This post requires little comment. It is Gaia in fine form creating ripples on a beach. Hope you like it as much as I do

I am still basking in the afterglow of the walk around Buttermere. A walk I have done, with my son, so many times and in all sorts of different conditions; and every time a new view, a new variation. I will do this walk untilage and infirmity get me and even then in a zimmer frame if I have to, to see Gaia in her glory. On this day I knew it would be reflections; the air was so still and it was light and sunny; I am just sharing some with you. And an underlying photographic point …. it is always worth cultivating a few favourite locations that you visit again and again. You will know where to look, you will see differences, and you will always see something new.

As you may note, often when doing landscape photography, I like to crop to some detail, enjoying the patterns and textures in nature that we mostly take for granted; almost an abstract. Yet sometimes Gaia just lays on a view so pretty that all I can do is observe, enjoy, then try and compose and record as best I can. This was just such a day, Buttermere a few days ago. Hope you like it too.

This is still in Lugdunum/Lyon, and the Roman city had amphitheatres. I visited this with my daighter on a bakingly hot day of glaring sunlight. The contrasts in the lighting were severe, leaving some images a little flat. Yet ‘flat’ works for this one of the amphitheatre, reducing it to abstract shapes.

Lugdunum was the capital of Roman Gaul. It is the modern French city of Lyon. This is taken from the Roman centre on top of the hill looking in to the warren of buildings that was the medieval city.

I have been going through my images from Limone Piemonte (see earlier posts) to put together a small portfolio of images to apply for a Royal Photographic Society distinction …. we all like a little recognition at times. And I found this image of a small half frozen cascade of water. Hope you like it.

Oh, and it is lovely if you like it and lovely that you visit my blog … even better if you also leave me a ‘hello’ comment; a little recognition feels good

This was taken whilst walking up to Glitterheim in Norway; a solid 2.5 hours walking, 1300m, 5c (in June!) with a hostel serving cold beer at the top of the valley. The views were spectacular, even when in snowed on the way back, and this is one of a number of images. The view was already black & white, so all I did was to flip the whole thing into B&W as such little colour as there was added nothing and was only a distraction. Gaia in her white dress trimmed with black lace. Another addition to my B&W portfolio.

Continuing my black & white theme; this is from an image on a wintry day just a couple of miles down the road anyway. There was very little colour anyway, and black & white just emphasises the very simple textures and patterns.

I recently went with M&M to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It was fascinating, with so many styles, so many subjects, some to my taste and some not. And there was far less dross than previous years, and I define dross as something where the so-called artist is daring us to say ’emperor’s new clothes’ for fear of being called a philistine; not simply because it is not my taste. So dross this year was a triangular canvass just painted in uniform grey; not in my view art, simply a painter trying it on. Yet there was far less of that and it was an interesting visit; yet with disappointingly few photographers compared to previous years. And the photographs are usually black & white (B&W). And whilst I do like the powerful colours of nature, I was reminded of the curious strong impact of B&W images. So I will revisit some of my images to see how they look in B&W and muse as to the appeal. This first I have published before. It had very little colour to start off with and whilst I loved the original image, I find this version has even more impact.

Continuing the previous post …. British eccentricity at its best …. even fog at the beach is no deterrent