IJM Photography — Blog & Projects

Four decades behind the lens. Six years of sharing the journey.

Welcome. I’m Ian — photographer, horn player, and writer living in the Vendée, near the Loire-Atlantique border. This blog has been running since 2019 and shows no sign of stopping.

You’ll find black and white film work, travel essays, orchestra photography, philosophical digressions about why any of us bother pressing the shutter, and the occasional camera review written by someone with strong opinions and a perhaps unreasonable attachment to grain. No algorithms chose what appears here. No agency wrote it. Just forty years of looking, and six of writing it down.

Start anywhere. Stay as long as you like.

Latest from the Field

  • Glad to be alive

    Glad to be alive

    Yesterday I looked death in the face.  Whilst at work, yesterday at around 10 am, crossing from one building to another, I suddenly looked up and saw a big flash of yellow in front of me.  A forklift truck was just 3 feet away from me.  I was between the two forks.  Three feet between… Read more

  • Happy Birthday Wife!

    Happy Birthday Wife!

    Today is the 13th of May 2022 and is my wife’s birthday. It is also Friday the 13th, so I don’t know how I should be feeling, happy for my wife but slightly preoccupied by lady luck deciding to have fun at my expense. Strangely, in France, Friday the 13th is considered lucky. What a… Read more

  • The night of Easter

    The night of Easter

    This might be a bit of a strange post and is more a reflection of how my spiritual life seems to be going and might be a little Catholic. You have been warned. Do people ever regret Lent? Not the spiritual aspect of it, but the structure and discipline of it. Although I didn’t eat… Read more

  • Palm Sunday Photography

    Palm Sunday Photography

    Last week I wrote about Palm Sunday and the importance that it has in the liturgical calendar.  Today I would like to talk more about photography.  In my article about the Canon 6D Mark II and the 16-35mm lens, I talked about how it seemed to be a less productive day, and it was indeed,… Read more

  • Palm Sunday

    Palm Sunday

    As a Catholic I celebrate the beginning of Holy Week, culminating on Easter Sunday when we will declare once again, that “He is risen!” We will celebrate the fight of God sending His only Son here on earth as the Saviour of all mankind to vanquish darkness. We will celebrate life over death, the sacrifice… Read more

  • How was your weekend?

    How was your weekend?

    Well, on Friday night we had the consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  As a Catholic, and, as somebody who has actually been to Fatima, and knows what a big thing this is, it was a very moving and special moment.  The majority of us wish peace for Ukraine and… Read more

Featured Projects

  1. The UK Chronicles
    Light, minimalism, and preparation.
    Shot entirely on the Fujifilm X100F during a recent solo journey through Britain — a deliberate exercise in traveling light, seeing deeply, and preparing for the sensory overload of China.
  2. The Film Archives
    Memory in monochrome.
    A vault unlocked: black and white film photographs from Nantes, Clisson, and beyond — captured long before this blog existed. Grain, patience, and timeless moments.
  3. Photography Philosophy
    Why do we do this?
    Not a tutorial. Not a gear guide. A quiet exploration of purpose — the “why” behind the viewfinder. For those who photograph not to post, but to feel.
  4. The Orchestra Visit to China
    Culture, chaos, and concert halls.
    A visual symphony from the road with the orchestra — temples, trains, backstage glances, and the electric silence before the first note.

About the Photographer

I am not an influencer. I am not a brand.
I am a photographer, ever so slightly stubborn, analogue at heart, digital when needed, and fiercely independent. I’ve been developing my own film since the 1980s. I built this blog in 2019, not for followers, but for focus.

I do not outsource my editing. I do not chase trends. I shoot what moves me, and I hope, sometimes, it moves you too.

“Commercial editing offers and unsolicited partnerships will not be published or replied to. This space is sacred; for art, not advertising.”

A Note from a Reader

“j’adore… il y a des jours avec, et les jours sans….”
— A kind visitor, September 2025

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