photography

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Under an alien sky

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge. This week’s theme ‘Abstract’

Cheated a bit this week and used the theme as an excuse to play with image editing.  I use and editing suite called ‘Gimp’ which is the open-source version of Photoshop.  It may not have quite all the bells and whistles that photoshop has, but it’s pretty close and being the free option, I’m happy to work with it!

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Here is the original for comparison.  It was taken on our wonderful holiday in Beadnell, Northumberland, a couple of years ago.

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They’re coming

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge.  This week’s theme ‘Future’

The baby leaves are just unfurling on my gorgeous Japanese Acer. They’re delicate and lovely now, but I’m looking forward to seeing them at their fiery best in a few weeks time.

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Beware the Werewolves

Posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge.  This week’s them ‘Half-Light’. A photograph inspired by a lyric, poem or story…

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Though I love to see a full moon, and sometimes give it a howl, I am of course always on the lookout for rampant werewolves on full moon nights (look, I’ve seen Twilight, I know some of them might be ok, but I’m not taking any chances). Fortunately, this moon was so weird and bright that I would have seen them coming, and lets face it, I only need to have run inside and locked the door ’til daylight if one did manage to climb over the rose covered prickly fence into my garden from when this picture was taken. So hah! werewolves, go get you a chinese instead!

Of course, I’m referring to the song ‘Werewolves of London’ by Warren Zevon which surely has the finest first line of any song….e..ver…  ‘I saw a werewolf with a chinese menu in his hand…’  For those of you who haven’t come across it, enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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Winin’

Posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge.  This week’s theme ‘Dance’

I’ve never witnessed anything so colourful, noisy, and joyful as the Trinidad Carnival.  The parade of dancers, each troupe in different coloured costumes, went on all day.  A senses overload which simply cannot be captured in mere photographs, but I gave it a go. Oh, and of course, these were taken whilst I was having the odd rum or two and ‘wining’ myself. Just to be clear.. wining is a Carribean dance (basically ‘winding’ your hips), I wasn’t drinking wine on top of the rum, let’s face it, I wouldn’t have been able to stand up, let alone dance, if I’d been doing that! 😉

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Love in a vase

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day here in England. My twin daughters live at different ends of the country, and because of their, and my, schedules we were, to my dismay, destined not to meet up for the day.  They were though, dutiful enough to send sweet and thoughtful mother’s day cards, and to my surprise and delight, also both sent the most wonderful bouquets.  I wish I could harness the scent, which fills our living room, to share with you, but in the absence of smellyblog here are a few studies I took of the flowers.

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What’s in the box… I want to believe…

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With the return of the X files to our screens this week, I thought it might be a good time to reveal to you what is in this little box  (I’ve put my lens cap next to it to give an idea of size).

My daughter made this in a woodwork class at school when she was about 14 I think.  As I remember, the brief was to make a box with a surprise inside.  As she was a big fan of X Files at the time, she came up with this neat idea.   As you can tell, being meticulous in her work, she could (and still can when she has time and puts her mind to it), produce some pretty impressive results.

So… what’s in the X box…

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an alien of course!  Not just any old alien though, he’s a glow in the dark, alien on a spring so he wobbles when you open the lid. It still amuses me!

By the way, what did you think of the first of the new episodes?  I thought it was a bit slow going, but I’m hoping it will pick up speed, and be as entertaining as the last series were soon.

The truth is out there…

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Little Boxes

Sorting some bits and pieces out the other day, it occurred to me how many boxes I have around the house that are stuffed with random things. The ones pictured are just a small selection!  You can see that some of the boxes are beautiful in their own right, but others have seen better days. What they have in common is that I rarely look inside them. They are poked away getting dusty in cupboards and shelves most of the time. In fact, without opening them I’m not even sure what is in them, only a very few have their original contents. So over the coming weeks I’ve decided to share their secrets with you in a new series of ‘What’s in the box?’.  Look out for the first one which will be appearing soon!

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