Dressing up as an animal this week

An elephant's trunk at Brighton Gay Pride in August 2001 (image 1967-2)

This week's picture feature takes a look at animal outfits. People - especially the English - love dressing up and some, like street entertainers, do it for a living. Animals (not forgetting birds and fish etc) have long been an inspiration for entire costumes, as well as hats, masks and other accessories. It may no longer be approved to wear fur, but almost everyone enjoys looking a bit of an animal. This picture library has a very wide range of images of people in costumes and outfits in general and you might like to see the selection keyworded as dressing up.

Beach pollution last week

Washed up on the beach was the subject of last week's picture set. The coastline of Britain has been littered with flotsam and jetsam for centuries, but the volume and variety of stuff is greater than ever nowadays. There's more junk being shipped around the world and people are just too casual about what they chuck in the water. Last month, a ship carrying pine planks was wrecked in the Channel off the Dorset coast and the currents brought most of the cargo ashore on the beaches of Sussex. Police were posted by the piles to prevent people taking away the wood, which seems a bit mean since the cargo was doubtless insured and there's a fine history of harvesting washed-up goodies. The government's always telling us to recycle more, so after the next winter storm, get down to your local beach !

Animal sculptures, sunbathing and sheep in recent picture sets

Two weeks ago the picture subject was animal  sculpture alfresco - statuary and models of a variety of animals outdoors in parks and gardens. It's a nice cheerful subject and this library has a good range of other images about outdoor sculpture and art. You might like to also see the earlier sets on brighton statues, graffiti animals, sand sculptures and public statues.

It was dark and dreary January, reputedly the time of year when we feel worst about everything. The rain seemed to have been coming down for weeks, so what better way to lift the spirits and ban the January blues than with the picture feature three weeks ago - sunbathing. Roll on spring and summer.

After the preceding gloomy feature about murder, what could have been more gentle and unthreatening than the subject four weeks ago - sheep. Actually, when you look at their heads and eyes close-up, sheep are pretty weird looking. If they were three or four times larger, we'd all be pretty scared of them. There are more than 33 million sheep munching their way across the fields and hillsides of Britain and every year they provide us with 300000 tonnes of meat, not to mention all that wool, milk and yoghourt. We get a lot more out of sheep than they get out of us, so it's just as well they aren't any bigger.

Over 50000 pictures now available

The picture library offers more than 50000 images and they can all be keyword searched from the picture search page. New or updated subjects include animal outfits, beach rubbish, animal sculptures, sunbathing, sheep, murder and men & horses. The site has several ways to help make relevant and fruitful searches, including index pages for both subjects and events & places.  There is also a useful search guide and information page.

A good showcase of the type and range of photography available can be explored in the pictures of the week series. Published on the site since December 2001, this now totals over 2900 images. Each week brings a set of ten pictures about a particular place, event or theme. Almost all the library's pictures are available for personal or commercial reproduction. Digital files can be delivered by email or CD, prices start from as little as £8 and there is further information on the prices and terms & conditions pages. You can also contact David Gray for quotations and availability for new photography commissions.

Old London Country bus converted to a rural home in Sussex in February 2008 (image 2751-12)