Welcome to Close Eye On The Crane, an ongoing photo project to present the nature of the River Crane Valley in what I hope is an interesting and slightly unusual way.

The River Crane is a tributary of the River Thames and flows through some of the western suburbs of Greater London. All the images in this project are taken around Twickenham, where the Crane flows through a linear park (known as Crane Park) and then some open spaces such as Kneller Gardens, Mereway Nature Park and the Craneford Playing Fields. This is just one very small section of an important green corridor that is carved by the river as it flows from source to the Thames.

All the images presented here are taken in an urban environment that has a high level of human use and disturbance. However very few of these images show any indication of this setting. The reason for this omission is not in order to present the Crane artificially as a natural utopia. It should be self-evident from its location that this is far from the case. The purpose of presenting the Crane in this way is rather to emphasise the natural beauty that occurs here. It is sometimes easier to see graffiti and rusting supermarket trolleys than the exquisite beauty of the nature that surrounds us.

The galleries are organised on a monthly basis. This is not a static exhibition and the content will change over time, just as the subject matter does. The project is hosted on the smugmug photo sharing website and you are free to download images but I would request notification and credit if you intend to use any of these for other than private purposes. There is also a facility for adding comments to images - I would appreciate any comments or corrections regarding any of the images in the monthly galleries, so feel free to use this.

I recommend that you view these images in slideshow mode (selected from the style menu in the top right). You can edit the number of seconds spent on each image (you may need to hold down the backspace key of your keyboard while you input the desired delay).

The green spaces along the River Crane are under many different pressures, not the least from occasional planning developments. I hope that by showing the Crane in this way it is possible to widen the appreciation of what we have and what we cannot afford to discard carelessly. For more information about environmental issues in this area I recommend you visit http://www.force.org.uk or contact London Wildlife Trust.

Keep your close eye on the Crane and thanks for visiting.

Keith