I think we tend to think of ice as clear, or maybe white like snow; the images in this gallery will show that it is anything but! There is a scientific reason for this. Dense, pure ice appears blue to our eyes because it absorbs longer wavelengths of light (including red and yellow) more effectively, while scattering and reflecting shorter blue ones back to our eyes.
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I love to seek out a local market when I travel; you discover so much about a place there. What people like to eat, how they dress, how they interact with each other (and you!) And markets are wonderful for photography. Whether like me you enjoy candid street photography or prefer to ask your subjects to pose, you will almost certainly get some great people images there. And the goods on sale also offer many photo opps.
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I often find myself drawn to photograph the little details I see around me, whether close to home or on my travels. So much so that I often come home to find I have lots of photos of the details of a building and none of the building as a whole to provide context.
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All photographers recognise that juxtaposing opposites in an image, or in a pair of images, creates an interesting tension for the viewer. Life is made up of opposites: big and small, old and young, light and dark, and yes, full and empty.
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Looking back at favourite photos can have a positive effect. They remind you of good times in the past and offer the promise of more good times in the future. Even when the memories they hold are sometimes painful, they are often also precious. But any keen photographer will also have favourites based not on the subject but on the photo itself.
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Long or short, every year ends with December, which for many of us means the build-up to the Christmas celebrations. And for those who like me live in the Northern Hemisphere, it also means short days, long dark nights and cold weather.
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Even if you think you know the 'Twelve days of Christmas' song, I bet like me you forget some of the later gifts. Are there twelve drummers drumming, or eleven? Should there be ten pipers piping, or is that lords a-leaping? And so on.
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While Christmas markets are a feature of the Advent season in many countries these days, Germany is where it all began. There have been markets held here at this time of year since the late Middle Ages.
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Isn’t it part of human nature to grasp anything we perceive as a last chance? This week the Lens Artists team offer us a last chance, namely the opportunity to share some photos taken this year but not (yet) used.
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I may be biased but I do think London does Christmas rather well. From the lights in the West End to light trails in some of our most beautiful parks and gardens, from shop window displays to those in people’s homes … from late November the whole city starts to take on a festive air.
