Scenes from Vrango

 At the moment I am putting together a portfolio for stock photo sites in the hope that over the course of the year ahead I will increase the income from my photography. Whether I do or not remains to be seen but it will help me to focus on quality (I might have said this already in a recent post, I can't recall, I have been asleep since then) and improving as a photographer. As I have not been out much to get new pictures I am revisiting my older files and I am pleasantly surprised by many of the images I have put together over the years. I am also really pleased with the memories that come flooding back too. So most of the pictures I will share for a while at least will be from the archives.

These pictures were shot in Sweden in the summer of 2018. As I am writing this I am listening to the album Treeless Plain by Australian band The Triffids and the song playing right now is "Hell of a Summer" (click on the song title to listen for yourself).

I was on a road trip around Europe with my youngest son and we fulfilled an ambition to visit Sweden. We drove up from Copenhagen in Denmark across the Oresund Bridge which was a fantastic experience and then up to Gothenburg which was possibly the highlight of the trip (although there were several highlights to be honest) and while there we took a trip to Vrango, one of the islands in the archipelago close by. It was a really hot day and we had great fun walking around the island and enjoying the sun and the brightly coloured buildings that were all around the village and the harbour.

I have shared a mixture of colour and black and white images and while I like all of these photos and I would often prefer the black and white images today I much prefer the colour pictures because they are far mor evocative of the overall atmosphere on the island which although it was a quiet refuge from the busy city was still vibrant and uplifting.

Cool Metallic Reflection

Firstly, I know I said in my last post that I would share some pictures from inside the Museum of Liverpool, specifically I was going to show some pictures of the cool curves of the spiral stairway, however when I looked at the images this morning I wasn't convinced I liked them enough to share so I have decided to go with something different.

The images above are almost identical except for the fact that one is in full colour and the other is monochrome. The exposure and contrast are slightly different in each image too.

The buildings in this image are along the Strand in Liverpool overlooking Kings Dock. There was a thin film of ice on the water which the bright sun had not managed to melt. The sun reflecting off the side of one of the buildings gives the water a metallic quality which I think is really nice.

I hadn't noticed at the time I took the pictures but the pillars supporting the building in the centre of the shot are much like the pillars which support power station cooling towers.

 

Glass and Stone

Today we have walked miles around Venice and the two islands of Burano and Murano.

Burano famous for its many coloured houses and Murano famous for the glass making. As we walked around we got to see some of the master craftsmen at work. In one workshop we watched as a guy turned a a lump of molten glass into a beautiful prancing horse in about a minute. His colleague said said a minute to make but 20 years to master.


So the first picture was taken on Burano, the colour of the wall was what first caught my attention but it was the detail of the window itself that really stood out.

The second shot is of the floor in the Chiese di San Giorgio Maggiore, from one angle the pattern appears flat but change your perspective just slightly  and then it becomes much more interesting.  I once tried to create a similar effect to this in marquetry, it was quite good but nowhere near as good as this.

From the church tower I was able to get a few panoramic shots of the city and I saw a strange art work in the gardens below. I remember from my last visit there had been a glass teahouse installation "Mondrian" by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto,so I went to find out more of the new work.

It was called "Qwalala" by the American artist Pae White, it is a wall that snakes through the garden and it is made of 3000 hand cast glass bricks. Even on such a hot day the glass was surprisingly cool to the touch, although we found out too late that we were not supposed to touch the artwork OOPS!

Anyway I think it was a really effective creation and the individual bricks had real character, some with splashes of colour and others that were clear and provided a soft focused image of the background. I took a few pictures and I have selected just two of the more interesting ones.

Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Florence.

Here's Looking At You

Today I have gone back to the pictures of deer at Dunham Massey rather than the buildings and reflections that I shared over the past two days.

These three deer are all Fallow Deer but these shots perfectly show some of the different colourings that are quite common from the fairly even brown tones of the stag in the first picture to the almost black backed doe in the second shot and then at the most extreme end the white in the third shot. This is not an albino deer but a genuine white variety. A fourth variety is almost totally black but I haven't got a shot of one to share today.

It didn't matter how quietly I approached the deer they were always on the alert and while they didn't all run off they kept a watchful eye on me. 

It is always a privilege to be able to get close to animals in the wild and I love to share the pictures I capture.

Put Him In The Longboat...

These are the longboats on the main deck of HMS Victory, Flagship of Her Majesty's Royal Navy.

I really like the clean colours and strong lines in this picture.

Whiskers...

Today's post is a close up on the Bearded Iris hence the title "Whiskers". These are beautiful flowers with really strong colours and lots of different textures. Enjoy.

Also today is the day that my total blog posts reach 50,000. As I write this there are just 32 to go. So if you have been onto my facebook page to like or share tonight is when I will draw the winner of the free print. I have been really pleased with the response to my blog and I am pleased to be able to give something back for the support that I have received.

