The Marks of Man

4 February 2013 Last updated at 00:54 GMT   Article written by Phil Coomes BBC Picture editor The Last Stand   The landscape around us has been shaped by successive generations, moulded to our needs be it for agricultural, economic or transport reasons. Yet within it there are traces of the past that surface from time to time, yet one past trace that I'm sure those of us who live in the British Isles have all seen are the coastal defences rapidly constructed during World War II. The remains of a network of pillboxes and gun emplacements can be found at various coastal locations around the country and a short trip across the English Channel will ensure you come face to face with the Nazi Atlantic Wall that was there to stop the Allied forces returning to mainland Europe, something it failed to achieve. These constructions may lack architectural glamour yet they are important parts of our recent history and do have a ...

When British artist George Butler recently crossed the border from Turkey into Syria, he was greeted in the town of Azaz by abandoned tanks and piles of rubble from war-damaged buildings. But normal life was continuing amid the chaos, and George - under the protection of the Free Syrian Army - started to sketch and paint watercolours of the scenes he observed.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19468300

Another minute added from the banks

Point and shoot cameras have all sort of gizmos that i don't really play with as I usually shoot raw. My new Sony has a lot of these, i use the panorama all the time. I can remember having to us algorithms to make panos before the advent of Photoshop, so an auto pano mode is great even though it is only in JPEG. another is outline, that makes fun drawings out of your images. I don't know how it got on this setting, but I discovered them when I got home tonight, it only took a few as I set it to raw to take some pictures. 

I got a photo in the news today first time for a few years. I was on my way to make more timelapse for the current project. The Press is very good at crediting photographers and looking after their staff photographers. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7647502/Truck-crashes-in-Gebbies-Pass-Rd

Out in November, to see some of the images got to the projects page on my site http://www.johnmaillard.com/communityHalls.html for more info on the book go to Canterbury University press http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/saturday_night.shtml