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Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • 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
          • 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
      • Just One Person
      • Lens-Artists
      • Mid-week Monochrome
      • Monochrome Madness
      • Nature Photo Challenge
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Words of Wisdom
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • General challenges
      • Monday walks
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Life in Colour
      • 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 cffc chile churches cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife
  • Lens-Artists,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: so which did you choose?

    January 18, 2023 / 24 Comments
    Collage of seven different photos

    Photography, like all arts, is a subjective business. We all have our favourites. At times though it seems it’s almost as hard to judge other people’s work as it is our own. Nevertheless, we often do just that.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Balconies with Comuna 13 in large colourful letters

    Finding peace in Medellín

    March 6, 2023
    Small round temple-style structure among trees

    King John was not a good man: Runnymede

    March 21, 2021
    Collage of seven photos

    Gallery: you choose (I can’t!)

    January 9, 2023
  • Lens-Artists,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: you choose (I can’t!)

    January 9, 2023 / 78 Comments
    Collage of seven photos

    How good are you at self-criticism when it comes to photography? Are you ruthless about discarding less successful shots? And can you easily decide which of several is your best?

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Three women in red checked fabric wraps

    The Maasai people of the Ngorongoro Crater

    January 25, 2021
    Manipulated photo of cornflowers and moon

    Gallery: playing around with effects from Enlight

    November 29, 2020
    River with boats and houses on the far bank

    Gallery: on our doorstep

    June 12, 2022
  • Sunday Stills,  Travel in general,  Writers' Quotes Wednesday

    My travel year in review, 2022

    January 2, 2023 / 70 Comments
    Collage of travel photos

    All of us who love to travel, and are fortunate enough to be able to do so, will I hope be looking back on a year filled with both familiar and foreign places. For most of us, 2022 was the year in which we began to feel comfortable travelling again. When, despite a few new forms to fill in and masks to be worn, perhaps reluctantly, on planes, the world opened up again and we could scratch that travel itch, relieve that homesickness ‘for the places we have never known’.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Scruffy rusting ferry with trucks and people on board

    Barely afloat: the Banjul ferry

    September 1, 2021
    Palm tree against deep blue sky with moon

    Gallery: fly me to the moon

    June 7, 2021
    Landscape with church and autumn trees

    Signs of autumn at Emmetts Garden

    September 27, 2021
  • 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 ...?

    Black and white photo of a city view with a large cathedral

    Gallery: seeing Sofia in black and white

    October 13, 2022
    Wall painting of a sleeping purple cat

    Gallery: more street art from Sofia

    October 8, 2022
    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 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
    Rustic blue house

    Stepping back in time in Bulgaria

    June 5, 2021
    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.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Three large sculptures in a landscape

    Gallery: the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

    September 4, 2021
    Man standing in front of frescoes, talking

    An encounter in Zurich: a person with a passion

    March 3, 2021
    Sculpture of a soldier in uniform waving

    Gallery: a wartime farewell in Tavira

    April 23, 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.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022
    Small church on a wooded mountainside

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

    August 18, 2021
    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022
  • 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 ...?

    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022
    Sculpture of a lion outside a building with columns

    Gallery: some of the many monuments of Sofia

    October 15, 2022
    Rustic blue house

    Stepping back in time in Bulgaria

    June 5, 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.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Colourful houses built over water

    Chiloé: a place of witches and gnomes

    August 4, 2022
    Detail of ornate tiled frieze

    Finding geometry in the buildings of Marrakesh

    July 27, 2021
    Ceramic tiles with blue border and brown lion and castle

    A visit to the Real Alcázar of Seville

    December 29, 2021
  • 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 ...?

    Orthodox cathedral at the end of a wide street

    Gallery: Sofia’s St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

    March 7, 2021
    Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022
    Black and white photo of two women with umbrellas tinted pink

    Sofia, city of contrasts and a work in progress

    October 5, 2022
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Read my featured blogger interview

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By Marsha of 'Always Write'

And my answers to Bren’s ‘five at five’ questions

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 cffc chile churches cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife

Archive

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  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020

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All images and texts copyright Sarah Wilkie - 2023 ©
 

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