Photography – Page 24 – Boadicea's Chariot

Judgement on photo competition 29

The photo competition, number 29 asked for photos to illustrate what the weather was doing in your area of the world… and I thought there would be masses of entries – but no, only a few!

OZ posted a laid back cat, sunning on a wooden beam – wonderful blue skies behind. How envious I felt.

Soutie posted several pictures, here, here, here and here illustrating rather extreme wet and windy weather in South Africa. My favourite of all these was the third, where the damage and the scale of the trees is clearly seen.

Boadicea posted a picture of a kookaburra in an old gum tree, and this for me is the winner.
I may be biased, but I love those wonderful birds and their call reminds me so much of camping trips in 1987 -88! I can almost smell the eucalyptus…. But more than that it is a beautiful photo: the composition is balanced, with the branch shape, the proportion of blue against the silvered bark, and the tufts of the bird’s head-feathers echoed in the sharp spikes of the broken off tree stump.

Thank you Boadicea, and over to you!

Weather, or not? (Photo competition 29, reminder)

Not long to go… the weather photograph competition ends at mid-night on the 1st August and so far there are two entries.
Any more weather photos floating about out there?

Here’s the link.

Christina, look away now!

Last Saturday I went to a day class in stained glass appliqué – my project was a little ambitious and this is as far as I got

I went back today to complete the task Continue reading “Christina, look away now!”

Stained Glass

It was sunny yesterday, but I spent most of it inside, making the beginnings of a stained glass panel, using the appliqué technique. This entails cutting and sticking glass to a clear piece of glass and then grouting it, much like the grouting on a mosaic, rather that edging with lead.

I arrived with a rough sketch and then made the sketch into the working diagram…

Continue reading “Stained Glass”

More holiday snaps…

The main ‘planner of what to do’ while we are on holiday is Cycloman – he’s good at making an itinerary and actually reads the travel guides. (I find I can read the travel guides better after the event, rather than before…. and because of that I’d like to visit a place more than once. The first time to orientate myself and the second to catch up on what we didn’t do the first time)

We only had time for one visit to Nice, and even then did far less than we had hoped. Teenagers don’t like getting up very early, do they?

When we arrived in Nice the first problem was traffic followed closely by parking: we eventually found somewhere in a massive underground car park, affiliated with a huge shopping complex. Being a Sunday in France, I was surprised that the shops were open when we arrived, but as in the UK they have a limited opening time and closed early. As I got out of the car in the parking slot an automated voice told me which pillar we had parked next to, for future reference. It was a truly huge car park: it was painted and decorated and had piped music!

Once we found our bearings we went to the main square.
The main square in Nice (Place Messena) is a huge open area, with a back and white tiled floor and figures high up on poles, which apparently light up at night.

We didn’t see them lit up, as we were only there in the day, but you can see an image here. Continue reading “More holiday snaps…”

Rain

Continue reading “Rain”

Gorge de Verdon

The scenery in Southern France around the mountains above Nice is fantastic. High mountains, rivers, gorges, villages perched on high cliffs – all so perfectly photogenic!

We had several days out, but my favourite was probably the day we walked along the Gorge de Verdon

Firstly we drove to the top to look at the view. The colour of the water gave the gorge its name.

Continue reading “Gorge de Verdon”

Driving in France

We rarely argue, but one thing that can set us off is driving. I get travel sick and can’t navigate from a map when moving. He’s not a good passenger. The invention of the Sat Nag has, to a certain degree, helped – but when we picked up the hire car at Nice airport I drove, as the Sat Nag refused to work.

So there I was, driving on the wrong side of the road, my feet operating the pedals (which are of course in the same order as they are at home) while my arms were trying to remember that the gear stick is on the right, the opposite side to what I am used to, whilst trying not to make my darling husband too nervous as he issued directions to me, often three times, with increasing volume, sometimes confusing his left and right. You can imagine, therefore that, after an early start (5 am) and little food Continue reading “Driving in France”

What’s the weather like? Photo competition 29

I have been away, in the sun. How wonderful. But back in the UK last night I’m had to put on long trousers, a jumper and my socks plus slippers, while I browsed the holiday photos.
It was actually dry as we landed at Heathrow yesterday afternoon, but we’d only been home half an hour when the drizzle started. Then the drizzle turned heavier and the possibility of cutting the rather lush grass turned into an impossibility.

Hey ho.

We stayed in the mountains up behind Nice, high up, in a small village. It was so beautiful. This was the view, on the first morning, which was a little cloudy. After the second day the clouds cleared.