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Double dipping: a challenges overload!
When I started blogging almost eighteen months ago I had no idea that the blogosphere was full of challenges, and it took me some time to discover them. Once I did, I was hooked, and especially on photo challenges.
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Gallery: the birds of St James’s Park
London is blessed with many parks and green spaces and every Londoner has a favourite. Mine is St James’s Park. I love it for its views, its sense of history, its beautiful lake, and for its birdlife. The park was originally created by King James I who had the marshland here drained to create a park for his palace at Whitehall, where he kept a collection of exotic animals including camels, crocodiles and even an elephant
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Gallery: a Grey Heron at Osterley Park (and friends)
The elegant Georgian house at Osterley Park was once home to the wealthy banking family, the Childs. Queen Elizabeth I visited the manor house that once stood on this site, and the present house, designed by Robert Adam, has seen many other wealthy and important visitors over the years. The view of the house from the far side of the large lake is particularly pretty, even on the November day when we last visited.
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Bird weekly #52: birds with long tail feathers
Wow, so Lisa has entrusted me as guest host for this week’s Bird Weekly Challenge! It’s an honour, but also a somewhat daunting task. Unlike Lisa I’m no expert bird-watcher; I just like seeing them and trying to photograph them. And while I like to know the name of a species, the main interest for me is the challenge of trying to photograph something so elusive, so constantly mobile, as many birds are.
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Gallery: owl portraits, striped and speckled
Owls are hunters, birds of prey. And like all birds of prey they pursue other animals for food, something that not everyone is comfortable with. But they are also very beautiful, with delicate markings on their feathers – spots and stripes that frame their faces, adorn their wings and bodies. They are among my favourite birds.
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Shanti Arts: inspired by world travel
As much as the sights we see, it is the people we meet who make travel so rewarding and so memorable. Whether close to home or on the other side of the world, an interesting encounter can really bring a place to life. A few years ago we had just such an encounter in Seaton Sluice, a coastal village north of Newcastle in north east England.
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Saying prayers for Korean reunification
One person I did not expect to meet in North Korea was a monk. In this famously atheist country, where tourists are forbidden to disseminate religious texts and the prevailing religion might be said to be belief in the supremacy of the Dear Leaders and the Juche idea, true religious conviction is hard to find. And I am still unsure whether or not I found it here.
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Gallery: playing with a selective colour technique
Lisa has set an unusual challenge, the selective colour editing of photos. It’s one that really attracted me to have a go. I love fiddling with my photos, as regular readers will know (I call it editing but really it’s quite often just fiddling!) So the idea of removing much of the colour in an image to leave just a splash appealed to me.
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Gallery: meet Steven the Seagull and some friends
Not many gulls are as famous as Steven. Said to be Estonia’s most photographed seagull, he lives in Tallinn and is often seen on the viewing platform overlooking the Lower Town. He has featured in hundreds of tourist photos and became so famous that in 2016 he got his own Instagram account.
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Recycled Spirits of Iron (Ex Nihilo)
Dan Klennert is on a one-man crusade against today’s throwaway society, creating beauty out of objects others have rejected as no longer of use: ‘I do not form shapes, I collect shapes to create my forms.’ He works with junk metal and driftwood to create amazing and fantastical sculptures.
