of 90-odd pages, which I do using the BonusPrint software for producing photo books. This is a very exciting stage, as you see things start to come together into another beautiful publication, and it is also interesting finding out which images I end up selecting. The publisher wants more text than in Chiltern Landscapes

North Downs Exploration 9 – Wine and a Psychedelic Mushroom

By Doug Kennedy on October 21, 2013 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects

[singlepic id=527 w=320 h=240 float=left] Tuesday was the only day in this week of a mild October when the weather forecast was good, so I cleared the diary and drove southward under grey skies, negotiating some deep puddles. An hour later, there was intermittent sun as I parked at Burford Bridge, near Dorking. Here, beneath Box Hill, are the stepping stones over the River Mole, which are now 17 concrete steps at regular intervals across the stream that have gained some local notoriety. They form a

The Next Book: Exploration 7 – Mid Surrey Villages and Leith Hill

By Doug Kennedy on August 25, 2013 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects

[singlepic id=468 w=320 h=240 float=center] I am collecting images of the North Downs and doing research for a book to be entitled ‘North Downs Landscapes’ that will, hopefully, be published next year. So far I have walked from Farnham in Surrey to Rochester in Kent (in instalments) and visited a number of settlements. I still have the southern bit of the Surrey Downs, around Leith Hill, and the big section running through Kent to Folkestone and Dover to visit. The concept is to structure the book

The Next Book: Exploration 6 – The Way Along The Wey

By Doug Kennedy on August 7, 2013 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects

Ancient castles, churches and settlements rub shoulders with high-tech modern architecture: people have lived in this gentle countryside along the River Wey for a very long time. Roaming through this Downs landscape, you encounter living history and remnants of the past at every turn, whilst high tech businesses and fast roads point into the future. So far in my exploration of the North Downs, I have covered most of the northern section, from Guildford in the west to Rochester in the east. I now realise that

The Next Book – Exploration 5 – Kent – The Gap In The Map

By Doug Kennedy on July 2, 2013 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, Projects

I was camping in my little light-weight tent overnight under an oak tree behind The Vigo Inn and slept reasonably well till 6am when I decided to get up: the sun was sparkling through the dewy grass, the birds were singing, and the pub wasn’t offering breakfast. I struck camp and packed my gear, and was striding through the gate and on my way within the hour. The North Downs Way (NDW) continued just a few yards from the pub, passing down through a wood that

Wind Turbine Debate – More on the ‘T’ Word

By Doug Kennedy on April 9, 2012 / Doug Kennedy Blogs, News

Following my recent blog about the wind turbine proposal near Ford, there is an excellent article in the CPRE’s magazine this month that states the case from both sides. It is also to be found at http://www.cpre.org.uk/magazine/opinion/item/2802-getting-wind-energy-right I think that the most useful point made is by Rachel Coxcoon, who is broadly in favour of more turbines because of our need to produce our own energy without large carbon emissions. She says that the problem is more one of people feeling disempowered, and having infrastructure thrust

Most of us are addicts…..

By Doug Kennedy on January 11, 2012 / Doug Kennedy Blogs

I read in the New York Times that people in the States (Land Of The Free, subject to terms and conditions and having money) are having to think twice about knocking down the old house and building a brand new one when they move, and of students brewing their own coffee rather than buying a moccachino in the cafe, or using library books instead of buying them. Good! Even if it’s only temporary. To each of us, having more money, more freedom, more choice is a

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