Orange Poppy

Cee is lookung for a combination of orange and green for her Fun Foto Challenge this week. With the stem invisible, this wild orange poppy appears to be floating freely against a green background.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Orange and Green

Monday Window: Chartres Cathedral

Another impressive triptych of intricate stained glass in the mighty Cathedral at Chartres.

#MondayWindow 19 October 2020

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 42 Work

This was where I spent the last few years of my working life – my office at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. If only my desk here now was so tidy…

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 42 Work

Front Elevation

Our humble abode (aka ‘Brokedown Palace’).

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Outside Home

Eglantine

I believe that this variety of rose is known as Eglantine and it’s a very old one. It’s also pink, with a yellow heart, so suitable for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pink & Yellow

Monday Window: Bussière-Poitevine

‘Nobody loves you when you’re down and out’.

#MondayWindow 12 October 2020

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 41 Colour Theory

The last few weekly Smartphone Challenges have been relatively straightforward, but Week 41 is a bit of a toughie.

“Color Theory is a huge part of a composition that most photographers don’t explore. So it is time to explore it. Use Color Grading to create an image that looks like it is a still from a movie.”

Having read that, I wasn’t much wiser, so here’s what I’ve done. This photo was taken in August, just after sunset, with a full moon partly veiled by thin cloud cover, so the image was pretty much monochrome.

I pulled back some of the detail in Lightroom to give a hint of detail in the trees. At a stretch, you could imagine the opening scene of one of those fifties horror movies where a car carrying two cheerful teenage couples breaks down just outside a dark, looming mansion – and, like a bunch of idiots, they go and knock on the front door….

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 41 Colour Theory

The Salon

For her Black & White Challenge this week, Cee is asking for an interior view of our homes.

Well, this is our ‘salon’ – sitting-room, lounge, parlour, call it what you will. It’s a quiet, restful room and we like it very much.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Home Interiors

Cat House

No, not that kind of cat house.

There’s a ginger cat that roams freely round our little hamlet. He belongs to one of our neighbours, but a couple of other residents also keep it well looked after,

So well, indeed, that this improvised cat kennel has recently appeared outside the front door of one of them.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Tiny houses

Monday Window: Le Dorat

You’re obviously not supposed to use this window, in the village of Le Dorat, as either an entry or exit point. So is it really a window?

#MondayWindow 5 October 2020