A Monday Portrait of Joey

Here’s who we found on a visit to Thorp Perrow yesterday. A mother wallaby and her frisky and curious joey. He didn’t get out of the pouch while we were there, but we knew he was skittish, because when he was nowhere to be seen, his mum’s pouch rippled energetically as he rushed around within.

Good morning joey!
This is who s/he will grow up to look like.

Monday Portrait.

This post is dedicated to Brian of Bushboy’s World, because he has wallabies frollicking around in his back garden. Lucky Brian!

Those Lucky Shots

You know the sort of day. When things just go right. When, perhaps unexpectedly, you have your camera with you just when one of the flighty, nervy Neighbourhood Squirrels is posing nicely, as ours was one day last week.

When, camera in hand, you manage to point-and-shoot at just the right moment. These images come from a long-past day in the Farne Islands when the Arctic Terns, frantic to protect their young, wheeled and dive-bombed overhead, giving chance after chance for action-packed shots even to a strictly amateur type like me. We had no idea where their nests and babies were and certainly weren’t going to go looking.

There were those red squirrels in Málaga, who managed to forget me for just long enough for me to whip my camera out …

Or that heron in Córdoba. It wasn’t so much the heron I was afraid of losing, as this collage of evening light.

Sofia, of Photographias fame wants us to showcase those moments for this week’s Lens Artists Challenge: Lucky Shot. Thanks Sofia, for helping us remember those joyful lucky seconds.

A Lake, the Sea, a River

Patti invites us, in this weeks Lens-Artists Challenge, to consider the shots we take – those which have a foreground – perhaps introducing the scene; middle ground – perhaps what the shot is ‘about’; and background, setting the shot in its context, and rounding our ‘story’ off.

I’ve chosen three watery shots. The first, the featured photo, is so freighted with memories of a calm, peaceful November evening at l’Albufera, Valencia, full of peace and joy that I can’t really judge it on its merits. I like the swell of the rippling water in the foreground. The middle ground merely has a bird (I can’t any longer remember what kind) pausing on that pole: for me providing a little context. And the background is surely that dramatic evening sky?

My second is also an evening shot: a beachside walk in my daughter’s home town in Spain. There are seashore strollers silhouetted in the foreground. The Mediterranean itself provides middle-ground context, with no action whatsoever. And there’s Barcelona in the background. Or is Barcelona part of the middle ground, with the sunset providing the backdrop?

I come closer to home for my last shot, to Knaresborough. The raven perching on the wall is a surprising visitor to the photo, perhaps acting as compère, describing the scene behind: the quiet River Nidd and riverside houses. Behind is the commanding viaduct. Is this background feature actually the dominant part of the image? Three sides of the shot are framed by trees, giving a slightly bucolic air to this urban scene.

This was an interesting challenge, Patti. I think that in some ways the techniques you describe start to become more instinctive the more time one spends with camera in hand. But it’s good consciously to revisit them and think about them anew. But looking out of the window at the rain, I think I may give photography a miss this weekend!

Black and White and Minimalist

This week, PR is our host for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness, and has chosen Minimalism. Look at PR’s post on the subject to see some fine examples. I didn’t find this too easy. But I had a go.

Fog can be our friend here …

… as can dusk …

… and a flying machine to keep the lampost company. Otherwise it’s all about the natural world.

Here are a few plants that might work.

I found some peacock feathers …

… a bird or two …

… cherry blossom …

…and a solitary tree at Brimham Rocks, spotted last week.

I’ve a feeling these are only a little bit minimalist. Why don’t you have a go, and do much better? Link your post to PR and to Leanne’s post, at the links above and we’ll all come and have a look.

Two Bloggers Take a London Stroll

It’s always fun to spend time with a fellow-blogger, and a bit of a coup to be in London at a time when Sarah, of Travel with Me fame is actually not travelling! We’d met before, both in London and in Yorkshire. But we wanted to link up again, cameras in our hands.

Sarah had suggested a short stroll from Camden Town, along the Regents Canal, to Camley Street Natural Park and Coal Drops Yard. Come along with us.

Camden Town has changed a bit since I last visited. It’s Tourist Central. I heard more Italian than English, and Spanish school students seemed to be everywhere. No wonder Sarah and I didn’t at first spot one another. Here are a few shots I took whilst we were still hunting each other down.

Those 3D reliefs on the front of almost every shop seem to be a feature. Once Sarah and I found each other, we retired instantly for a relaxing canal-side coffee – in the open air!

Next – our stroll along the canal. Plenty to see. A Banksy? No, apparently not.

I don’t know how I cut off the left hand edge …

Walking under a bridge, we spotted reflections …

…. then graffiti …

… and a group of people chatting, and echoing the bright colours of the graffiti behind them.

We popped into St. Pancras Old Church and its churchyard. It’s the burial place of the writer Mary Wollstonecraft who way back in the 18th century was a passionate advocate for educational and social equality for women. Her tomb has acquired a dusting of small tributes fom those who come to pay their respects to her memory. There’s a Thomas Hardy connection here too, AND one to architect Sir John Soane. Sarah’s account of our walk together tells the tales, so you can read all about them here.

Coins and trinkets left on top of Mary Wollstonecraft’s tomb.

We had an agreeable saunter round the Camley Street Natural Park. It’s a tiny oasis of wildness bang up against a busy part of London. You’d never know that Kings Cross, traffic, shops, offices were only a couple of minutes walk away. I was so carried away by the peace of it all, I clean forgot to take a single photo.

Back to civilisation, Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square. Lunch was the plan, but before that, time for a wander. An exhibition (beauty products?) was just being dismantled, but the copper-effect display structures still stood, presenting an opportunity for selfies.

Sarah’s already taken a photo or two, but here I am, still seeking that perfect shot.

Granary Square is full of places to find interesting food. Sarah had experience on her side, and picked a good ‘un, Caravan. We’re not on Instagram here, so no artful shots of our lunch. We were too busy talking anyway.

A few more photo ops afterwards, from an unhurried little corner dedicated to Everyday Mental Maintenance where people could sit for a few quiet moments, resting, chatting, or simply reading one of the poems forming a backdrop.

We wondered if this was a long-distance friendship. Texting each other as an alternative to chatting? Probably not. They almost certainly had no idea that anyone else was sharing the space.
So they did!

But that was our time together over. Sarah had a journey back to her corner of London, and I was on Post School Duty back with the family. So we went our separate ways, promising that we’d try to meet again in the summer, when Sarah hopes to be once again in Yorkshire. Thanks, Sarah, for a day well spent!

For Jo’s Monday Walk