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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • Austria
      • Bulgaria
      • Estonia
      • France
        • Paris
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Spain
        • Seville
      • Switzerland
      • Ukraine
    • Beyond
      • Africa
        • Botswana
        • Cape Verde
        • Gambia
        • Kenya
        • Morocco
        • Namibia
        • Senegal
        • Tanzania
        • Zimbabwe
      • Americas
        • Belize
        • Canada
        • Chile
          • Rapa Nui
        • Colombia
        • Costa Rica
        • Ecuador
          • Galapagos Islands
        • Guatemala
        • Jamaica
        • USA
          • Chicago
          • New Mexico
          • New York City
          • Washington State
      • Asia
        • DPRK
        • India
          • Kerala
          • Rajasthan
        • Indochina
          • Cambodia
          • Laos
          • Vietnam
        • Japan
        • Nepal
        • Oman
        • Syria
        • United Arab Emirates
        • Uzbekistan
  • Themes
    • Architecture
    • Art
      • Crafts
      • Street art
    • Colour
    • Dark tourism
    • Eco-tourism
    • Food & drink
    • Gardens
    • History
      • Ruins
      • War
    • Landscape
      • Coast & seascapes
      • Deserts
      • Mountains
      • Rivers
    • Nature and wildlife
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Plants
        • Flowers
        • Trees, forests and woodland
    • People
      • Culture & tradition
      • Street photography
    • Travel in general
  • Photo galleries
    • Themed galleries
    • Travel galleries
  • Postcards from the road
  • Challenges
    • Photography challenges
      • Lens-Artists
      • Monochrome Madness
      • Nature Photo Challenge
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • General challenges
      • Happy Place Happy Space
      • Monday walks
      • Words of Wisdom
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Just One Person
      • Life in Colour
      • Mid-week Monochrome
      • One-to-Three
      • Ten photos
      • Thursday Trios
      • Thursday Doors
  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive

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Topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks naturephotochallenge nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views village wildlife
  • Architecture,  Bulgaria,  History,  Monday walks

    Koprivshtitsa: a Bulgarian time capsule

    May 22, 2023 / 30 Comments
    Low blue house with tiled roof

    Koprivshtitsa is no ordinary town but rather a time capsule. Several of its houses are associated with significant players in the 1876 April Uprising against Ottoman rule. The uprising failed, but a fire had been ignited. The brutalities committed by the Turks while suppressing it led to widespread condemnation across Europe which was the trigger for the Russo-Turkish War. This ended in Turkish defeat. Thus the April Uprising can be regarded as having eventually achieved its original aim, the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Looking down a spiral staircase

    Gallery: the perfect simplicity of a spiral staircase

    October 10, 2021
    View of cathedral on far side of river, with large crane

    Rising from the ashes: Notre Dame in 2021

    September 30, 2021
    Looking down at a spiral staircase

    Tallinn’s TV tower in black and white

    April 13, 2023
  • Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  Photographing Public Art

    The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia

    October 22, 2022 / 36 Comments
    Black and white photo of sculptures of two women, one a soldier

    To leave a monument standing, to mothball it or to destroy it? That is a question that faces many countries right now, as they face up to an uncomfortable past. Maybe values have changed, better understandings emerged, or political systems been rejected. Do we want still to be surrounded by reminders of that past? Or is it justifiable to remove them, hide the memories?

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Stone statue of man in an overcoat

    A visit to Sofia’s Socialist Art Museum

    October 10, 2022
    Small church on a wooded mountainside

    Asen’s Fortress and the Church of the Holy Mother of God

    August 18, 2021
    Sculpture of a lion outside a building with columns

    Gallery: some of the many monuments of Sofia

    October 15, 2022
  • Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  History

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022 / 51 Comments
    Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units

    In one corner of the room a small TV broadcasts news and propaganda. Photo albums on the table are full of reminders of happy family gatherings. Some medals are proudly displayed on a shelf, while the drinks cabinet holds treasured bottles of imported brands.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Stone statue of man in an overcoat

    A visit to Sofia’s Socialist Art Museum

    October 10, 2022
    Red Metro sign against a backdrop of leaves

    Gallery: a September selection

    October 3, 2022
    Sign saying Kapana in Cyrillic letters

    Gallery: a walk in colourful Kapana

    December 18, 2021
  • Art,  Bulgaria,  Photographing Public Art,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: some of the many monuments of Sofia

    October 15, 2022 / 25 Comments
    Sculpture of a lion outside a building with columns

    Sofia may have moved its many communist era monuments to a dedicated museum, but that doesn’t mean that the city is short of interesting public art pieces. And there is quite a variety, from the purely artistic to the historically significant.

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    Or what about ...?

    Half-finished relief carving of people in ancient dress

    Works in progress around the world

    August 6, 2023
    Bronze sculpture of two young elephants

    A little bit of Nairobi in London’s Spitalfields

    January 22, 2022
    Large flying horse made of disjointed metal parts

    Radical Horizons: the Art of Burning Man at Chatsworth

    August 27, 2022
  • Bulgaria,  Mid-week Monochrome,  Photographic techniques,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: seeing Sofia in black and white

    October 13, 2022 / 19 Comments
    Black and white photo of a city view with a large cathedral

    Speaking figuratively, Sofia is not a black and white city. Its history is too complex, its architectural influences too diverse. But like any city it lends itself to black and white photography.

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    Or what about ...?

