Photography - at first it was just taking pictures, then I went digital and now I discover Instagram.

I have lived long enough now to have seen a transformation in the art of photography. Not that I'd call myself a photographer, but I been taking photographs since I was a child and I've always been entranced by the possibilities of even the simplest of cameras. As a schoolboy, I won a photographic competition once but that was a long time ago. Since then, I've just been using my various cameras for my own pleasure, mostly as a record of my family and friends but when that amazing digital revolution got to me, in 2007,  I found new excitement with a great digital camera, the Cannon EOS 400D, bought in Hong Kong and loved ever since.  Since living in Lewes, UK, I've been friends with a real photographer, David Stacey http://www.davidstaceyphoto.com/ who has not only inspired me with his own work but encouraged me to experiment more with my own camera.

David Stacey - I dared to take this photograph of the photographer, last year.

Dave even turned his camera on me a few times and this portrait  now hangs on a wall at home - like it or not, I think it captures the spirit of my life here in Lewes.

Me by David Stacey

David Stacey at work in my study.

I spent a day with Dave recently when we went to an exhibition as the excellent Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and, over a boys' pub lunch, we discussed cameras and photography as we often do. It was there that Dave inspired me to give Instagram a go. He said he thought I'd really like this the most  creatively challenging and excitingly instant of all of today's social networking sites. I said I'd have a go and, a month later, I'm still doing it and, yes, loving it too. I've been taking at least one photograph a day for the site and I'm gradually learning how to master the various editing options. You can see how I've been getting on by following the link below.

https://www.instagram.com/colinbellwolfiewolfgang/

The other revolution in my on-line world is that those photographs taken for Instagram can be linked to various other sites - so I'm now an enthusiastic member of the photography site Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16199705@N05/

I'm also linking these shots with that other photography site Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/blog/wolfie-wolfgang

I'm enjoying the way my photographs can be sent round the internet with just a couple of clicks and love the way my Instagram photos are also automatically linked to  that other photography site Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/colinbell/photographs-by-colin-bell-wolfiewolfgang/

Needless to say, these pictures also go directly to my Facebook and Twitter pages so after a relative silence here on my website, I'm suddenly all over the wonderful world-wide web and having lots of fun all of which I owe to my good friend David Stacey. Thanks Dave.

I haven't posted many blogs on here this year. Forgive me, regular readers, I've been busy finishing a novel for publication later this year  and now I'm getting on with a new one so I've been heads down all year but plan to get back to blogging again very soon.

In the meanwhile you can follow me on all of the above sites as well as on Facebook and Twitter - I hope to see you around in cyberspace and, of course, here on this site.

My Facebook page.

My Twitter page.

Dawn and Dave Stacey and my poem inspired by their work in Lewes.

Capturing The Moment by Dawn Stacey

I live in the small country town of Lewes, Sussex, in south east England - it's an inspiring to place to have your home. Not only is it a lovely town with a rich history and well preserved architecture, it is also bordered by the wonderful Sussex Downs - we are in England's newest national park.

If that isn't enough to make anyone want to live here, it is also a town full of artists many of whom are also my friends. Two of them, Dawn and David Stacey (Dave to me), have just opened their latest exhibition, Shared Encounters,  round the corner from my house at Lewes' excellent Hop Gallery. It runs until 13th March.

Dawn is a painter and Dave is a photographer and they have collaborated on a show that explores the many moods of the reclaimed Railway Land on the edge of town that is now a twenty acre nature reserve, ten minutes walk from my house. It is an inspiring place to visit but then so is this exhibition.

Emerging Teasels by Dawn Stacey

I have one of Dawn's paintings on my living room wall and I'm lucky to be able to look at it every day. It depicts, in Dawn's very distinctive style, a red dawn in November on the Railway Land Nature Reserve. Dawn's work is an intriguing mixture of landscape and intense close-up which mixes realism and reductionism with near abstraction. It's a style that reveals something new no matter how many times you return to look.

Dawn Stacey's November painting on my living room wall.

When she had a significant birthday last November, I thought I'd mark it with a poem, Red November, and, fortunately, both Dawn and Dave liked it sufficiently to get it framed and they asked if they could include it in the exhibition. I was proud to be part of their show but also thrilled to see poetry up there on the wall in a frame like any other work of art. I'd like to do more of this.

Cow by David Stacey

It's fascinating to see Dawn's railway land work alongside her husband Dave's photography of the same location. Dave's natural melancholy is not often on display when you talk to him but it is often the mood of his work. This cow is not just chewing the cud - things are seldom what they seem in Dave's work. It was this quality, also found in Dawn's paintings, that inspired the tone of my poem. I was very happy to be invited to the gallery on Saturday afternoon to read Red November surrounded by Dawn and Dave's work.  If you can, do go along and take a look before the show ends on 14th March.

Crow 2 by David Stacey

I've always had a thing about crows and I've been very fond of Dave's photograph Crow 2 for some time now. I love the bird's determination but also the way its sinister silhouette contrasts with the reed banks along our Lewes river, the Ouse.

Having my poem up there on the wall with their work, I felt, for a moment or two, like an artist myself but then the realization dawns on me and I remember just how terrible I am with a paintbrush. Maybe that's why I enjoy looking at art so much - I'm no longer tempted to try doing it myself.

With Dawn and Dave Stacey at the Hop Gallery, Lewes.