52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 36 – Simple Things

Posted on May 30, 2017

An artfully rusted bicycle propped up against a wall in the village of Saint-Martial-sur-Isop during last weekend’s Fête de la Laine (hence the woolly decorations).

A simple subject framed according to the simple Rule of Thirds.

Category: Composition Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Bicycle, Fete de Laine, Rust, Saint-Martial-sur-Isop, Simple, Simple Things

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 35 – From Above

Posted on May 22, 2017

This week’s theme set by The Girl That Dreams Awake is ‘From Above’. This can often provide an interesting and unusual perspective when compared with the more conventional ‘straight ahead’ view.

This particular example is looking down from a fifth-floor balcony onto a water feature in the foyer of a nautically-themed hotel in Dubai.

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 35 – From Above

Category: Travel Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Dubai, From Above, hotel, Water feature

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 34 – Movement

Posted on May 15, 2017

As they leave smoke trails in the national colours, these six jets of the United Arab Emirates Air Force display team convey a strong sense of movement (trust me, those things can really move) during National Day celebrations in the skies over Abu Dhabi.

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 34 – Movement

Category: Uncategorized Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Abu Dhabi, Air Display, Movement, National Day, Smoke trails, United Arab Emirates

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 33 – Rain(bow)

Posted on May 8, 2017

For this week, the challenge set by The Girl That Dreams Awake is to post a photo with the subject of ‘rain’. I tend not to take photographs while it’s raining, because who needs a waterlogged camera?

However, is it not the case that there’s no rainbow without rain? The clouds in this image certainly look full of it.

This picture was snatched with my iPhone (rainbows wait for no man) and shows a quite impressive rainbow over the house of our neighbour.

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 33 – Rain

Category: Landscape Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Rain Clouds, rainbow

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 32 – Shallow Depth of Field

Posted on May 1, 2017

To my mind, the manipulation of depth of field that is possible with a DSLR camera is one of the most creative aspects of photography. As The Girl That Dreams Awake rightly says in setting this week’s theme, it is most commonly used in macro and portrait photography.

Well, I don’t take many portraits but I do photograph a lot of flowers, where shallow depth of field is particularly effective. This close-up (as opposed to macro) image of a bud about to open was shot at ƒ2.8 – as big an aperture as it gets on that particular lens – in order to throw the background out of focus, providing some pleasing bokeh to complement the subject.

Category: Flowers Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Bokeh, Bud, Depth of field, Flowers, Shallow Depth of Field

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 31 – Empty Space

Posted on April 24, 2017

It’s good to have The Girl That Dreams Awake back and resuming her 52 Weeks Photo Challenge with the theme of ‘Empty Space’.

I do believe that sometimes less is more, and it isn’t always necessary to fill the frame with your subject.

And I particularly enjoy photographing fireworks: like snowflakes, every one is different. Some are best viewed in ‘full frame’, but with some thoughtful cropping a lot of empty space can enhance an image, as in this example.

It’s a rocket that was part of last year’s Fête Nationale display in our local village. However, with a little imagination you could also see it as a picture of a sunrise, taken from outer (and therefore empty) space.