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A New Year, A New Book

By |2026-04-20T07:48:27+01:00January 8th, 2026|Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , |

Territorial army portrait shot in 1996

2026 Arrives

Into a new year and a time to think about plans for 2026. I have to say that 2025 was for me, as well as lots of others, a mixed year of both success and challenges. This year looks to be no different and the only thing you can do is try to keep up with the ever increasing pace. Ai was definitely the watchword for 2025. After being mentioned for a number of years, it was only last year that I started using the technology to aid me with my photography. Getting the blend of Ai and human skill right has been an interesting journey. Ai technology may be useful but it doesn’t always get things right.

Territorial Book

This year marks thirty years since I shot what I regard as one of my best series of images. Territorial Army has been available to view on the website ever since I launched my first photography website nearly twenty years ago, but it is time to celebrate that personal benchmark project with a new book. Taking the influence from last years Southerly Point, work has commenced on a 50+ page photo zine containing all the images from that T.A project – a total of 50 images taken during multiple visits. Progress has been good with half of the book layouts completed already. The plan is to launch the book in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the project in May.

EyeEm to Close

December brought the news of the closure of EyeEm stock photography archive. The news wasn’t a total surprise as EyeEm had filed for bankruptcy a few years ago but the news was still sad. There are options to move my EyeEm photographs over to FreePik but I think I will probably just deal exclusively with 500px for now on. The end of EyeEm and the changes made over at RedBubble have been worrying over the past year as creators get squeezed due to rising costs and lower sales due to economic downturn. Here’s to 2026 seeing a reversal in that process.

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Disappearing History

By |2026-04-15T12:36:59+01:00December 6th, 2025|Categories: Blog, The Test Strip Photoblog|Tags: , , , , , , |

Disappearing History - A World War Two pillbox partially submerged due to coastal erosion
A World War Two pillbox partially submerged due to coastal erosion – near Garmouth, Moray, Scotland

Photographer’s Instinct

World War 2 pillbox located on the beach between Cromer and East Runton in Norfolk, UK
Pillbox on the beach between Cromer and East Runton, Norfolk, 2009

It’s been a bit of a slightly turbulent end to the year with a dose of flu interfering with a visit to Scotland. Even when in the grip of the flu, the instinct for getting photograph pushed its way through regardless of how I felt. Sometimes a location just draws you to it. So though I wasn’t feeling too great because of the bad flu I’d picked up a week earlier, nothing was going to stop me from investigating further along the shore.

Type 24 Pillbox

In this case, it was the sight of a partially submerged World War Two fortification, (the Type 24 pillbox, one of the most common in the UK, was part of the beach defences for the Scottish Command Line on Scottish beaches identified as potential landing grounds for a German invasion) slowly slipping into the sea due to coastal erosion. There was something slightly sad and yet inevitable about the whole scene which you don’t have to go far in the UK to find.

I’d spotted the pillbox as I’d walked along the beach and instantly the photographer’s instinct to investigate kicked in. It wasn’t to much of a walk but the pebble beach made the footing underneath precarious at times, especially when you aren’t running at 100% efficiency. From a distance, and even upon getting closer, the concrete structure looked like an old 1950’s sci-fi movie robot starting to emerge from the waves.

Norfolk Pillbox

Many years ago, I photographed a pillbox (a type 22 I think?) located on the beach between Cromer and East Runton in Norfolk. The structure had originally been located on the clifftop, but the sea had eroded away the cliff and the pillbox had dropped to the beach below. Another pillbox image was taken at Weybourne with the pillbox located in a field. That image can be found in the Norfolk project gallery.

I photographed the Cromer pillbox again in 2016 and, although the sand had covered more of it, the old beach defence structure didn’t appear to have moved much. I’ve no idea how the old pillbox has faired against the elements since. I couldn’t find it on Google maps but the beach was half covered in shadow. Maybe the sand has completely covered it.

The pillbox near Cromer in Norfolk photographed in 2016
The pillbox near Cromer photographed in 2016

Beach Defence Monument

World War Two is starting to feel like distant history now. As someone who grew up with grandparents who had been through World War Two, it felt close enough to touch. These pillboxes are monuments to that history. Sadly many of them are are still in a fight with the sea, one that they will eventually lose.

So why were the beach defences there? They would have been constructed during the early years of the war when an invasion from France, or in Scotland’s case German occupied Norway, was thought possible. Norfolk, on the east coast of England with wide flat beaches, was the closest to Germany so the defences were quickly added.

After the war, the pillboxes then began their long new role as a lasting concrete monument to the conflict. Hopefully the pillboxes will continue to endure the winter storms and rough seas, keeping their structures above the waves, and remaining a monument to WWII history, for a few more years yet.

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Last Minute Christmas Orders

By |2025-11-28T19:48:50+00:00November 28th, 2025|Categories: News|Tags: , , , , |

Christmas tree in a room

Just Enough Time!

Christmas is not that fat away now but there is still just enough time to get that special photograph copied, repaired or altered. Whether a small photograph or a big panoramic image, all sizes of photograph can be repaired, copied or retouched. Work usually takes between a week to ten days depending on the complexity of the work.

Fast Delivery

Orders as dispatched using Royal Mail tracked postage. If you have a photograph that you’d like to send to someone as a present but the image needs some care and attention, then the repair service can get the simple image copying and repair back to you with seven days up until around 22nd December. After that date an on time delivery cannot be guaranteed.

Details on Photograph Copying and Repair

More details can be found on the photograph copying, retouching and repair pages. Please feel free to ask any questions by emailing me using the contact page or my email address.

Thank you Richard.

I sent Richard an old 4 foot long, black and white school photograph from 1962 which had suffered the effects of age with several cracks and faded areas, all in the hope he could rescue it. The results were outstanding with the copy print looking like it had just been recently taken and developed. A very fair price and prompt service all added to me being very happy with the result. Thank you Richard.

