Tag: Photography

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Assessing The Beauty Of Hellebore Hybrids

A plant breeder has the unenviable task of deciding which hybrids to keep and which to discard. The nearest a photographer comes to that experience is when we are in a garden exploring a collection of hybrid plants, deciding which forms to capture.

Pink hellebore with an attractive covering of spots

The nodding habit of most hellebore hybrids forces us to bend and balance as we make our deliberations, lifting each flower head and looking inside. As a general rule, the more regular a pattern, the more photogenic the flower if we are aiming for a fresh look rather than artistic decay, but there are exceptions. Continue reading “Assessing The Beauty Of Hellebore Hybrids”

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Sometimes I Like Things I’m Not Supposed To Like

Power lines with tree branches silhouetted against the sky

When my sweetheart saw this, he tried to explain how I could remove the power lines with an app. Remove the lines? I like the lines. I like the way the vegetation moves with so much verve around them.

Indulge me. Anthropomorphise the seed heads for a moment and see how they seem to be lifting thin arms in mockery or emulation. Watch the boundaries between natural and man-made fade.

I didn’t get any pleasure from the power lines for a long time. We don’t dangle our lines in the sky for all to see where I’m from, we secretively stash them away. I’d venture to think we don’t need as many lines where I’m from, but then what do I know?  Continue reading “Sometimes I Like Things I’m Not Supposed To Like”

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Bye, Weekly Photo Challenge!

The last ever weekly photo challenge is titled ‘All Time Favourites’ – give or take ‘u’. It’s hard to mark the passing of this much loved event appropriately.  I’m starting off by sharing a few  favourite shots I’ve been saving until the right prompt came around. I’m pretty sure these would never have seen the light of day now the challenge is ending so, while there’s still time, here goes!

Utility box with painting of tree and street scene

Jane Brewster’s street art shows part of the New Orleans street it is on, if my memory is correct. I like the way life plays with art and the dark shadows echo the dark trunk of the painted tree in this image. It provokes lots of ideas, for example, my eye plays with the angles of the shadows and the perspective in the painting. It’s funny how life seems to be framing the painting and how life seems more abstract than art. In retrospect I could have used it for ‘Reflections’, although it would have been a fairly subtle connection.  Continue reading “Bye, Weekly Photo Challenge!”

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A Sense of Place: Wooden Beehives In Heather

Little Sparta

The heather is flowering at the moment, turning green hillsides purple. While we have lots of heather on Darwen Moor, I haven’t seen it looking as pretty as in these two pictures, both taken in Scotland during a recent trip. The first shows the view looking outwards from Little Sparta, home of the late poet Ian Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Sue. I highly recommend a visit.

Taking a long, but scenic detour on our way home, we happened upon these wooden beehives next to a stream in a Scottish valley. If it is true that the highest quality of honey comes from bees able to forage in unspoiled, natural surroundings, I would love to sample a jar from these hives.

Wooden beehives in Scottish heather with a stream running by

Continue reading “A Sense of Place: Wooden Beehives In Heather”

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Pink Rose Gallery

Rosa 'Anne Boleyn'

Everyone was so reassuring about my unseasonal blue poppy / TARDIS post that I’m sharing a few more pictures from earlier this summer – this time of roses. Portraits of roses are still one of my favourite subjects for photography, so I’m a little spoilt for choice (I’m not sure how widely that idiom is known outside the UK – basically it means I had quite a few pictures to choose from). I couldn’t say why I’ve decided on pink(ish) ones: perhaps because if you’re being unseasonal, you might as well be really unseasonable. Red would be much more Christmassy.

Long-time readers may remember I have a theory that some varieties of roses are more photogenic than others. I like the way that each bloom has a different pattern or arrangement of petals. Fresh roses have a purity that I love and a particular type of luminosity. I even find the slightly more battered ones appealing these days, like this little cluster.  Continue reading “Pink Rose Gallery”