Choose my three favourite photos? What kind of a task is that? Hopeless, I’d say, because so many favourites rely on the memories that surround them, that only matter to those who shared the moments.
But Sarah, of Travel with Me fame, has asked us to do just that for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
Anyway. Let’s go. This photo dates from years ago, when we lived in France, and once, just once, there was an astonishing and dramatic sunset which we’ve never forgotten, even ten years after the event.

You can perhaps guess from the cross on the right that we’re looking up at the churchyard on the hill above the town, edged with the heavily pollarded plane trees you can see silhouetted against the sky.
Living as now we do near Ripon, we have two ‘back yards’. One is Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, where I volunteer. And the other encompasses the paths, fields and woodland near our home.
Because I’m so often in both these places, I’ve been able to photograph them in every season, and at every time of day. Here’s an autumn favourite of Fountains Abbey.

I like how the beech leaves frame Huby’s Tower, while their warm russet tints contrast with the austere grey of the abbey’s stonework.
Meanwhile, during the summer months I like to photograph the drifts of poppies in the fields of crops near our house. It was hard to choose just one, but in the end I settled for this one. I like the poppies tumbling about in the foreground, set against the much more organised stems of wheat in their vertical serried ranks.

Ask me to choose three favourites tomorrow though, and you can bet they’d be entirely different shots.
Glorious. Each photo is a work of art. Thanks
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Gosh. That’s praise indeed. Thanks.
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My pleasure. I bow down to your superior photography skill!
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I’m strictly a snapshot-ist!
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The clouds are stunning. Now how did I forget about my poppies photos? Three images are not enough.
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They certainly aren’t. Those clouds were unforgettable.
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That was some sunset, no wonder you have never forgotten it.
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Totally phenomenal. I have a whole series of photos.
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Thank you for joining in Margaret, and with such lovely choices! I have to pick the poppies as my own favourite among your selection – I love poppies anyway, and this image of them with the red really popping against those streaks of green wheat is super 🙂 But all are great – that amazing sky (no wonder it’s stuck in your memory) and the clever framing of the building among the leaves.
Talking of which we’re heading up your way again soon. Will you be volunteering on 18th or 19th August? We hope to visit Fountains Abbey on one of those days as we didn’t get around to it last year! If you’re going to be there we will time our visit to be able to say hello 🙂
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Nooooo…. I won’t be around … because we’ll be in London with the family there all that week. What a shame. I was hoping we might be able to pull it off this year.
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Oh dear, rotten timing! But we come up every August, maybe next year we can make it work.
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Apart from a week in London, we rarely go away in August. So indeed, better luck next time.
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Stunning sunset indeed. Good selections for which was a very hard challenge 🙂
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It was hard wasn’t it? But fun at the same time.
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Quite hard. I changed photos about three times 🙂
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In the end, I just decided to go for it. I thought the world wouldn’t end if I got it wrong.
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👍😁
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That first shot is astonishing, but as others have said, a fantastic trio.
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A never-to-be forgotten evening, that. But choosing three favourite shots is a thankless task.
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Those are simply splendid
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Thanks, Sheree.
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You’re very welcome
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That first shot is so dramatic! The third would be a go-to for me on a bleak winter’s day.
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It is Essence of Summer, that poppy shot, isn’t it?
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It certainly is!
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Oh my, these are all beautiful! You live in such a wonderful place, thank you for sharing your three favorites, for today anyway. I know the feeling each photo is like a child of mine, and I have SO MANY favorites it would be impossible to pick just three. Maybe 3 from this week….or today…
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I know, Dawn. It was pretty impossible. But aren’t we lucky to have these memories stored for us in a way which was impossible for earlier generations?
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Well how lucky are we that you chose these three today! Glorious images. I’ll happily look at tomorrow’s favourites too!
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I can’t go through all that again , Sandra. Even for you!
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You did an amazing job picking these photos, Margaret. They are all absolutely sensational.
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Oh, Tracy, what a lovely thing to say. Thanks!
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Well, it kind of went with the photos. 🙂
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🙂
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It a bit like asking someone to choose their favourite child……..impossible! However, you did a fantastic job and, at least, the other photos will not complain that you didn’t pick them!
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You never know Peter. But you’re right, picking favourites in anything is a bit of a mug’s game.
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Oh, well done Margaret, you do make me smile! And as for the images, I always love to see Fountains, but for me the poppies with their attendant serried blades of wheat win the day…
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I’m glad you liked that one Sue. Poppies are an easy win though.
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They might be, but I rarely see them….last time was in Sweden!
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Really? I’m sorry about that Sue. We can see them on ordinary roadside verges, even in rather built up areas round here.
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I don’t get out enough….
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I know, Sue. I just hoped that poppies escaped into disregarded clumps of soil on building sites and so forth, for your delectation.
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And why would I be on building sites??
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I never am either. But I do pass them, and bits of unregarded waste land, on my perambulations through towns.
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Aaah, but my perambulations are few
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One is enough … if you get lucky 😉
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😄
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Three lovely pictures, but in all honesty I can’t get over that sunset. Utterly amazing and just not like planet Earth at all. If somebody had told me that was a still from ‘Blade Runner 2049’ I’d have believed them. Fantastic.
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It was. Perhaps I’ll do a post soon showcasing the whole event.
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Oo, I’d like to see more please.
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All in due course! Thanks!
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I really like that sunset, it is so dramatic and beautiful. I adore your three choices. I am with you, I would rarely pick the same three two days in a row 😀 😀
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It’s hard, isn’t it? And join the dramatic sunset fan club!
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Well done, that woman! I’m packed and hanging about like a spare part. Crack of dawn departure tomorrow but I won’t be still around to see the Autumn colour 😟💟
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Ah! You might cross with my daughter and granddaughter who’ll be winging their way back to Spain. They’ve had pretty awful weather here. You look as if you’ll be luckier. Hope so!
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Thanks, Margaret! Busy skies tomorrow. We have some Algarve friends winging their way from the south coast to Vancouver. We’ll wave at anything that passes.
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I’ll join you!
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Margaret – you always posts wonderful photos that have a story waiting to be revealed by the viewer.
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Plenty of stories to be told about all three of these pictures. Glad you enjoyed them!
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All of them wonderful, Margaret! An unforgettable sky, the beautiful Autumn Abbey, where grey and copper colours complement each other – I love that combo. The poppies, oh, the poppies against that background…gorgeous! I would frame them for my wall. The dancing quality against the straws parading – excellent.
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Ann-Christine – praise from you is praise indeed. Thank you so much.
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♥
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The color on those clouds… amazing!
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Honestly, Davida, it was beyond astonishing.
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Excellent choices, Margatet! The sky is spectacular, love the angle you took. The Autumn abbey is so beautifully framed with these branches/leaves. The poppies and the green background, wow!!
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Thanks so much Amy. This is a lovely comment from a photographer as gifted as you.
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Thank you for your compliment, Margaret. That is encouraging. I always depend on my luck for a good shot. 🙂
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You have lots of luck then! And know how to use it to good advantage.
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💖💗
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A trio of wonderful photos Margaret. The sunset is particularly stunning and remarkable – no wonder you still remember it.
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It was, in every sense, out of this world. Never seen another like it.
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