Mist on the river

The Vienne river flows over the weir on a misty morning in the town of Chabanais.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Flowing water

Glass of wine, anyone?

Shine a light through a glass of red wine and some of the effects can be quite pleasing.

(Same goes for drinkng it.)

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Liquid Drinks

Prelude to Prizegiving

These rows of plastic chairs were set out for the prize-giving ceremony at the Doué La Fontaine roses festival. We didn’t stay for that, but as the proceedings were scheduled to start during France’s World Cup semi-final match, I suspect that quite a few of them stayed empty.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Chairs

The Inquisitive Giraffe

This week, Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge has the subject of ‘Tongues and Tails’. This is something I would definitely think twice about googling while in mixed company.

Anyway….in the game reserve on Sir Bani Yas island in Abu Dhabi it certainly used to be possible to be driven through the giraffe compound and feed the locals through the open window of your SUV, as illustrated here. You can just about see the giraffe’s tongue, which in real life is actually blue.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Tongues & Tails

The condemned staircase

This is a view of the staircase that was in our house just after we bought it.  Originally, it was boxed in, which made the room – which is north-facing – even darker. However, Madame (with no little relish, it must be said) took a jemmy to it and exposed the original. It had to go however, as it was dangerously rickety.

Nonetheless it is a set of steps to meet this week’s challenge theme and, particularly in monochrome, the strong diagonals make for an interesting image.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Steps

Get your bicycles here

Like many towns and cities across the world, Nantes operates a ‘bicycle-borrowing’ scheme, whereby it is possible to take a bicycle from a rack provided by the local authorities and ride it around town, returning it to any other bike rack.

Cee’s Black & White Challenge this week is ‘things made from plastic’. As are the rear mudguards of these public bicycles, seen here lined up just outside the cathedral. In real life they are a very distinctive bright orange, although the monotone conversion allows the viewer to focus on the composition of the image.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Anything made from plastic

Angry Birds

When my children were growing up in Scotland, a trip to the town of Linlithgow, just outside Edinburgh, was a common excursion, one of the highlights of which was to go and feed the birds – ducks, swans and gulls – on the lake next to the ruined palace (birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots).

I can attest from a recent visit that the birds are still there, just as greedy and just as short-tempered when you have nothing to offer them.

(Yes, I know it’s blurred, but you try keeping your camera steady while you’re being dive-bombed by irate, hungry seagulls. Besides, I think it works; it certainly gives a sense of motion.)

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In Flight

The stairwell

Viewed from the ground floor, this staircase – in an old hotel in Paris – becomes an abstract composition of circles and curves.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Circles and Curves

Stillness

Another image – this time in monochrome as a response to Cee’s latest Black & White Photo Challenge on the subject of ‘trees’ – from a preternaturally still and sunny day in the town of Chabanais.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Trees

The clogmaker

Less than a hundred years ago, the standard footwear of rural France was the wooden clog (part of our house used to be the local clogmaker’s workshop). Today, though, traditional clog-making is only seen at expositions of years gone by – as in this example, seen at the Christmas Fair in nearby Lesterps.

 

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: People at work