Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadow
Posted on February 9, 2017
Shine a light through a glass of red wine onto a white tablecloth and this is what you get:

Thursday Doors: St Junien (2) – Colour
Posted on February 9, 2017
Last week’s initial instalment of the doors of St Junien were, with one exception, a pretty drab bunch (unless you happen to be a big fan of brown, of course), so this week I thought I’d feature some more colourful examples:

Even if the colour isn’t necessarily to your taste, someone is clearly making an effort…

…no matter how narrow the door you have to work with:

Next, a couple of more faded examples:


And just for a change, to finish this week a set of gates:

Thursday Doors 9 February 2017
Macro Moments Week 30: Quizzical Owl
Posted on February 8, 2017
This week, Sue has set us a specific theme for Macro Moments – ‘Birds’. It’s pretty difficult to get a true macro shot of a bird, I should imagine, so here is a (very) tightly-cropped image of an owl which I took at a display of birds of prey last summer.
Fortunately, I was using my best lens, so I think it has managed to retain enough detail, despite the crop.

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm ƒ2.8 lens at 200mm. 1/500 at ƒ4, ISO 100. Cropped and edited in Lightroom.
Macro Moments EWeek 30: Birds
Tuesdays of Texture: Rusty Railings
Posted on February 7, 2017
These railings, around one of the larger houses in the local village of Mézières-sur-Issoire, could do with a fresh coat of paint; but would they necessarily look any better for it?

Tuesdays of Texture
Mundane? Park Bench
Posted on February 7, 2017
Another mundane (?) image from St Junien: this park bench is also outside the local Tourist Information Office, not far from last week’s postbox. Properly framed, the symmetry is quite appealing.

Mundane Mondays
52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 26 – Stranger
Posted on February 7, 2017
This chap, spotted at the La Sagna Hippodrome (racecourse) was a keen racegoer, to judge from the many old admission tickets hanging around his neck and the racecard he’s holding in his hand.

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 26 – Stranger
Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude
Posted on February 4, 2017
On a sunny autumn day in St Andrews, my grandson dips a toe in the waters of the North Sea.

Thursday Doors: St. Junien (1)
Posted on February 2, 2017
St Junien is one of the major towns of the Haute Vienne département and claims to be (or have been) the glove-making capital of France. Leather gloves, that is; they’re quite particular about that.
As with many other similar conurbations, there is a medieval centre that has become increasingly surrounded by more modern, and largely featureless, developments. Be that as it may, a recent ‘doorscursion’ provided plenty of photographic opportunities that will keep my ‘ Thursday Doors’ contributions well-supplied for the next few weeks, so here is the first instalment.
This ancient wooden door is set into what’s left of the old city walls:

By contrast, this house is obviously occupied and well cared-for:

as is this:

This one is more colourful than the norm:

Although these last two are a little more careworn:


(The white street sign in the last image is in the Occitan language, which was what was spoken round these parts until French became the official language of the whole country after 1789.)
Thursday Doors 2 February 2017
Macro Moments Week 29: Pawn
Posted on February 1, 2017
Mucking about with my macro lens on a wet afternoon earlier this week, I took this photograph of a pawn from the chess-set that sits on our sofa-table.

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm ƒ2.8 macro lens. 1/125 at ƒ3.2 with built-in flash, ISO 900. Cropped and edited in Lightroom.





