Wildflowers and a log
Croatia,  London,  Montenegro,  The Changing Seasons,  Themed galleries

Gallery: a June selection (2024)

July 3, 2024 / 24 Comments

In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different

John Steinbeck

Well, it took its time, but towards the end of June summer finally arrived in London. Overnight it seemed we went from cool and dull early spring days to a heatwave, with temperatures briefly touching thirty degrees Celsius. But throughout the month, whatever the weather, our gardens sprang into life and there were flowers everywhere!

But I started the month elsewhere, at the annual Virtual Tourist meeting in Kotor (Montenegro), where ironically we had rain while the UK enjoyed a brief sunnier spell! A few photos taken there feature in the gallery below. I’ve also squeezed in a few from Split (Croatia) where I spent the last few days of May with friends, as those days missed the cut-off for my prematurely posted May round-up. Consequently there are rather more photos than usual to browse here!

For the rest there are highlights from several London outings, including to the Saatchi Gallery for an exhibition on fashion photography (‘Beyond Fashion’, on until September and highly recommended). We also visited the repurposed Battersea Power Station for their Lift 109 experience, a Christmas present experience from Chris.

One evening I went out around Ealing with a friend from my photography group, Sean. We’d all been challenged to pair up (names drawn from a hat) and take photos of each other. With neither of us being keen on formal portraiture, and both having an interest in street photography, we decided to try to pose each other in mock street photo scenes. I’ve included my two favourite shots of Sean from the shoot. My feature photo is of a wildflower area in a small park we walked through that day, Dean Gardens.

Technical notes

I used all three of the options available to me this month. The photos from Croatia and Montenegro were taken with my compact Panasonic Lumix, as were the ones at Battersea. I used my rather better Lumix bridge camera for the photoshoot with Sean, and the rest were taken on my phone.

Most have been at least a little edited with Photoshop Elements and some also with Nik Color Efex, or Silver Efex for the black and white shots.

As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge. Use the arrows to navigate the slideshow if you want to see all the images.

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24 Comments

  • carabeinsplash

    July 4, 2024 at 14:15 Reply

    Wow! Fabulous photos! I have to say I was shocked by the road in the photo of the clouds. It looks almost completely vertical! I bet it’s quite a view from the top.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      July 4, 2024 at 16:09 Reply

      We were on a coach tour that day and our driver did incredibly well but he had to stop at the bend you can just see on the left side of the photo and we walked the last bit to that point 😀

  • Alli Templeton

    July 4, 2024 at 12:33 Reply

    Firstly, I love the feature photo, Sarah. I’m growing wildflowers in the garden now, as many as possible, and it’s a joy to see the bees and butterflies, and all the other insects coming to them. I’ve come to really love the variety, colour and fragile beauty of wildflowers over the past few years, and it’s always good to see them being embraced in other places too. After all, you can’t beat natures own marvellous technicolour show. 🙂

    I’ve very much enjoyed the slideshow of your collection this month. You’ve got an amazing eye for detail and composition, and somehow you can make anything – even the simplest window in a wall – look fantastic. The lizard is a stunner, and great shots with Sean as well; he’s a natural model isn’t he?

    • Sarah Wilkie

      July 4, 2024 at 16:08 Reply

      Thanks so much Alli 😊 It’s a lovely idea to grow wildflowers in your garden. Friends of ours have taken up all their lawn and replaced it with wildflowers and cottage garden planting, and thy get so many bees and butterflies!

      • Alli Templeton

        July 4, 2024 at 17:25 Reply

        ,…and I bet it’s a wonderful space to spend time in… Your friend sounds like my kind of person! 🌳🌿

  • thehungrytravellers.blog

    July 3, 2024 at 14:13 Reply

    We haven’t yet been to the revitalised Battersea, looks interesting. We remember driving over the top of Mount Lovcen, wildfires raging in the valley below, on our way back from Zabljak to Kotor. It’s been another varied month for you!

    • Sarah Wilkie

      July 3, 2024 at 16:00 Reply

      The lift at Battersea was well worth doing but for the rest it’s really just a shiny upmarket shopping mall! July should bring plenty of variety too, starting with a visit to Broadstairs and a blogging meet-up 😁

  • Teresa

    July 3, 2024 at 13:03 Reply

    It is winter here and we haven’t had a negative temperature for years, but now we are having it here in Melbourne. Climate change is really getting to all of us.
    By the way lovely shots, Sarah. The flowers and the photography with your friend.

  • bushboy

    July 3, 2024 at 12:38 Reply

    What a wow Sarah, right from the start. The Sean with you in reflection is fab. Love all of the geometry and how you see photos. Do you ever look up from taking a photo and see people looking wonderingly at what you’re taking a photo of?
    Thanks for joining in The Changing Seasons 😀

  • margaret21

    July 3, 2024 at 09:05 Reply

    What a great gallery from a busy month. Apart from that shutter set into a red wall in Montenegro, which I love, it’s the portraits that take my eye. And that idea from your photo club is one I’ll suggest to mine. A good idea that sets the mind working.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      July 3, 2024 at 15:55 Reply

      Thanks so much Margaret 😊 I was pleased to get that shutter shot as a) photography wasn’t allowed inside the palace, and b) it was pouring with rain, so any photo taking was a challenge!

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