The best travel books should leave you with a desire to visit the places they describe. Experiencing these journeys vicariously is a wonderful way to discover potential destinations, or to see ones you have already visited through fresh eyes. It is also a great way to see how all of us travel in different ways.
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May in England has been marvellous this year! Lots of warm sunshine and almost no rain. Not so great for farmers and gardeners perhaps, but wonderful for getting out and about. Our parks have been full of picnicking families, ball games and even sunbathers!
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Woods (and forests) are lovely. But their very darkness and deepness can make them hard to do justice to as a photographer. One tree can merge into another, and another, and … It’s hard for the eye to find a single point of interest on which to settle and focus.
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I think we humans must always have considered flight as something magical. After all, we can travel easily over the ground but without some supporting device are unable to leave it. Consider how many mythical creatures have the power of flight, from fairies to winged horses to dragons.
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We all need a sense of humour right now. And as photographers we can look for the things that make us laugh through the lens of our cameras. Sometimes you are aware as you take a photo that it shows something amusing. At other times the humour in the shot only strikes you later.
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I seem to have a ridiculous number of streetlight photos! And their varied and interesting shapes and designs lend themselves to black and white photography. I find it surprising how many variations are possible in the design of something so relatively simple and everyday!
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There’s a temptation when we travel to try to cram everything in. To see every sight, explore every street and alleyway, visit every museum even! We fear we’ll go home and regret having missed something that others say is a must-see. Or worse perhaps, miss seeing that one thing that we could have been the first to discover and share.
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Why fly for the best part of a day or more and spend good money just to sit and see nothing of the country you’re visiting? Yes, the weather may be better than if you were sitting around at home, and a dip in the sea is fun, but to me it is a waste not to get to know the culture, the people, the history, the food.
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As children we are taught to follow the rules, whether those set by our parents, our school or society in general. And when we first start to take our photography seriously we discover that there are rules there too. It’s perhaps really only once you have learned these rules and are applying them instinctively that you can also learn when and how to break them.
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Some years April can be disappointing but this year it has been rather lovely. We have had a lot of days with blue sky and sunshine, and although not necessarily warm at the start of the month, we finished with a few days of spring heatwave with temperatures in the mid 20s, more akin to June or even August than April!