David, Penzance

Thank you so much

Thank you so much for doing such a lovely job on a very old photograph of my mum and has brother who has sadly passed away. It was a photograph that was found by chance and we now have some lovely copies that we are able to distribute to the rest of the family. Thanks again

Sam Clarke

Extremely pleased

I sent Richard a large panorama photograph of over 100+ police cadets , their instructors and teaching staff at the Hendon Police Training School in 1965. It was in a very poor condition, torn and cracked in a number of places. I had lost my original and this damaged copy had been loaned to me. Richard painstakingly worked on the damaged areas to be able to produce a digitalised copy that he could send to a laboratory for a photograph to be made. When I received this to say I was extremely pleased is an understatement. It was fantastic and I cannot thank Richard enough. I certainly would not have any hesitation in recommending to anyone about Richard and his photo restoration service.

Colin Day

Job well done !

Recently used Richard’s service for copying and reducing an old photo.Did the work very well and would recommend his services

Mark B

Excellent service and quality

Excellent service and quality would definitely use again thank you

Philip Morgan

Impressed and reassured

I was impressed and reassured by the immediate response to my opening query to Richard Flint Photos – and the follow-up can-do approach. I was always kept informed on progress – and am more than satisfied with the old photograph restoration, brightening and enlarging. Thank you.

 

Martin Hiles

Very good service

I was given an amazing service, fast and reliable. The pictures I had were 40 years old and very dear to me. I was very happy I could have them enlarged and restored

Roberta, London

Excellent work

Richard enlarged some photos for me and I am delighted. Excellent quality. I was kept informed throughout. I highly recommend Richard. Thank you

Joanna, County Durham

Excellent work

Excellent work (construction of the Dudziński family history archive website) – really good and professional looking. Very upscale and that has been very much due to your hard work for which I thank you on behalf of every Dudzinski Mr, Ms, Master and Miss, whether they know it or not!!! 

Dudziński Family

Reliable service.

Delighted with the results of the photos that I required to be enhanced and enlarged.
Richard also came up with some great ideas, things that I would never have thought of.
I thoroughly recommend this service.

Mr Paul Hollands

Thanks.

Richard has been both helpful and resourceful in dealing with my request. A school photograph of 30 years ago could only be accessed in three parts, and by email transmission. Thanks to Richard’s skill he was able to produce a print for me, and I now have a splendid record, invisibly stitched together, of an important day in my Daughter’s life. It is soon to be suitably framed, and will hang on the wall of her home. An excellent job and for a fair price.

Many thanks Richard.

Paul Clifford Bradshaw

The photos arrived safe and I am very happy with them. Thank you for a great service.

John, Brighton

Richard Flint continues to be committed to providing the technical support and know-how the website needs to secure its future. I am extremely grateful for his continued commitment.

Jon, Slingsby Website Team

Thank you so much for your help.

 

James Evans (author of the Book 'Merchant Adventurers')

Marvellous job

Richard has done a marvellous job looking after my website for the past couple of years, not least taking the whole, original site and transferring it to a different server where changes/additions can be easily made. He looks after anything that needs doing, most of which I haven’t a clue about, is always happy to help and is very prompt in doing any work. His fees are reasonable too.

Chris, North Yorkshire

Extremely pleased

I contacted Richard as I was looking for a high quality copy of a 20×16” photographic print. While scanning such a large print was not feasible, Richard was able to photograph the original and touch up in Photoshop to produce a high quality copy at the desired 20×16” size. He was able to photograph, touch up and have the photo printed in a week. I’m extremely pleased with the print and I’d highly recommend Richard’s work.

Jason, Yarm

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    Two Towns, Ten Years Later

    By |2026-04-20T07:51:30+01:00November 27th, 2025|Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , |

    Two Towns, Ten Years Later.

    Behind the Lens

    One of the more interesting, if slightly disconcerting, aspects of photography as you get older is the anniversaries of projects or just images that come along. It is a strange blend of nostalgia and disbelief that so many years have gone. And yet here I am writing another post to celebrate an old project. In the case it is the The Two Towns iPhone photography project shot in Edinburgh in November 2015.

    Considering that the photography largely came about without a big plan, the project has a special place in my heart. Little did I know it, but it would document the last elements of a life with both of my parents. Within just over a year, I’d lost my mother to cancer and things wouldn’t be the same anymore. Old life and new life. Old town and New town. The images reflect both aspects of change; in front of the lens and behind it.

    Onto the Page

    The next book will take the images from the project and create a book detailing the photography. Originally the book was supposed to come out for the tenth anniversary with the page layouts completed and the photographs all in place. The only thing left to add is the text which I always find the hardest element to add to any book. The words need to flow correctly and reflect my thoughts about a very personal project.

    An addition I’m considering is adding some of the colour images to the book to make The Two Towns a ‘definitive edition’ of the project with everything there right from the start. I’ll have to see that that works and maybe it will only be a small selection of colour work makes it into the book, but it is worth experimenting with the images and the book format.

    Ten Years After

    The plan is to finally get the book put together and released within the next six months. Once finished, It will complete a trilogy of iPhone photography books that started with the release of ‘Sea, Sand, Sky and Street’ way back in 2011. Looking back, I enjoyed the experimentation with iPhone photography and the resulting projects. As with the other books, it’s a snapshot of a time with a new technology producing new opportunities to create images easily without being too noticeable.

    This project was great to shoot, but has been a challenge to put together in book form. Ironically the photography page layouts came together quickly. The text, and what I want to say, has not. I will, however, eventually find the words to complete the book and , who knows, may even find some closure of the events that followed on from that fantastic week long Edinburgh

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