Lens-Artists Challenge – My Last Outing
Posted on April 7, 2025
It’s a particularly timely challenge for this week’s Lens-Artists, because as it happens my last outing was only yesterday (Sunday).
The first ‘big’ local event of the year round these parts is traditionally the annual ‘Fête des Fleurs‘ in the village of Magnac-Laval, about a half hour’s drive from here. It is held in the grounds of the local agricultural college, which is based in this rather grand-looking chateau. I’m always amused by the jaunty tilt of that windvane.
As you can see from the blameless blue sky, the weather was very kind, which is certainly not a given for this time of year.

Monochrome Madness: Night-time
Posted on April 5, 2025
I took this photograph of a boat that was sailing along the Corniche in Abu Dhabi at night. The original image was pretty much monochrome itself, with just a few flashes of colour from the lights on board.

Last Photo March 2025
Posted on April 1, 2025
These white pansies have just returned for another season in one of our flowerbeds (yes it does need weeding).

Lens-Artists Challenge: Wild
Posted on March 31, 2025
Two Arabian oryx bask in the afternoon sunlight on the Sir Bani Yas Island nature reserve in Abu Dhabi.
This species of oryx was getting uncomfortably close to extinction and the establishment of the Sir Bani Yas reserve played a significant rôle in protecting them and allowing their numbers to increase. Here, they are still ‘in the wild’, as it were (there’s plenty of room), but are safe from the predations of man.

Cellpic Sunday: Play Misty For Me
Posted on March 30, 2025
On a misty day with not a breath of wind, the reflections on the surface of the pond here in what I call Tranquility Base, are almost perfect. And you’ve got to love those leading lines…

Lens-Artists Challenge – Personal Favourites
Posted on March 25, 2025
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is a bit of a tricky one – not that we’re being asked to find an unusual subject, or one which we tend not to photograph very often (e.g. last week’s ‘Portraits’).
No, rather we’re invited by Tina at Travels And Trifles to post five of our personal favourite images. I mean, where do you even begin? I -and I’m certainly not the only one – have literally thousands of photographs in my library from which to try and make a choice. It’s almost invidious.
So, in order to make the process of choice more manageable, I hit on the idea of confining my selection to a particular type of image. I’m quite fond of photographing things from a low viewpoint, as a different perspective can prove to be more interesting.

This flower was growing in one of our raised beds and, backlit by the sun, it looked quite striking.

This chandelier hangs in the reception area of the hotel on Sir Baniyas Island in Abu Dhabi.

By happy chance, this helicopter was about to touch down on the helipad at the top of the Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai.

This is the mightily impressive vaulted ceiling of Beverley Minster.

No, it’s not something from a Transformers movie: it’s an electricity pylon at a shopping centre on the outskirts of Limoges.
Cellpic Sunday: Meet the locals
Posted on March 23, 2025
The local breed of cattle in this particular part of France is the Limousin, characterised by the lovely golden brown colour of their hides, seen at its best in the sunlight..
Apparently they can be quite stroppy, but this one just looks curious, and the other two only have eyes for each other. There again, I was making sure to keep my distance.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Portraits
Posted on March 18, 2025
Like many others. I suspect, I’m not really comfortable with portrait photography. There’s no doubt that it’s an art form in itself – cf. Annie Leibovitz, for example, or Karsh of Ottawa – but I feel much more relaxed focusing (literally) on non-human subjects.
Nonetheless, I thought I’d give it a go for the Lens-Artists Challenge this week and started to comb through my image library. I was very happy – and surprised – to come across this image of a young chimpanzee. It had been misfiled (and therefore forgotten about), but my best guess is that it was taken at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.
As portraits go, I don’t think it’s a complete disaster. The subject is calm, reflective – a little curious, even. And, happily, looking straight at the camera.

Cellpic Sunday: Spring is sprung
Posted on March 16, 2025
Monochrome Madness: The Waiting Room
Posted on March 11, 2025
I hope I’m not too late to join this particular party, but the latest theme for Monochrome Madness is/was ‘chair’ or ‘chairs’.
These particular examples of functional utilitarianism can be found in the waiting room of the main hospital in the town of St-Junien.
(Well, I say waiting room, but in reality it’s just a corridor with groups of colour-coded seats outside a long line of consulting rooms). In colour, these are actually a lurid, determinedly institutional green plastic, but the monochrome conversion does bring out some interesting textures, notably on the backs, that are quite invisible in their ‘natural’ state.






