Reims and its cathedral has already qualified for a post on my blog. So has one of the images. But much as the architecture, the stained glass, the stone carving of these mediaeval cathedrals inspires awe, I just as much enjoy inspecting what the stonemasons got up to often in more hidden areas. Instead of saints, characters from the bible, earthly donors who needed their memorial, those masons seem to have relished chipping away to celebrate the more characterful inhabitants of the planet. And such statues often get more weather-beaten than most. Stacked on pallets and away from public view, I found this little lot hidden in an outside corner, awaiting a spot of restoration. They made my day.
This amateur snapshot-ist has just joined a photographic club, and it’s been a smart move. Although the group has got its share of real talent, members are just as welcoming to those of us who bumble about in the shallow end. There are talks from well-travelled and accomplished photographers: but in between, there are workshops. Last week, a member shared his enthusiasm and lots of tips for monochrome photography, and left me with the resolve to keep my camera strictly on black and white for at least a week or two.
So now I’ve got a bit of a job: This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is all about Spring. Spring – that season when colour returns after the sombre tones of winter, with bright yellow daffodils, celandines and marsh marigolds; the soft pink of blossoms; vivid grassy greens from leaves that push through the ground or from the swelling buds on twiggy branches, and newly-blue skies. And I’ve gone and made monochrome my rule-of-the-day.
It didn’t help that Sunday was a bit cold, rather grey, somewhat windy and really not very spring like. But rules are rules, even if they’re totally self-imposed. Here we go …
Out of the back door, guarded by spring-time pots, along the lane, edged with tree-blossom, still-wintry trees, and passing a bank of white violets .
The sheep know it’s too early to lamb here. They’re still relying on winter feed.
I wander through the grounds of Old Sleningford Hall, and then along the river bank. There’s twisted hazel thinking of bursting its buds, young wild garlic.
Nearly home. How does this ancient tree, almost completely hollow, continue to live, to sprout new growth?
Back in the garden. The hellebores are – apart from the daffodils – making the best showing. We’ll end our walk by enjoying those.
Oh look! Bren, of Brashley Photography fame has interviewed me for her weekly series of posts about fellow bloggers – Five at Five. Read all about it – here. And thank you Bren: I feel very honoured.
This week’s Five at Five Intro features Photographer Margaret. Margaret says in her About Page of Pyrenees to Pennines blog.
We live in Yorkshire. Until March 2014, we had lived in the Ariège, southern France, and we spent six and a half years there. I shared many of the experiences we had there in this blog, which was then called ‘Life in Laroque‘.
The beach, a favorite place to be.
Five at Five Questions – Photography
When and how did you start on your photographic journey?
Two things happened in 2007. We moved to live in France; and I went on a largely solo trip to India. Both seemed to require the services of a decent camera and an inquisitive eye.
What subject do you like photographing the most?
I don’t have a niche. I like to gather impressions of the landscape or townscape that I am in, particularly if…
I would like to try an experiment today: and I’d like your help. This week, Jude, of Cornwall in Colours, has set the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #226, and has asked us to focus on illustrating texture. I started browsing through my archives, and then I read Sarah of Travel with Me‘s contribution. She had decided to showcase her choices in monochrome, which she felt highlighted texture better than colour. I immediately agreed with her.
And then. I wasn’t so sure. Here are my choices, shown both ways. I’m not using WordPress’ Image Compare feature, which irritates me, as I can never see either image properly. Click on any image you would like to see full-size.
Let’s try a typical North Yorkshire landscape. It’s the drystone wall that interests me.
Near Grimwith, North Yorkshire
Or some grasses…
A field somewhere near home.
What about a slightly dilapidated farmyard shed?
Near Hovingham, North Yorkshire.
Or a farmyard hen?
A friendly neighbourhood hen.
Or a weathered wall in Newcastle?
Or an even more weathered olive tree in Greece?
One of the ancient olive trees of Agios Achillios
And then there’s the featured image of course, not shown in colour. Any guesses?
