theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Lens-Artists Challenge: On the move
Posted on November 18, 2025
The Lens-Artists Challenge this week is all about means of transport. Well, here’s a rather unusual one.
This is a very large (look at the human figures) mechanical elephant, which gives rides to visitors in a theme park in the city of Nantes, in western France.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Landscape revisited
Posted on November 10, 2025
This aspect is about a two-minute walk from our house (our hamlet is pretty well surrounded by fields for a least a mile in every direction).
On a bright winter’s day, what made this particular view stand out for me were the strong leading lines provided by the tractor tyre tracks in the mud. With the sun relatively low in the cloudless sky, the reflections in the puddles in the furrows also increased the definition in the scene.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Ephemeral
Posted on November 4, 2025
“The only constant in life is change” – Heraclitus
This week, the challenge is to capture an image of something ephemeral: something here now, but gone probably well before tomorrow. My first thought was clouds: ever-changing, always moving.
My second thought was fireworks. I really enjoy capturing firework displays (feux d’artifice they’re called here) and with a bit of luck it’s possible to get yourself some really arresting images.
However, I decided to stick with my original inspiration. This is a view from the Caen-Portsmouth ferry just before it set sail one early morning in August this year. The clouds will soon roll by and the sea will flow with the changing tides. The view might look the same five minutes later, but in reality it will be different, unique – and transient.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Street details
Posted on October 27, 2025
Benches are a common enough street detail of course, but I’d never encountered one like this before: seen in the Welsh town of Pembroke and appearing to have been a repurposing of some old church pews (restored in 2020, according to the small sign on the left hand side).
Lens-Artists Challenge: Ancient
Posted on October 21, 2025
This towering bastion – all the more imposing for surmounting a rocky outcrop – is to be found in the mightily impressive medieval city of Chauvigny, near Poitiers in the Vienne département of France.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Dreamy
Posted on October 14, 2025
It occurred to me that this would be a suitable image for this week’s Lens-Artists challenge of ‘Dreamy’, largely because I have just referred to a post on my other website: theonlydeadheadinthehameau.wordpress.com.
This is not deliberately out of focus, but it was taken – in the medieval French town of Sarlat – through a window containing some extremely old glass. Very obviously the early glaziers hadn’t quite yet mastered the techniques for making clear glass. Still, it let the light in and kept the weather out, so it marked real progress back then.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Autumn Colours
Posted on October 6, 2025
Well, it’s definitely that time of year again, and apart from the chillier mornings perhaps the most immediately noticeable sign that autumn is upon us is nature’s changing colour palette as the predominant greens steadily turn to reds and browns.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Everyone should see…Petra
Posted on September 30, 2025
For many years, the ‘rose-red city’ of Petra, in Jordan, was right at the top of my bucket list. I finally made it for my 60th birthday.
The main approach to the city is through a narrow path called the ‘Siq’, which runs for about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometres in the new money) between two high and rocky outcrops which, for most of the way, is all you can see. But then you round a slight curve in the path and there is your first glimpse of the Nabatean Treasury. Not something easily forgotten…
Lens-Artists Challenge: Quiet Moment
Posted on September 8, 2025
I took this photo in Dubai, many years ago now. An immigrant worker seizes a – no doubt rare – opportunity to rest and relax, sitting on a bench and removing his sandals, enjoying a quiet moment.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
Posted on September 2, 2025
For this week’s challenge Anne has given us what’s almost carte blanche effectively, with her theme of ‘scavenger hunt’, for which we’re invited to scour our archives (or take a new photo) for something that illustrates any of a long list of potential topics.
As it happens, I only needed to go back to last month for my contribution. This is a close-up of a pile of battered old wooden pallets – which I guess is where the ‘scavenger’ element comes in – that I spotted on the quayside at Scarborough, in Yorkshire.
There’s ‘rectangular’ and ‘bumpy texture’ from her list for starters, although at the time what really attracted me was the pleasing contrast between blue and orange (I haven’t tweaked the colour palette in any way at all).
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