'When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.' I find it hard to believe that I haven’t used that quote from Ansel Adams before!
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The Torre dell'Elefante was built in 1307 when Cagliari was under Pisan rule. It takes its name from the small carving of an elephant on a ledge part way up.
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A bonus I didn’t expect when joining a local photography group was that one of the members would own a patch of woodland. A wood that at the moment is full not of picnicking bears but of bluebells and other early spring flowers.
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How does it feel to stand in the middle of a living geology lesson? To see for yourself the many ways the world’s surface has been shaped over the millennia into often fantastical shapes? Go to Iceland, and you will find out. There almost every view tells you something about the power of fire or water to carve, split or even destroy rock.
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Sitting on the plane that brought us home from Mexico we were congratulating ourselves on our timing. Tomorrow would be the first of March, and spring, we thought, just around the corner. We should have known better! Although in the fairly recent past (most notably the lockdown spring of 2020) we’ve had some wonderful March weather, this time last year I was writing that, ‘With a slow start to the spring this year it’s felt at times as if March was coming in more like a polar bear than a lion!’ And so it was again this year.
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I don’t know about you, but logic tells me that there is no more reason to make a resolution to do something better / more / less on the first of January than on any other day of the year. And also that there is no more reason to believe we will succeed in sticking to that resolution then rather than on a different date.
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How often have you gazed at a stunning landscape, pulled out the camera to capture its beauty, and been disappointed with the results? All too frequently, flat lighting and dull weather can make the scene look so much less inspiring to the camera lens than it did to your eyes.
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How do most grandparents respond when asked to do something by their grandchildren? They try their best to oblige, of course. So when, on our recent visit to Paris, our friend Pete mentioned that he had promised to send his grandchildren a photo of himself by the Eiffel Tower and to buy them miniature towers, we all agreed to accompany him on this mission.
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We had been to Paris just a couple of months previously, in September. So why return so soon, and in chilly (make that freezing!) November? Well, this was to be a rather different visit. Newcastle were to play Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League and although we didn't have tickets we wanted to meet up with friends and enjoy the atmosphere.
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Where the River Tyne meets the North Sea lies the aptly named appealing town of Tynemouth. In the summer this is a popular low-key seaside resort, despite the chill of that well-named sea. And in winter it is an equally popular place for a bracing walk, either on the sands or on the paths and promenades above.