Well, this week, in all this rain, Tina’s sending us out on a Treasure Hunt for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #219. Here’s what she wants us to look out for …
A pet … , that’s going to be the dalmatian, Brian, who used to take Ellie, and sometimes us, for walks
The moon or the sun. I’m going for the moon, gently rising above the clematis crawling up the garden wall.
Clouds? We’ll choose an evening in l’Albufera, near Valencia.
A reflection. My favourite shot was taken in Strasbourg. Not in the fabulous old city centre, but on a piece of waste ground near a municipal car park.
A child? Well, I think I’ll keep the family out of this, and instead go for two girls in Pondicherry, making their way to school.
Schoolgirls
An umbrella? I’ve got several here, pressed into service at a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago. Well, as the French say: ‘Mariage pluvieux, mariage heureux’.
A truck. This shot was taken in a lorry park in Les Hayons in France at 5 o’clock in the morning, just before the truckers got on the road.
Autumn foliage. Any child will tell you that autumn foliage is best on the ground, where you can have a satisfactory walk kicking your way through it.
And the inner child is always looking for something interesting to find on a walk. Here are two things: a discarded blackbird’s egg, and a toadstool of the kind beloved by fairies and elves everywhere.
Just to wrap things up, and remind us that The Rainy Season has arrived, and not before time, I’ll pop a few raindrops into the featured photo.
This week, Jude’s Photo Challenge invites us to look at texture again – but as the subject for our photographs, the focus of our interest.
I took my camera out for a walk (while I still can …). Several ideas presented themselves, but nothing quite worked. Back to the archive.
I’ve chosen some shots taken on common-or-garden asphalt roads. Those roads are not themselves the subject, but they provide a grainy, characterful canvas. Imagine those same shadows projected onto a large sheet of smooth white paper. I think they’d be less interesting.
Three are taken on a small road near here, edged with a dry stone wall. One was frosty road in January. One was taken at Masham Sheep Fair, with not a sheep in sight. One is not a road, but a wall. It’s the walkers who are on the path.
Jude over at Travel Words has an ongoing photo challenge this year. Every week she asks us to consider a different aspect of photography, and look at ways of addressing it. I’m a bit late in my response, but … here goes.
How to photograph a subject using a background which is a pattern without distracting from the subject.
I chose three photos in the end, and in the case of the two taken at the Albert Dock Liverpool, I think the pattern becomes part of the story.
Here’s a double decker bus. A double decker bus which has been re-purposed as a diner. I could have gone in close and taken a ‘portrait’, but decided I wanted to show the bus as part of this community, serving among others perhaps, those unseen office workers in the geometrically-windowed building behind. Or even the deck hands in that ship.
Here, I was just inside a building near Tate Liverpool. All the action is outside. So this picture is back-to-front. The background is in the foreground, and behind it, the couple, waiting for … who knows? But they, more than the pattern, are the subject.
Finally, some street art in Hither Green, London. But which is the subject of this picture? The reflected light cast from an adjacent shop? Or the pattern-costumed whooping crane?
This has been fun and has made me start to think a bit more about my photos and how I might improve them. So thank you, Jude.
Look out of that window. Who wants to go out unless they have to? Instead, I’m inside and cosy, seeing if I can find photos that fit Jude’s 2020 Photo Challenge for February, Patterns.
I decided to go with the built environment. I looked not for deliberately created architectural motifs, or applied ornamentation, but for reflections, distortion, or for other elements that weren’t intended as the main event. Except in one case, where reflection and baffling the eye was definitely the main story. Which one was that do you think?
Sightseeing in Granada by looking at, rather than through a window.
The new entrance to the V&A, London.
Glimpses of El Escorial, Seville, from the balustrades by its water features.
Garden at the Gasholder development, Kings Cross, London.
Reflections at Canary Wharf, London.
Office windows in Brussels, Belgium.
This challenge was provided by Jude, of Travel Words.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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