General challenges
Posts published in response to non-photo specific challenges appear here
-
A stroll through more of the Marais
The Place des Vosges must be one of the most beautiful corners of this beautiful city. Like the Place Dauphine it owes its existence to the city planning ambitions of Henri IV. It was laid out as an elegant residential square where the upper echelons of Parisian society could live and socialise. Much has changed since then, not least due to the Revolution, but it remains as elegant as ever.
-
Gallery: a window on Paris
When out with my camera I often ‘shop’ for windows, seeking out ones that might make interesting images. Whether peering through them, looking for reflections or simply enjoying the geometry of their frames, windows make great subjects for photography.
-
Welcome back to Paris
When you first arrive in a new city, you can’t wait to get out and explore. There are new sights to be seen, new experiences to be had. But if it’s somewhere you’ve visited many times before there isn’t that urgency. New sights can wait for tomorrow. Today, on arrival, your desire is rather to reconnect, to regain that sense of feeling at home. And for me, in Paris, that means a walk by the Seine.
-
Up, up and away in Paris
Of course if you want to see Paris from a high viewpoint you can do as many tourists do and go up the Eiffel Tower. Or you can stand on the steps in front of the Sacré Coeur on the hill of Montmartre. And once those obvious tourist boxes are ticked, there are still plenty of other options.
Or what about ...?
Gallery: a window on Paris
-
A stroll around Bolam Lake
In the early nineteenth century the Reverend John Beresford, Baron Decies, decided to turn a swampy area of ground on his estate into an attractive landscape with a lake and woodlands. Many landowners were carrying out similar improvements but perhaps more unusually the Reverend was acting out of philanthropy.
-
Guarding the Solent
Hurst Castle sits at the end of a long shingle spit, jutting out into the Solent opposite the Isle of Wight. At its heart is a Tudor castle, built by Henry VIII to guard the Needles Passage, the gateway to the trading port of Southampton and his new naval base at Portsmouth.
-
Gallery: seeing double
There is something about a reflection that draws us as photographers. Is it the illusion of seeing double? Or the fact that we can capture double the beauty?
-
A stroll around Blackwater Arboretum
Despite its name, the New Forest isn’t a densely forested area. Yes, there are plenty of trees but also wide open spaces of heathland. The name is historic, dating back to the Domesday Book of 1086. Back then it was the Nova Foresta, declared a royal hunting forest by William the Conqueror.
-
A stroll around Buckler’s Hard
If the small Hampshire village of Buckler’s Hard is a little busy today, it is only so with tourists. But there was a time when it would have been a hive of activity. It was once home to a bustling and successful shipbuilding industry. Here three of the warships for Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar were built, as well as many other naval ships.
-
Angkor Thom, the great city
Although Angkor Wat is the most famous sight in Angkor, it is not the only one by any means, despite the fact that the two names are often used interchangeably. Angkor in fact means ‘city’ and Angkor Wat the ‘city temple’. But there are over a thousand temples, ranging in scale from mere piles of rubble scattered through rice fields to Angkor Wat itself.