    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022
    Black and white photo of two women with umbrellas tinted pink

    Sofia, city of contrasts and a work in progress

    October 5, 2022
    Small church on a wooded mountainside

    Asen’s Fortress and the Church of the Holy Mother of God

    August 18, 2021
  • Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  History,  Monday walks

    A visit to Sofia’s Socialist Art Museum

    October 10, 2022 / 40 Comments
    Stone statue of man in an overcoat

    What do you do with a load of monuments that celebrate a past you’d rather forget? You can haul them down and break them up for scrap perhaps. Or you can leave them where they are, a constant reminder of that troubled past. Or you can gather them up and put them in a museum; a museum that acknowledges and documents the past but doesn’t celebrate it.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Orthodox cathedral at the end of a wide street

    Gallery: Sofia’s St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

    March 7, 2021
    Wall painting of a sleeping purple cat

    Gallery: more street art from Sofia

    October 8, 2022
    Exterior of brick mosque with dome and minaret

    The Square of Religious Tolerance in Sofia

    April 6, 2021
  • Bulgaria,  Photographing Public Art,  Street art,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: more street art from Sofia

    October 8, 2022 / 41 Comments
    Wall painting of a sleeping purple cat

    It’s no secret that I am a big fan of street art. I don’t mean scrawled graffiti, or even more precisely worked ‘tags’. I mean art. Like many cities today, Sofia offers a dedicated street art tour; we saw signs advertising it in several places. But we chose not to take the tour, instead preferring to seek out street art at our own pace.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Red Metro sign against a backdrop of leaves

    Gallery: a September selection

    October 3, 2022
    Stone church and blue sky

    The wonders of Bulgaria’s Bachkovo Monastery

    February 10, 2022
    Mural of a girl's face

    Gallery: looking for street art in Sofia

    April 2, 2021
  • Architecture,  Bulgaria,  Monday walks,  Street photography,  Sunday Stills

    Sofia, city of contrasts and a work in progress

    October 5, 2022 / 55 Comments
    Black and white photo of two women with umbrellas tinted pink

    Bulgaria’s capital city intrigues and charms me. It seems to be in a state of constant flux, built on layers of history. One minute you are walking on a Roman road, the next staring up at 1950s Stalinist monoliths. Gold-domed cathedrals and churches dominate the vistas along wide boulevards while in side streets elegant villas sit side-by-side with their crumbling, neglected cousins.

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    Or what about ...?

    View of a city with winding river and skyscrapers

    Gallery: London from the top of the Shard

    May 28, 2023
    Street of traditional Japanese houses

    Gallery: the merchant houses of Takayama

    September 23, 2020
    Blue and green wooden doors

    Gallery: the doors of Nepal

    January 23, 2023
  • Bulgaria,  London,  Paris,  The Changing Seasons,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: a September selection

    October 3, 2022 / 25 Comments
    Red Metro sign against a backdrop of leaves

    There is a theme emerging in these monthly round-ups, a theme of bookends! I’ve already pointed out that while July was bookended by happy gatherings of family and friends, August was similarly bookended with funerals. And now we come to September and we are back to happier bookends: city breaks.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Small church on a wooded mountainside

    Asen’s Fortress and the Church of the Holy Mother of God

    August 18, 2021
    Black and white photo of two women with umbrellas tinted pink

    Sofia, city of contrasts and a work in progress

    October 5, 2022
    Sepia photo of Buzludzha Monument

    Buzludzha Monument

    September 4, 2020
  • Bulgaria,  History,  Postcards from the road

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022 / 18 Comments
    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    Is it ever OK to be late? It’s something I try my very best to avoid, but occasionally it can be a good thing, as in the case of Boris III of Bulgaria. This is the Hagia Nedelja church. The previous church on this spot was destroyed in a terrorist plot in 1925 to assassinate the king, Boris III. He was attending the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been killed in an assault two days previously, on 14 April of that year. The group from the Bulgarian…

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Wall painting of a sleeping purple cat

    Gallery: more street art from Sofia

    October 8, 2022
    Sculpture of a lion outside a building with columns

    Gallery: some of the many monuments of Sofia

    October 15, 2022
    Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022
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Lady in a hat and red top sitting on rocks

Some favourite photos

Man in a turban with fishing nets
Fisherman in Fort Kochi, Kerala
Two elephants in long grass
Okavango elephants
Blue glacier edge
Glacier Grey, Torres del Paine, Chile
Elderly woman in black hat and sunglasses
In Santiago, Chile
Very large statues of North Korean Leaders
Statues of the Great Leaders on Mansudae Hill, Pyongyang
Water reflecting the sky with clouds and low sun
Approaching sunset in the Okavango Delta
Feet of huge metal sculpture, with man standing beside
The feet of the Angel
Large moai with row of more behind
The ‘travelling moai’ and Ahu Tongariki
Man in knitted hat by water, black and white photo
Waiting for the ferry, Banjul
Mountain reflected in a lake
On the road to Dyrholaey
Sunset at Wahiba Sands, Oman
Squirrel with a conker in his mouth
In Walpole Park, Ealing
Silhouette of a man in a gateway
Looking out from Bundi Palace
Blue and pink bird on a dead tree
Lilac-breasted Roller, Chobe NP, Botswana
Buddhist monk in orange robes with mobile phone
Monk at Wat Nong Sikhounmuang, Luang Prabang
Man sleeping in a tuk tuk by a carved stone wall
Tuk tuk driver by the Terrace of the Leper King
Close up of flamingo with head tucked under
Flamingo (Jersey Zoo)
Lady with baskets of fruit sitting by a canal
In Hoi An, Vietnam
Small fishing boat with a man in it, on a large lake
Lake Atitlan
Wet street and two people with bright pink umbrella
Street in Lucca, rainy day – edited

Some topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks naturephotochallenge nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views village wildlife

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