B&W gallery:Pantheon door

In my youth, Rome was a siren call that was only (temporarily) satisfied when a mate and I took

off on a motorbike one glorious summer with the last knockings of our student grants, for a

whistle-stop tour of as many youth hostels as it took to get from Salisbury - where we were

studying applied photography - to the Eternal City.

With neither of us budding Ansel Adamses or Cartier-Bressons, the lost photographic opportunities

don't bear thinking about, and it was only later in life that more funds and more experience in

photography rescued any 'creative' talent we had. In the meantime, we've both had jobs in

industrial, medical or aerial photography, and in my case a career as a film and television

cameraman, before retiring to consider where we went wrong. Neither of us managed to join that

elite club of photographers who were in the right place at the right time with the right pictures

and got ‘noticed.’ Anyway, this photograph of the massive door to the Pantheon is one of the

few that have survived since that early escapade. The third participant on that trip performed

exquisitely: the bike - a 600cc side valve BSA - didn't break down at all, amazingly, and we got

back on time for once.

In my youth, Rome was a siren call that was only (temporarily) satisfied when a mate and I took off

on a motorbike one glorious summer with the last knockings of our student grants, for a whistle-stop

tour of as many youth hostels as it took to get from Salisbury - where we were studying applied

photography - to the Eternal City.

With neither of us budding Ansel Adamses or Cartier-Bressons, the lost photographic opportunities

don't bear thinking about, and it was only later in life that more funds and more experience in

photography rescued any 'creative' talent we had. In the meantime, we've both had jobs in

industrial, medical or aerial photography, and in my case a career as a film and television cameraman,

before retiring to consider where we went wrong. Neither of us managed to join that elite club of

photographers who were in the right place at the right time with the right pictures and got ‘noticed.’

Anyway, this photograph of the massive door to the Pantheon is one of the few that have survived

since that early escapade. The third participant on that trip performed exquisitely: the bike - a 600cc

side valve BSA - didn't break down at all, amazingly, and we got back on time for once.

Pantheon door, Rome