Weekly Photo Challenge: Numbers
Posted on June 5, 2016
Not so long ago, I posted this stark image of one of the outside-facing clocks on the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. For the latest WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, with the theme of Numbers, here is the ornate gilded clock – roman numerals and all – that hangs over the main exhibition hall inside:

Less conventionally, here’s another way of looking at numbers, from the old schoolroom in Montrol-Sénard:

Capital carving close-up
Posted on June 4, 2016
The precision and detail of the carving on the capital of a marble column in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is clearly brought out in this monochrome close-up.

One Photo Focus June 2016
Posted on June 3, 2016
The original image for this month’s One Photo Focus was taken by David Croker and is a lovely shot of peaceful serenity; who doesn’t like the combination of sky, water and reflections?

The only problem with this original is that the air of tranquility is jarred somewhat by the electricity pylons running right across the horizon. I realise that it’s possible to remove such intrusions through various photo editing programs,including Photoshop, which I have myself, but it looks like a very painstaking exercise, particularly if (a) you haven’t done it before and (b) when there are not only wires but also the pylons to be erased.
Then I recalled that for a WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge some time ago, with the theme of ‘Dreamy‘, I had used a reflected image to get the dreamlike look that the assignment called for, and I thought it had worked quite well.
Accordingly, I adopted the same principle for this One Photo Focus, to produce this:

Here’s what I did:
- Flipped the image horizontally
- Cropped to remove the sky – and therefore the power pylons and cables. I also wanted to highlight that cloud on the right of the original image, so cropped out the whole of the left half
- After that, it was simply a matter of adding a little ‘punch’ in Lightroom, and also adjusting colour Luminance to make the green and blue of the reflected boats stand out more.
I’m quite pleased with the dreamy, painting-y effect of this revised version
Thursday Doors: Chedigny en fleur
Posted on June 2, 2016
More doors from Chédigny this week and, as promised, this time with added flowers (particularly roses), for which the village is justly famous.
In this first image is apparently the oldest rose bush in the village, over a hundred years old. And you’ve got to love the purple paintwork.

Here are another two doors featuring Chédigny’s signature roses:
And finally, not roses but some pretty impressive wisteria:

Thursday Doors 2 June 2016
Backwards in time
Posted on May 27, 2016
An open topic for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week gives me an excuse to post this image.
It was taken in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which is housed in a former mainline railway station. This is the inside of the clock tower. I was praying that everybody else would get out of the shot before this gentleman decided to move on and spoil the composition.

This is what it looks like from the outside:

Thursday Doors: Chedigny
Posted on May 26, 2016
The little village of Chédigny, in the central Indre-et-Loire département, is widely held to be one of the loveliest in France, and is particularly noted for its flowers, which line the streets and can be found on or outside pretty much every house. Of course, every house has at least one porte and on a recent visit I took enough photographs for at least a couple of door-themed posts.
I’ll save the best flower-surrounded examples for another time (respecting the old adage that you should ‘always leave them wanting more’), but to whet the appetite, here are a few of the plainer – although still interesting in their different ways – examples.
The only thing to say about this first one is that it seems to have been overtaken by events, as half of it is below the current pavement level. If it opens outwards, then someone’s in trouble.

By contrast, here are two doors with more elevated aspects, both of which you would step out through at your peril:


And finally the austere simplicity of the side door of the village church:

Thursday Doors 26 May 2016
Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant
Posted on May 22, 2016
‘Jubilant’ derives from a Greek word which means (literally) ‘shouting for joy’. Not unlike this guest at one of our grandsons’ birthday parties:

Obviously a French water buffalo…
Posted on May 20, 2016
Thursday Doors: Delage
Posted on May 19, 2016
As far as I know, there’s no rule that says Thursday Doors have to be on a building…
So here are the doors of a Delage vintage car, taken at a fête des fleurs in Magnac-Laval earlier this year:

Thursday Doors 19 May 2016






