BETWEEN TATE MODERN AND ST PAUL’S…

…lies a cityscape that’s built for black and white:

AN ECCLESIASTICAL GEM SOAKED IN BLOOD & HISTORY

The most historic church in London. It is a big claim to make; after all, historic churches are to London almost as skyscrapers are to New York. And particularly so since it is a claim about a church of which I had never even heard, let alone visited, until last month. Yet the very fabric of St Etheldreda’s Church in Ely Place is soaked through with political and ecclesiastical history.  It is the oldest Catholic building in England (though some insist that the Church of Saints Leonard and Mary in Malton, North Yorkshire, holds that honour), and one of only two surviving buildings in London dating from the reign of Edward I. It is also an architectural gem, suffused with grace and light, and echoing with almost a millennium of faith, blood and struggle.

AS BEWITCHING TO THE EYE AS TO THE EAR

There are few musical instruments that are, to my mind, as beguiling or as sensuous as the cello. And not just to the ear. The cello is equally bewitching to the eye. I have for many years been trying to learn the instrument. I suspect, though, that these photos may be a better tribute to the cello than my playing ever will be.

PICK OF THE WEEK

My photo Storm Catcher, which pictures a storm as it sweeps across Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies, has become a National Geographic Editors’ Pick of the Week in their 2012 photo contest. There’s a larger version on 500px. And an even larger one on Flickr.

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

Every month London’s Natural History Museum organizes a sleepover.  A couple of hundred excitable children (and their adult hangers-on) spend an evening taking part in activities before getting into sleeping bags in the shadow of Dippy in the Great Hall. My daughter went along this month, with a few of her friends, as a birthday treat. And I, of course, was one of the adult hangers-on.

I probably enjoyed it as much as they did (apart from a night lost to sleep – it’s not called Dinosnores for nothing). The staff were all working scientists at the museum, helping out to earn a bit of pin money. All were immensely knowledgeable and captivatingly engaging. The activities (in particular, the making of fossil casts and a superb, funny lecture on bugs by entomologist Erica McAlister) were well thought out. The animatronic T-Rex was suitably scary in the dark (indeed, too much so for some of the children). And it was wonderful to see the museum as I had never seen it before, at night. The Victorian gothic architecture lends itself superbly to darkness. So, here are some photos from a night at the museum.

TO SEE A PICTURE THAT ISN’T THERE

I have had a Flickr account for a while, but never bothered with it. Till now. Finally I’ve decided that it is time I made use of it. So check out my photostream. You can also view it as a slideshow.

I have also curated a gallery of other people’s photos in which the subject is not readily apparent ‘out there’ but has composed itself in the eye of the photographer. It’s called To See a Picture That Isn’t There.

A DAY IN THE PARK

London’s Olympic Park, that is. A day of colour, shape and speed. The speed came from, among others, the incomparable Usain Bolt, strolling through the 200m heats and the women in the 5000m heats. The shape from the stadia, especially Zaha Hadid’s Aquatic Centre. And the colour, quite unexpectedly, from the spectacular wildflower planting in the Park.