Hello and welcome to October's Photo Challenge. This month's brief was very simple: 'Pylons & Wires'. I figured It doesn't matter where you live (unless you do live, quite literally, off the grid), you don't have to go far to find an electric cable or a telephone wire overhead. Your response again has been amazing. Eclectic and, indeed, electric.
Just pictures this time from Rol, but I can see that he's still got his sunset head on. Thanks, Rol. Two very different skies; we'll see a lot of different vistas/backdrops in this month's collection.
Next up is young Ernie who I've had the pleasure of meeting not once but twice this year: "Hi John, struggling a bit with the theme this month as my collection is largely wireless but here's the best of the bunch. Two photos from East London - the O2 Arena and cable car, and the chaotic underside of the North Circular in Roding Valley. And finally a Kite, complete with wires and pole, in Addis Ababa (you'll have to take my word for that as it could be anywhere). Ernie." Thank you, Ernesto. Been birding long?
Aye Aye, Alyson: "Hi John, not sure if this fits the remit but this is the rigging on HMS Discovery berthed in Dundee, next to the V&A. As I've said to you before, you should have a trip up there sometime. We could meet you." Thank you, Alyson. Like I said when I texted you back - is's not a pylon and it's not wires. But the mast looks like a pylon and the rigging looks like wires. How could I not put it in?!
Pete Zab with three very striking images: "Morning John,
Got three for you, as you can tell, one has been manipulated a bit!
Pete." I love 'em, Pete. God wouldn't have given us filters if he didn't want us to play with them. (Not sure if that's in the Old Testament or New.)
Riggsby from San Diego: "Hi John, not leaving it to the last minute this month: this was taken in 2015 in Shanghai. Quite a few technicians, but that's a lot of wires!" It certainly is, Richard. A recurring theme in that part of the world judging by some of the pics I've been sent this month.
Khayem from the Kotswolds kicks off with three shots of "poles, pylons and wires in and around my home village."
Followed by "wires and cables on a moored ship in Gloucester Docks."
And finally "a lamppost seemingly reaching out to some telephone lines in Yate, South Gloucestershire." Cheers, K. The ship's mast is a good call (see Alyson's pic).
James & Natalie are not long back from their Japanese expedition: "Hi Dad, as you know, growing up, I had a fascination with Japan. I found myself particularly drawn to niche aspects of the place. As a teenager, watching the films of Takeshi Kitano and playing games like Shenmue, I immersed my brain in the suburbs of Tokyo's endless urban sprawl: streets where every house is different to the one next to it, there is no delineation between footway and road, and vast networks of pylons run between every property.
I told an older businessman in a bar one night that we were staying in Kamiochiai while we were in Tokyo, which he described as "quite far out"*, but I explained to him that was right in the centre of Tokyo that I'd always pictured in my mind.
*The Japanese sense of scale is interesting. "Far out" was a 15-minute metro ride from busiest pedestrian crossing in the world."
Natalie continues the theme: "I took this photo of Mount Fuji whilst we were passing through Kawaguchiko in April. James was in the Toyota car hire office, returning the vehicle we'd used to explore the area, so I seized the opportunity to get a shot on a clear morning."
"I recorded this video shortly afterwards on the coach back to Tokyo." Thank you both so much for these insights into Japanese culture. (As James said in his accompanying text: "Japan doesn't fuck about with its pylons or mountains." Quite.)
Tim: "Hi John, here’s a handful of pylons for this month's Photo Challenge.
I’ve got to admit, a bit like with wind turbines, I do quite like the stark contrast they create. The first three are from Suffolk heading inland from, I think, Sizewell. (I was there only last week and nabbed a couple myself - JM.) There’s definitely an industrial artistry to the way they all differ fractionally.
Thus is the source of the power. Then a grainy, almost timeless, offering showing Staythorpe Power Station snapped rapidly on an early morning bike ride out that way.
Finally the ‘Hucknall (& its Environs) Pylon Appreciation Society’ checking out this large city centre offering in Leicester (or it could be a Stoke awayday). Anyway, that’s my lot.
As ever looking forward to the results.
Cheers, Tim." Thank you, Tim. Strong pylon game!
Johnny Legs has three for us this month: "Glastonbury."
"Kirklington."
"Split."
