Hi, Hola, Bonjour , Ciao , مرحبا, 您好, bok, hei and welcome.

My name is James Murray and I live in London, England but love to go exploring in foreign climates. Coming from a design background I look at photography as an extension of this, recording the lifestyles and architecture that make up are world.

My passion for photography started when I first picked up a film camera (wow I miss the darkroom), capturing the moments of my accident filled childhood. I transferred this passion into my studies mixing in all of my design influences to create my own style.

Architecture and photography are the perfect blend each complementing the other. As a HDR (High Dynamic Range) enthuiast, I use this technique to enrich my images.

I have worked as a photographer since 2010, taking photos of the enviroment that I lived in around London, selling images as artworks and to companies. In 2011 I worked for Disney on their cruise ships with the big mouse himself. Onboard I worked as a portrait and wedding photographer, learning new techniques and feeding my travel bug.

Every photo is a memory; there is no better way to capture it then how you see it, not how the camera sees it.

 

Stacky Theme by Andrew

Magic in Key West

I have so many more photos of Key West left to share with you. It was my favourite port in the Caribbean and a close second overall. Everytime I got off there I would go mad with pictures. The place is so different to what I am used to and I would move there in a second.

You must get fed up of seeing this ship but it was my life for 6 months so tough luck. I can never get bored with it as it is such a beautiful place to be and you should go on it if you can.

Happy New Year Everyone

Ok first things first, Happy new year everyone! I hope you had an eventful new years. Mine consisted of working into the early hours but I did get a front row seat on a Thames boat for the London fireworks. I had never seen the fireworks in person so it was a great sight. Between that and taken me over 3 hours to get home (normally 45 minutes) I had a great time.

Now I guess its the time of year to think of resolutions not to keep (although I fully intend to this year… as always). I want to travel more around the country. I haven’t really travelled outside London in the UK although I have been lucky enough to visit many places abroad. My UK travel record is terrible so first on my list is Wales. It has a great coastline and many national parks that will keep me busy for way more then a week.

Here is a place that we haven’t visited in a while. Key West never had a great sky for photos. No clouds were ever in the sky which might seem perfect for some propel not not for us photographers. I never tried surfing although I think I would be terrible at it.

A Bar in Key West

The first late night we had it Key West we didn’t know what to do. Two of us wanted to just walk around taking night shots of many things and some of us wanted to go to a few bars. We compromised and went to a bar quickly first where I took this photo.

I didn’t like the feel of the place. I don’t know why but we moved on quickly. We had a great night in the end. The highlight… running back to the ship at 1am hoping that we weren’t late for the all aboard. The ship doesn’t wait for stall. Luckily we made it.

Welcome to South Beach

Key west is such an idyllic place. it seems like a small surf town but it has a wild side at night which I got to visit a few times with a late (or early depending on how you look at it) sail time. During the day I spent most of my time here on South beach near the Most SOuthern Point Cafe.

Serenity in the Harbor

The ship has just gone back over the Atlantic and I am upset that I am not back working on it. I may go back one day but for the moment I am happy back in London.

The ship was back in Key West on Sunday so I thought I would mark the occasion with this photo of it in Key West harbor. Everytime the ship is in port my Facebook gets lit up with where everyone is. The joys of free Wifi in restaurants is hard to forget. It is so different to the really slow ship internet and did I mention that its FREE!!! 

Anyway enough of that. Its hard to make the ship look bad when it is in such a beautiful surrounding. I have said many times that I want to live in Key West. For those of you that haven’t been I would suggest that if you are in Florida, pop down even just for a day. The chilled atmosphere will do you wonders.

We done alot with a free week in Miami. Went out every night, hired a car and went exploring and took photos at every opportunity. Im not sure what part of Miami this was in but I think we went to the Hard Rock Cafe on the same night. All the time I was in america I didnt have a tripod with me so had to improvise on every object possible. I found a wall by the scene and pirched my camera on it and tried to compose the scene the best I could.

We done the Western Caribbean to start and the first port I went to was Key West. It ended up being my favorite port in the whole of the caribbean. It is so relaxed and chilled, and also has the best cheeseburger place ever! The key lime pie isnt bad either.

This was taken by the Southern-most point Cafe, close to the tip of Key west

The Green castle

While in Miami I found out what ship I was assigned on. They put me on the Disney Magic. I wasn’t too sure whether I was “Disney” enough but it actually turned out very well. 

The second part of training bought me to Disney World, Florida for the Disney Traditions training. This is where they teach you everything about disney: how to behave, look and history behind everything. They also let you into the parks for the day. I took this time not to learn anything about disney but to take lots of photos.

One of my friends hired a car and we went for a drive around Miami. He had an idea to drive down to Key Biscayne and see what was there. We found a national park hidden right at the tip of the island. This is the lighthouse hidden away. I got some great shots and also some very burnt feet from walking on the sand.