T is the twentieth letter in the English language. It is, according to Wikipedia, the most commonly used consonant and the second-most commonly used letter in English-language texts. So it should be easy to find photographs of objects that begin with T, shouldn’t it?
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There is little I like more than the chance to see the world, or at least a tiny part of it, from a different perspective. And that often means getting high up to look down. Whether from a plane, a hot air balloon, a tall building or a mountain (preferably reached by cable car!), things always look different from above.
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I’m not a fan of living in the past. Nostalgia can be a dangerous exercise and too often people look back with rose-tinted glasses at a past that never really existed. But I do enjoy looking through sepia-tinted glasses from time to time!
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The choice between colour or monochrome for a photo is a very subjective one. Some people simply don’t like black and white photography, seeing it as old-fashioned, unnatural and unnecessary. Why remove the colour from a scene, they ask, when we see the world in colour. Why show things as less vibrant, less varied, less colourful than they really are?
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If you visit a city only to see its famous sights, you are missing out on much of what makes that city what it is. The people who live there may do so against the backdrop of its grand buildings, iconic monuments, parks and so on, but for the most part those things are of secondary importance to their daily lives. If you want to really get to know a city you need also to observe those people.
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We all have photos that didn’t make the final cut when selecting the best from a day’s shooting, but which weren’t so disappointing that we discarded them. Maybe they are significant to us because of the subject matter even if we don’t feel they represent our best efforts. Or maybe we keep them planning to try to work on them in the future because we feel they have potential.
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Clouds can look beautiful, enhancing any photo of the sky. They can inspire us to see animals, palaces and more hidden in their shapes. And they can give us welcome shade on the hottest of days. But clouds also bring storms, rain and snow. They turn a summer picnic into a dash for shelter, and they hide a view you climbed a mountain to see.
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Language differences may make it challenging to communicate with the people we meet when travelling, even if we have made the effort to learn a few words. But music transcends spoken languages, and the enjoyment of music becomes a shared experience irrespective of our different native tongues and cultures. It’s the most universal of languages, speaking to all of us no matter from where we come
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When we look at a photo our eye is naturally drawn along any lines within it. By thinking about how and where you place any lines in your composition, you can influence the way people view the image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, leading us on a journey through the scene.
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Our first sight of a potential subject has us reaching for our camera, naturally. And sometimes the first shot we take is great, but often (always?) it could be bettered. We could perhaps find a more interesting angle or move closer to take in the details. I'm illustrating this principle with images taken of the temples and other ancient ruins that surround the town of Siem Reap in Cambodia.