David Cooper's been on his travels again: "Hi John,
My first contribution was the view from a bar where I used to shelter from the regular torrential rain in Bangkok, Thailand. As a retired Railway Engineer my second photo did make me a bit nervous. It was taken in Kalka, India. The third photo was taken closer to home around Clifton Bridge. I had no concerns about their methodology, although you wouldn’t catch me up there! David." Me neither, Coops. Good work, as ever.
Kate has another plate of spaghetti for us: "Hi John, I don't usually take pictures of power lines and pylons (you're not the first person to tell me this! - JM), so this is the best I can do this month: power lines in Cambodia. The guide told us that when a new person moves in and asks to be connected, the company attach new lines every time and leave the old ones, so the cities have these accumulations of wires everywhere. Not pretty, but a lesson in how not to manage, maybe!" Great stuff, Kate. As you say - not pretty, but it makes for a great photograph all the same.
Claire just may have provided us with this month's winner: "Wired up traffic cone in Castro district San Francisco 2016." Thank you, Claire. Did you ring the Cones Hotline?
The Swede next (another blogger who I've met a couple of times in 2025): "International jet-setter that I am, my humble offerings this month were snapped just a few days apart in 2023, but on different continents.
First up is the Roosevelt Island Tramway, a cable car which runs alongside the Queensboro Bridge in New York.
Immediately prior to heading off to the States, I was at the Alexandra Palace in London for a Robyn Hitchcock show, where, earlier in the evening, by sheer fluke, I captured the aerial, the moon and a passing plane!" Thank you, TS. Ally Pally and Claire's cone are neck and neck!
Walter's next - dialling up from the Fatherland: "Hello John, here is my contribution to this month's challenge. First a picture I took years ago after work, waiting for the train and rain to come. The next was from a trip into the highlands of Sri Lanka. The last one I took at a birthday in a suburb of my hometown as I just liked the colour of the sky. Cheers, Walter." Three powerful images, Walt. I've taken many pics myself waiting for trains. Thank you.
The rest of you may have gone half way round the globe for your photos, but Charity Chic is a home-bird: "The telephone pole at the bottom of our garden." Love it, CC. Old skool."
Adam sounds like his photo roll is full of this kind of stuff: "Pylons? We got pylons. Various pylons from the walks and trails around the River Mersey in south Manchester against a variety of skies." Thanks, Adam. There's at least one album sleeve in there.
Celia's gone a tad further than CC: "Hi John
Hope all's good with you. Here's a view from just up my road - we're all still connected to wonky wooden poles! C x." Thank you, C. I'm probably wrong but it looks like you may just have missed a rainbow?
Matthew from Dumfries & Galloway: "Hi John, pylons and wires at Cambus O' May Suspension Bridge: it spans the River Dee near Ballater, Scotland. Next an apparent tangle of wires in Manila, Philippines. If you zoom in there's a cherry picker basket which had been threaded through the mass of cables for some maintenance! Then we've got power distribution from Ferrybridge Power Station, Yorkshire (I spot Drax in the background! - JM). And lastly a pylon at Brotherton, nearby. Not sure if the bungalows were built before the Pylon?" Good work, Matthew.
The lovely Miss Turner (once again without Alfie): "Hi John, phone wires on our road this morning with gorgeous sunrise x."
Portuguese George: "Hi John, here are two photos of the jumble of wires you see in the area of our farm. They are either carrying electric to our houses or fibre-optic internet - that wee black box you can see on the first photo is something to do with the fibre optic thingy, and means we get almost 1GB download speeds even here in quite an isolated location.
George in the Alentejo Litoral." Thank you, George. I love your lexicon - I can tell you've worked in Telecommunications!
A couple of mine, as is the norm, to wrap things up: this was taken under the flight path of East Midlands Airport. Two seconds later and the plane disappeared into the clouds.
Sizewell in Suffolk. You must get cheap electricity having one of those in yer back garden?
Drax. Cooling towers and pylons - what's not to like?
From a couple of years ago when I was freelancing in Loughborough. He's the modern day lineman for the county. I don't think Glenn would approve.
Tramlines in Basford, Nottingham
Powerlines running adjacent to the Power League 5-a-Side pitches in Clifton, Nottingham
New construction site taken thru a chain-link fence in Nottingham.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
Random telegraph pole.
Another snap from my recent visit to Suffolk: Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station taken on the beach at Southwold.
And there you have it. A huge thank you to everyone who takes the time to get involved in this project we call Photo Challenge. I'll post November's theme in the comments section below in a few days. Take care. J x.
