Lens-Artists Challenge: The First Thing I Thought Of..
Posted on May 19, 2025
Our challenge this week is to inject a little humour into proceedings by adding a caption to the selected image under the broad theme of ‘the first thing I thought of’.
This was indeed the first thing I thought of and – even better – it comes complete with its own ready-made caption. This little figurine has sat on my desk, whether at work or, as now, at home for more than thirty years.
Not that I ever feel put upon, you understand…
Cellpic Sunday: The Acceptable Face Of Weeds
Posted on May 18, 2025
Every spring, as growth restarts in the garden, we wait to see what will be what we call the ‘Weed of the year’ – the most prolific of the pestilential flora that deserves no place in a civilised garden, but takes over, vastly outnumbering any of its competitors.
Usually it comes down to an unpalatable choice between dandelions or – more likely – nettles. For 2025 however, the winner is – buttercups. They are everywhere this month. They’re so much nicer than any of the usual suspects that it was almost a shame to take the strimmer to them.
Monochrome Madness: Street Lighting
Posted on May 18, 2025
I confess that I had to do quite a bit of digging to come up with an interesting image of some street lighting. Typically, these are rather mundane artefacts that you wouldn’t often be bothered to get your camera out for.*
[Note to self: a conjunction is the wrong type of word to end a sentence with.]
However, I came across this image, which I had entirely forgotten about. High up on a wall in an old narrow street in the nearby town of Saint-Junien is this rather ornate but ancient lantern. Obviously designed for illumination, it certainly predates electric lights, and maybe even gas ones too.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Serenity
Posted on May 13, 2025
Is there a greater epitome of the idea of ‘serenity’ than a graceful swan gliding smoothly across the water – even if everybody knows that below the surface its legs are going like the clappers?
This particular specimen was swanning around in the lake at Linlithgow, in central Scotland.
Cellpic Sunday: Pretty in pink
Posted on May 11, 2025
We were in the town of Beverley in Yorkshire last week and I came across this rather lovely flower in somebody’s front garden.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Break the rules
Posted on May 6, 2025
I have posted a similar image before, but this is a more recent photograph.
On a very still but cloudy day, the reflections of the trees in the little pond we have here in the hamlet were almost perfect. So perfect, in fact, that you may not realise at first glance that I’ve flipped the original image vertically, so you’re actually seeing the reflections at the top of the screen. I thing it adds a dimension of dreaminess to the image.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Cinematic
Posted on April 28, 2025
This week we’re looking for cinematic images.
I took this photo in the desert outside the city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. For me, the main attractions were the strong leading line and the combination of sand, scrub and stone. Oh, and the symmetry of the two slopes.
It’s not too much of a stretch to see this as an establishing shot in a Western, with the added mystery of what could be lying in wait on the other side of that crest……
Lens-Artists Challenge: Go-To Places
Posted on April 22, 2025
This week, John has set us the interesting challenge of showing our ‘go-to’ places. To be honest, I’m pretty happy to be here at home most of the time (not least because it doesn’t involve the hassle of actually getting to anywhere).
We have been very lucky to have traveled to some wonderful places, so I thought I’s just post images from three of my favourite destinations. I don’t think the first two need any further introduction…
This third one may not be quite so familiar. It’s the Corniche in Abu Dhabi as our evening cruise passed the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, where I worked for the last ten years of my career. We have many happy memories of our time in the UAE.
Monochrome Madness: Everything Spring
Posted on April 18, 2025
This week the theme is the timely one of ‘Everything Spring’. Up here in the northern hemisphere it’s the time for planting and growing.
This little fella, just planted out in of our raised beds, will – if al goes according to plan – eventually provide us with some Brussels sprouts: chou de Bruxelles.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Abandoned
Posted on April 13, 2025
Here in rural France, there’s certainly no shortage of potential subjects for this week’s theme of ‘Abandoned’, whether it be old farm buildings or, as here, houses. This particular – and very small – example can be found next to the church in the nearby village of Rancon.
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