I'd forgotten I had this. It may have been taken during weeks after my birth   my first year (do I see teeth?) - and yes I was born with a full crop of black hair. Admiring strangers would peer into the pram and exclaim, "Isn't she lovely."

Edit 16 May 2021:  from the Blipfolio (yes, it is still here) profile My niece invited me to participate in this community; in the hope I might improve my photography?

I post photos or, as I like to call them, snapshots on another very well known site but usually in fitful batches. My hope is to take a daily snapshot specifically to post here. What that really means is going mad and taking snaps at the rate of about thirty an hour. I want to find out what I can do with a point-and-shoot before I upgrade to a DSLR (currently Nikons: D3100, D7200, D750 and quite a slew of lenses) and achieve the pictures I envision with fewer shots (Mmmm I wonder? What was it I wanted to shoot?). I haven't followed any 365 projects; I hope I have the discipline to keep this up (I have in fits and starts; no complete 365 in nearly ten years here).

The names John Edward do no appear on my birth certificate. My sister chose my name: Alan.

Edited Thursday 10 January 2018: Quo vadis? Whither goest thou? So much for a brief history where am I going now? One of those large blipping gaps was due to a diagnosis of stage four (metastasized) renal cell carcinoma. Why did I survive drastic surgery, a bad reaction to an anæsthetic drug, and three days in ICU? Just carry on blipping.


EDITED: Thursday 27 April 2017.    On a previous edit I deleted my long-winded life story. In brief:

Born at 269 Marston Road, Oxford. Lived in Kelvedon, Essex from 1952 until 1974 when I emigrated to the US. My working life runs a gamut of manual labour to pen pushing and supervising but nothing dangerous or exciting unless the idea of driving a taxi in Los Angeles would give you second thoughts. My pass-times have been equaly gentle: Scouting, bellringing (of the full circle change ringing variety), reading, walking, did a lot of cycling in my youth, singing in various choirs (sacred and secular), I enjoy puzzles of all types. Oh, and I snap the odd picture. And how could I forget amateur dramatics? Because I haven't done any for a longtime?



I missed out:

What education? Academic dud - I never recovered from the 11+.  What can one do with half a dozen GCSEs (our class were the guineapigs), and 'O' levels in music (I play recorder, dulcimer, and bodhràn), geography, and English?

     Blipping since 7 November 2011 - with some rather large gaps.  Have some time to browse? Here's the first of twenty-one backdated blips.

      I post other efforts on Flickr, under my real name, but usually in fitful batches. 

Albion, albion Is a blog of visits to England in 2009 and 2010.   If you use online social networks I'm on FaceBook (under my real name) .