A Cambridge Diary: Martin Bond photos reveal city's 'secret beauty'

15 June 2015 - Martin Bond was keen to show the difference between the town (below the bridge) and gown (above) of Cambridge

A photographer who has taken an image of a city and published it every day for a decade said each one revealed the "secret beauty" of the place.

A Cambridge Diary, which features thousands of photographs, is all about "catching the moment" said Martin Bond, its creator.

24 December 2010 - this image of a woman looks likes she has "conjured the birds up", said Martin Bond

Bond has thousands of followers online for his digital diary of Cambridge through his lens

Bond wanted his online photo diary to highlight the "normal side" of the city that is well-known for its grandeur and university. Cambridge is where he was born and still lives and works.

Capturing an image during the first coronavirus lockdown in March, he said: "For the first time in my life I saw the true beauty. There was no distraction. The streets were empty - I was forced to look up and around."

12 April 2012 - A "powerful" woman

8 June 2013 - "Orienteering" which shows a man looking at a map and a woman who is "not so sure at all if he knows what he is doing"

Bond took the first of his images by accident when, while trying out camera lenses in a shop in March 2010, he caught the moment a decorator dropped paint on to his sandwiches.

• Paddleboarder 'falls in love again' with hometown

• 'I value every image because it's unique'

• Lockdown photography 'set student up for life'

"From there I realised, because I was brought up in Cambridge, the colleges weren't of much interest to me. I was immune to the beauty of them as I was so used to them, I was more interested in what was going on in the city," he said.

"Nobody was taking notice or recording the lives of the everyday person, of which I was one, so I took up the mantle."

24 February 2017 - Making the most of the light and shadows

Shooting on a Leica SL camera, Bond shares his images on Facebook, where he has more than 31,000 followers, his own website, Instagram and Twitter.

The portrait, rather than landscape, shape of his images has always been his go-to for the diary.

"Because the project started with an intention to photograph people, I thought portrait shape would be better because humans are portrait-shaped, not landscape," he said.

"I was always shooting with the camera level [landscape] and wanted to train myself to turn it 90 degrees more often."

26 February 2018 - An image that made the front page of The Times of a sudden snow fall

11 January 2019 - The US artist Edward Hopper has been an influence in Martin Bond's work

14 January 2020 - "Amazing" nurses at Addenbrooke's Hospital taken days before the death of Martin Bond's mother

Being out in all weathers, he said the diary project had also been good for his sense of well-being.

"When you hold a camera to your eye you focus on a square of life, you are framing lives," he said.

"The difference for me between a good day or a bad is whether I've got a good picture or not."

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story to tell email [e-mail]

All photos are copyright of Martin Bond