I often go on a bit about the weather (I am British after all, and live up to that stereotype at least!) This month has been particularly ‘interesting’ in that respect. We reached pretty much the middle of the month without once seeing the sun, but also without any rain. All we had was gloom!
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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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The master of word invention was Lewis Carroll whose works are liberally scattered with these portmanteau words, that is, words that combine two different words to make something new.
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October this year has been a month of two halves. In the first half we were in California, road tripping around several stunning national parks, and, for a couple of days at the end of our trip, in Las Vegas. In the second half we were back home, getting over the jetlag, sorting a virtual mountain of photos and picking up the threads of daily life.
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This weekend in Europe the clocks are being turned back. The already dark evenings will be darker as days are starting to shorten and nights lengthen. Finding light where we can becomes ever more precious.
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One thing photography teaches us is that there are opportunities for images in the most unlikely places. Carrying a camera we see things differently, noticing not just the most obvious and beautiful scenes but also the potential in the less obvious.
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We have had plenty of rain this month, including during our anniversary trip to Paris. But we also had a week of Indian Summer, with temperatures in the mid 20s and plenty of sunshine. And it would be premature to talk much of ‘leaves of brown’, although they are starting to turn and some indeed have tumbled down.
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The discipline of selecting just seven images for my various #SevenforSeptember Squares posts has been good for me, as I know I sometimes go over the top and present more shots than is really necessary! However, that restriction to seven shots has been the only acknowledgement of the ‘sevens’ theme – until now!
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Orange is an attention-grabbing colour, shouting ‘look at me’! You can’t easily ignore an orange. It suggests optimism, vitality, happiness, warmth. For many it is a spiritual colour, worn for instance by the Buddhist monks of Southeast Asia. But it can be aggressive and harsh at times, and overpowering if used in large amounts.