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Gallery: intriguingly incomparable India
Picture India, and you are quite likely picturing Rajasthan. A land of ruined fortresses and long-abandoned palaces whose stones speak evocatively of past maharajas. A desert land where rural life is tough and little-changed over the centuries, yet vibrant and full of colour. A land whose people know how to celebrate and how to welcome strangers.
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Gallery: purple blowing my mind
Purple is the colour of wealth and royalty. Its rich tones call to mind the trappings of majesty and ceremony. Its blend of red and blue means that it lies carries messages both of tranquillity and of passion. Purple is also the colour of creativity, as it fosters creativity by stimulating our senses while also promoting the calmness needed for thoughtful observation and introspection. And it just happens to be my favourite colour too!
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Gallery: Guatapé, town of the zócalos
Just as humans (sadly) use knives and swords for attack and defence, so too do animals and plants. Whether it’s a thorn or spike to ward off predators, or a sharp tooth to attack their prey, there is always a point to sharpness in nature.
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Gallery: an explosion of colour in Colombia
You may be tired by now of me saying that Colombia is colourful, but hopefully not of seeing the evidence. Many of its small towns are as imbued with colour as the cities; indeed maybe more so as they don’t spill out into more drab commercial and industrial areas. Passing through even the smallest village I would spot murals on local bars, bright doors and windows on the houses.
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A postcard from Colombia: a street corner in Guatapé
Many of the houses in Guatapé are decorated with friezes along the lower portion, known as zócalos.
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Gallery: a pop of colour to brighten the darkness
'With colour one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft' (Henri Matisse). Bright colours have the power to lift the spirits just as sunshine does.
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Gallery: how many shades of grey?
Grey probably gets a bad name as a colour. We think of it as rather dull. We associate it with gloomy weather, with an absence of light and brightness. But it has its admirers. Hopefully I can demonstrate that if you look closely you will find beauty in grey.
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Gallery: feeling the blues, again
Some time ago I shared some favourite ‘blue’ images, accompanied by a quote from a favourite Blue song. But the world has an inexhaustible supply of shades of blue. So I’ve trawled through the photos from recent trips, and some older ones, to see what blues I could find that haven’t been shared before.
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Gallery: through a glass darkly
Arguably it’s the fragility of glass that makes it so beautiful. Not only does it look lovely, we know how easily we could lose it. Glass has two main properties; we can look through it, or we can see the world reflected in it.
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Gallery: expressions of a single colour
Photography is of course all about colour. Even black and white photos are rarely just that but are all tones of grey. And good colour photography relies on the judicious combination of different shades, whether complementary or clashing or somewhere in between.