I used to smile when I heard retired people say that they didn’t know how they ever found time to work, they were so busy in their retirement. But after this September I know more than ever what they meant! I could barely fit in everything I wanted/needed to do this month even without ‘proper’ work to occupy me.
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I have to admit to rather liking shopping. Even grocery shopping can be quite enjoyable if you’re buying some of your favourite foods. And while shopping for clothes isn’t quite the unadulterated pleasure it was when I was younger, it’s still great to come across something that looks and fits just right, even if that’s a rarity these days! I don’t even have to be shopping for myself; Christmas shopping for gifts also gives me pleasure.
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Harmony isn’t about sameness, but about differences that work together. Whether that’s people, animals, architecture, landscapes, garden planting or colours … Harmony teaches us that different need not mean clashing. I’ve chosen seven images from my archives that in a variety of ways speak to me of harmony.
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The Irish author James Joyce lived for many years in the city of Trieste, from 1904-1920 (with a spell in Zurich during WW1). During those last years of the city's Austro-Hungarian glory it was much-loved by Bohemian artists and writers such as Joyce. He moved there when he was just 22 years old and began writing some of his best-known literary works there.
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A favourite song from one of my favourite song writers opens this post about bridges. The symbolism of a ‘bridge over troubled water’ speaks to us all. Whether a literal bridge helping us to cross a river, railway or other obstacle, or a metaphorical one helping us navigate difficult time in our lives, we all rely on bridges.
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Cityscapes have a strong appeal to the photographer in many of us, and perhaps especially if we like to work in monochrome. Strong architectural lines, contrasting materials and interesting shapes, particularly those of some modern architecture, are well-suited to black and white compositions.
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Water seems such a soft, malleable element. But our planet is full of examples of its power. It is constantly reshaping the land, wearing away rocks and moving others. Over time, what seems immovable is sculpted, smoothed and reshaped. We can’t see it at work, the changes are too slow, but we can see the results of its work.
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Who hasn’t stood on the shore and gazed out at a distant horizon? Or on a hill or mountain, looking out over an expansive view and the sky above? But when we try to capture it with a camera we are sometimes disappointed. The view that awed us so much may seem flat and less impressive. ‘You had to be there’, we might say.
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Even as a child time seems to speed up as we near the end of summer; how much more so for us now as adults! It seems no time since I was writing about July; now it is almost September.
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Most of the time when we take a photo it’s our intention that the viewer understands what they are looking at. Some might even say that the whole point of photography to present a clear image of the world. But sometimes it can be fun to distort or manipulate that image in order to create a different vision.
