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

Castaway Paradise 

The recent tragedy of the Costa Concordia cruise ship has made me think back to my experience on the Disney Magic. For those of you outside of Europe (or those of you that live in a hole), the cruise ship Costa Concordia owned by Carnival hit a rock off of Italy’s west coast. The ship was sailing from the port of Civitavecchia which is the main port of Rome. The boat I was on done the same journey as this one for 3 months so I know the area well. The death toll currently stands at 11 but there are still many people missing.

I was lucky enough to only have one emergency (but many medical emergancies, a story for another time). We discovered a fire as smoke pored through the ceiling in the atrium where were were taking photos. I won’t bore you with the procedures but basically we told the bridge and had to act like normal. If didn’t help that they announced “red parties”, a code term for fire, over the pa system that meant everyone was asking us what was going on. A fellow photographer said to a 6 year old boy that it meant that we hit a whale to much amusement to everyone around.

In the end the fire team put it out very quickly. It was caused by welding in the room above which set alight an empty stateroom. 

This photo is another from Castaway Cay in the bahamas. You can see the Disney Magic cruise liner in the background docked at the disney island.

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.

Four in a Row

Hello and welcome to another week. Today is a photo from the Caribbean. I didn’t get off the ship much in Grand Caymen. It was generally used to catch up on sleep and do the laundry. I did venture out twice though and went to a nice Italian restaurant with some friends. On my way back I did a bit of my very own Urbex. Well sort of… I stepped over a badly placed bollard onto some wasteland to find this rotting boat.

You can see four cruise ships on port that day. The one in the centre is my home, the Disney Magic but I can’t remember the others. I think one was a Royal Caribbean and another a Carnival ship.

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.

Palm Trees in Paradise

Another photo from the Disney Island, Castaway Cay. Many of you have seen lots on images from the bahamas that I have posted that I took on my travels. This is from a place called Pelican Point looking back onto the Disney Magic ship.

It was taken while I was walking up the beach front taking photos of guests as they enjoy themselves on the island. I always carried a separate memory card so I could quickly swap for personal use. I had to be quick on changing to shooting to RAW aswell and not forget to change back which actually happened once.

Boat Tied up in St Maartin

It was a long walk back to the ship in St Maartin so you could get a boat taxi if you desired. This wasn’t that boat fortunately but one along the long walk to what I called home at the time.

Mickey’s Rusty Hand

A sign on Disney’s Castaway Cay. Their private island in the Bahamas. Mickey is doing the Disney point as usual. For anyone that doesn’t know the Disney point is where you use your index and middle finger to point in a direction. It was drilled into us working there, so much so that I still do it now. I don’t think that i will ever loose that part of Disney.