It has been hard to find ‘perfect’ days this past June. It started too cool and too dull, then in the space of a few days transformed itself to an extreme heatwave. Temperatures hit 35 Celsius and the high humidity made life in London pretty tough. Such is a our changing climate, unfortunately, and England wasn’t built for heat.
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The letter B, the second letter of our alphabet, is one of the first a child learns to recognise. ‘A is for Apple, B is for …’ Yes, what objects do begin with a B? I had great fun trawling my archives for these 'B' images!
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There are no guarantees of whale sightings, as anyone who has ventured out on a whale-watching trip must know. Nature always has the upper hand and may surprise, delight or disappoint. Yet whatever you see, or don’t see, a day out on the water is always a pleasure.
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Gal Oya is the most untouched and least visited of all of Sri Lanka’s national parks. It was established in 1954 but having been off-limits during the civil war it is only now being re-discovered. On the day we did a jeep safari in the park we seemed to have it to ourselves.
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From the well-known (think Grand Canyon or Great Pyramid of Giza) to the less lauded (an ancient artefact, a beautiful stained-glass window, a snow-capped mountain, a colourful bird, a surprise encounter with wildlife) … the world is full of wonders. I am fortunate to be able to travel and to appreciate the wonders I am able to discover far from home.
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While May has been green this year, we haven’t always had spring-like weather; quite the contrary! Some days have felt as chilly as a mild day in winter, while towards the end of the month we had a heatwave that would have felt fairly extreme even in August, with temperatures topping 34 degrees Celsius, breaking – no, smashing – all records.
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Sometimes it's easy to forget that 'small is beautiful'. Also, how much of that beauty can be found very close to home. There may be a whole wide world out there, but that world begins as soon as we step out of our own back (or front) door.
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A photograph is a two-dimensional artefact, whether digital or printed. Yet its apparently flat surface can reveal three-dimensional textures, especially when we get the lighting right. Texture is most clearly seen when hit by lighting at an angle, bringing out areas of light and shade. Contrasting colours help, but the light is (almost) everything!
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There is something ethereal and fascinating about images that lack the colours that we normally relate to the spectrum. Do we even always think of white as a colour, or do we consider it a lack of colour? Get it right and white images can be easily as striking as more brightly coloured ones.
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We have had plenty of sunny days this past April; however quite often the warm sun was tempered by a fresh wind. But we have also had some almost summer-like days; indeed, on one day quite early in the month the temperature reached 26 degrees in London and that IS summer weather.
