Weymouth this week

Weymouth Old Harbour in March 2008 (image 2753-4)

This week's pictures come from the lovely Dorset seaside town of Weymouth. They were taken during the coldest Easter weekend for many years and the resort's fine seafront and beach, swept by an Arctic wind, were not exactly humming with life. Come the summer, however, the town will be full of tourists and sailors. Weymouth has been an important fishing base since the 13th century and is still the home port for 67 fishing boats. Tourism here also has a long history, started by George III, who came for his summer holidays between 1789 and 1805. Were the town not so far from London, Weymouth might have become the urban seaside playground that Brighton did under the patronage of George IV. It still feels gratifyingly distant from London - prices are much lower, the pace is slower and the attractions enjoyably old-fashioned. Weymouth is a charming place, well worth visiting even when you need to wear three pullovers.

Vans last week

The subject of last week's feature was vans with attitude. Ten pictures of vans (the first is actually a converted hearse) that illustrate the ability of the humblest commercial vehicle to strut its stuff on the street. Not so much a case of Van The Man as Man! The Van!.

Florists, cars in colours and the Chinese New Year have been the subjects of recent picture sets

Flowers for sale was the picture subject a fortnight ago. We'd just had Mothers Day (bouquets), not long before was Valentine's Day (roses) and the first signs of spring (daffodils) were well upon us. Some of the pictures come from Gunns florists in Brighton (Sydney Street and Castle Square). It is one of the best - and friendliest - flower shops in the country. Of course there is the environmental cost of flying them all around the world, but buying flowers is still one of life's nicest and more harmless pleasures. This set's pictures were taken in Brighton, London, Paris and Dieppe.

Three weeks ago the picture set looked at cars in colours. Henry Ford famously said customers could only have his cars in black, but that was a long time ago and now you can buy Fords in any colour you like. That said, it's surprising how muted seems the palette of most cars on the road today. All those silvers, greys, pastels and, yes, blacks. Perhaps it's something to do with insurance companies, who identify certain colours (notably red) as carrying greater risk. But there are still plenty of colourful cars - in Brighton there seem as many shades of car as hair colour - and this feature showed ten good examples.

February was the month of Chinese New Year, the subject of the feature four weeks ago. The images came from London (1983, 1984, 1985 and 2005) and Brighton (2008). Chinese tradition ascribes each year to one of a cycle of symbolic animals and we have just entered the Year of the Rat. Such years are said to be propitious for wealth, but also strongly associated with aggression, atrocities, plague, pestilence and death. Good new for rats then, unfortunately !

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 Weymouth, vans, flowers, cars, Chinese New Year, funfairs, animal outfits and beach rubbish. 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.

In the courtyard at the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester in March 2008 (image 2753-58)