Posted on February 18, 2016
Weather has come around again for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge. Last time I put up a picture of freezing fog close to home, but on this occasion here is an image taken on the other side of the world, in the Hunter Valley in Australia.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Weather
Category: Black & White Tagged: Australia, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Clouds, Hunter Valley, Rain Clouds, Storm clouds
Posted on February 11, 2016
These Shetland ponies used to be found in a field about a quarter of a mile from our place. The snow (it was a couple of years ago) lends itself well to the monochrome version.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Pets
Category: Black & White Tagged: Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Pets, Ponies, Shetland Pony, Snow
Posted on February 4, 2016
Never having been one for sharing pictures of my dinner with the world (what exactly is Instagram anyway?), Cee’s chosen subject for this week of ‘Food’ had me stumped initially, notwithstanding that over on my other blog I had recently posted a picture of my take on a deconstructed curry.
But then it occurred to me that it didn’t have to be food for humans, so here’s a close-up of a giraffe grazing on whatever it is that giraffes eat.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Food
Category: Black & White Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Feeding Time, Food, Giraffe, Sir Bani Yas
Posted on January 28, 2016
This photograph is a crop from a photograph I took from a bateau-mouche cruising down the River Seine in Paris and is of the underside of a bridge. It seems to fulfil the ‘lines and angles’ requirement of Cee’s challenge for this week.
It’s an interesting optical illusion that, although the image is a perfect rectangle the right vertical looks longer than the left.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines and Angles
Category: Black & White Tagged: Architecture, Black & White, Bridge, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Lines & Angles, Paris, Seine
Posted on January 21, 2016
Cee’s Black & White challenge this week is anything that begins with the letter ‘S’. So how about the spiral steeple of St Saviour’s church in the town of Rochechouart? Shown against the sky.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: the letter ‘S’
Category: Black & White Tagged: Architecture, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Church, France, Rochechouart, twisted steeple
Posted on January 14, 2016
For this week’s subject of ‘Lights’, here is a traditional lantern that hangs over the terrace of the Royal Villa (boy, was that ever a free upgrade) at the Sir Baniyas Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The shadow is a bonus.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lights
Category: Black & White Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Lantern, Lights, Sir Bani Yas
Posted on January 8, 2016
The headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are in a building comprising two towers, about 35 storeys high, linked by a spectacular atrium. Here is a detail (sorry Cee, not the whole thing):

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Buildings
Category: Black & White Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Architecture, Black & White, Buildings, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge
Posted on January 1, 2016
This week’s Black & White Photo Challenge from Cee is for ‘Any kind of bricks or stone walls, roads or walkways’.
All present and correct in this image, taken in the village of Saint-Emilion, one of the centres of wine-making in France’s Bordeaux region.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Bricks etc.
Category: Black & White Tagged: Architecture, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, France, Roads, Saint-Emilion, Walls
Posted on January 1, 2016
For the January One Photo Focus we were given this image by Laura Macky of Laura Macky Photography

It’s an excellent photograph as it stands: a well-composed image of an interesting subject. There seemed little to be gained from tweaking details like saturation; that would be more likely to detract than to enhance. So I decided to take just a part of the whole and turn it into something different.
The angle at which the boat is beached provided some interesting diagonals in the superstructure, so I cropped tightly into the subject itself. Although I like the colours in the original, I felt that it would also work well in black and white. A bit of work on the sliders brought out more detail in the peeling paintwork, giving it a more ‘weatherbeaten’ look.

Category: Before & After, Black & White Tagged: ABFriday, Before and After, Black & White, boats, Editing, One Photo Focus, Texture, weatherbeaten
Posted on December 20, 2015
Where we live is quite close to the geographical centre of mainland France (l’hexagone), so not surprisingly the skies above us are quite busy with planes flying to or from faraway places – sometimes to quite dramatic effect:

Fortunately, they are at high altitude when they pass over, so we can’t hear them
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Faraway
Category: Black & White Tagged: aeroplanrs, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Faraway, Skyscapes, Vapour trails