Summer is Coming

From fireworks back to flowers but there is something of the fireworks in these pictures with explosion of colours and the tendrils of the stamen stretching out.

My clear favourite today is the first picture and I almost posted it on its own because I like it so much. I love the way the petals arch backwards pushing the stamen forwards and the little coils tempting bees to come and collect the pollen. It is such a beautiful flower.

Lightsaber Fun

Yesterday I decided to try something that I have never tried before; creating abstract images with light, light sabers actually (or light saber key-rings to be precise :)). So after dark I enlisted the help of my two sons and their key-rings (what can I say we're all geeks) and tried to create some interesting patterns.

Given that this was my first attempt I don't think I have done too bad. I have picked out the best shots to share today and tomorrow so if you like these do look out tomorrow for the rest. 

There is something about the colours and patterns that make me happy and I am reminded of an old Hancock's Half Hour show that I used to listen to as a kid on my parents old record player. It was called The Publicity Photograph and Tony Hancock in need of sprucing up his image goes to see a portrait photographer played by Kenneth Williams. Tony says that he wants to take a few snaps to which Kenneth Williams indignantly replies "Snaps? Snaps? I don't take snaps, I am an artist, I paint with light!" then Tony Hancock retorts "Oh Strike me I paint with light!" I remember laughing out loud to this and I listened to it over and over again and although I haven't listened to it for at least 40 years that line has stayed with me and came back last night when I was creating these images.

Majestic

Majestic really is the perfect adjective for these Magnolia flowers. I love these flowers they emerge from a beautiful furry bud and they bloom for just a short time. I love the colour and the shapes in these pictures and in the third shot we have one of nature's hearts which I always love to find and share. These flowers were also particularly fragrant adding to the beauty something which can't be shared in the image.

One thing which has always puzzled me is the colour "magnolia" and I remember as a child my parents picking magnolia paint when they were doing a spot of decorating at home. It just looked white to me, I thought it was just  a fancy name and I didn't realise then that there was a plant which had given the paint its name. But then when I look at the different varieties of Magnolia I see a whole variety of colours and shades and it bothers me that "Magnolia" isn't a colour. It's like saying "Rose" or "Peach" are colours, they're not. Perhaps it's just me, because I don't see colours the way other people do, maybe I'm just being pedantic because I can deal with precise colours like red, green, pink, yellow etc or even shades of those colours (even if my perception of them is different) but if someone describes a colour to me in terms of Magnolia or Rose it means nothing to me because I can't visualise it. 

Anyway I'm not quite sure why I went into that since the purpose of the blog is to share my photos but you have more than you bargained for with a little insight into my mind. If that freaks you out just scroll back to the images and normal service will be resumed.

Timber

I had stopped to take pictures of water droplets (see the third shot on yesterday's post) and I leant against this tree to help keep steady but when I turned I saw this marvelous exposed wood which gleams with vivid colour. I love the variety of colours, the contours and textures of the wood and its grain.

Orchid

I haven't had the chance to go out and take any new pictures in the past week so this evening I decided that if I can't go out I will take some pictures of stuff around the house instead, and look what I found.

The top two images are of different flowers but the third and fourth pictures are progressive crops of the second flower.  I really love the colour and detail and the texture in these pictures.  I hope you will agree these are lovely pictures

Modernista Architecture

So if you have scrolled down this far you will have noticed that today I have posted more pictures than ever before. 

All of the pictures are from Barcelona, the first six are in Park Guell which was designed by Antoni Gaudi, pictures 5 and 6 are in fact the Gaudi museum within the park itself and was originally the home of the architect.  The house in the first picture was the only other house built in what should have been a housing development for around 60 properties

The last four shots are from the streets of Barcelona showing some of the fine architecture, bright colours, balconies and street lamps (which I believe were also designed by Gaudi).  It really is a beautiful city with lots to see and do..

From Florence

If you have been a follower of my photo-blogging efforts you will have noticed an absence of posts over the past two weeks.  This was due to the fact that my phone broke while on holiday and I had been relying on that to do my posts.  It is good to be able to get back to blogging and sharing some of the pictures I took while away.

Today I am starting with a few shots from Florence which was the next stop after Venice on my European road trip...

You may well have expected a few pictures of il Duomo or Ponte Vecchio and of course I have taken plenty of pictures of those and other landmarks however I thought the pictures above give a flavour of Florentine style and colour.

I thought the sign for the pharmacy was worth sharing because it is so classy and stylish and not something you would normally expect to see.

The lavender is of a variety not normally seen in the UK and again I really liked the colour.

The last two pictures are of the garden and entrance to the hotel I stayed in (The Monna Lisa) which was a former renaissance palace with a long history which was reflected in every part of the hotel. (Do check out the link to see more pictures of the hotel and read something of it's history)

I have had a fantastic time away although it is good to be back home and in contact with everyone once again.  I look forward to sharing more of the pictures and stories of the trip with you, the paintings on the ceiling and the stone floor in the last picture are all original dating back to the 16th century.