theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Lens-Artists challenge: History Through The Lens
Posted on April 19, 2026
The Lens-Artists challenge this week is ‘history through the lens’.
If I were being pedantic (pedantic? moi? surely not) I could argue that every photograph ever taken is an example of history through the lens, because it captures a moment in time that has already passed into history, even before you get a chance to look at it.
Of course, this isn’t really helpful for the purposes of the challenge. What we’re after is something indisputably old, and preferably crumbling.
But enough about my selfies. Like most photographers, I suspect, I have plenty of images of old buildings in various states of decay and disrepair. However, I wanted to find something a bit different.
This is part of a tableau in a museum set in an old chateau (I forget exactly where, unfortunately). The table is set with furniture and crockery of the interwar years, but what made it stand out for me was the blown-up to life-size old photograph that had been somehow printed onto a cloth sheet to form a backdrop to the scene.
Two particular features worthy of note: the massive wooden clogs worn by the gentleman on the right. And I hope that the other man in the picture is not really who he looks like.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Lucky Shot
Posted on April 14, 2026
It was the famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who coined the expression ‘the decisive moment’, in his seminal book, ‘Images à la Sauvette’, published in 1952. In photographic terms, the decisive moment is that split second when you press the shutter at exactly the right time to elevate an image out of the ordinary. Of course there is a huge degree of skill involved in that, but also an element of luck.
This week’s challenge is to show photographs that were taken in that brief but decisive moment and, unusually for me, I’m posting two images this time.
My first thought on reading the challenge was ‘fireworks’. It’s surely at least 99% luck if you get a truly memorable image from a firework display, and the chances are that you will instead end up with – almost literally – a damp squib. Somehow, though, I managed to nail this one (and quite a few more, as it happened) on New Year’s Eve in Sydney, close to twenty years ago:
Much more recently – only last weekend, in fact – we went to admire some Highland cattle at a nearby village fête. There were two adjacent pens, one containing two bulls and the other holding some cows with their calves. Having snapped (well, ‘pressed’ really nowadays, isn’t it?) away merrily for a while, I was getting ready to leave when the older bull and one of the cows went in for what can only be described as a smooch through the bars that separated them. I guess I was lucky to be there when it happened.
Into The Frame
Posted on April 6, 2026
For this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge we’re asked to display images that have a clear ‘three-dimensional’ structure: foreground, middle ground and background. I suppose that is the two-dimensional equivalent of a beginning, a middle and an end in a piece of fiction.
Anyway, I think this fits the bill. I took this photo on the Sir Bani Yas nature reserve in Abu Dhabi. It was about the time of golden hour but there was too much sand in the air on this day, so the whole world had a very hazy feel to it.
Fortuitously, this lone oryx walked into the frame and a flash of sunlight caught its swishing tail, creating a perfect foreground object. The line of gaff trees provided the middle ground and that mysterious pyramid shape (it’ just a hill) added interest to the background., which would otherwise have been just sand-laden air.
Lens-Artists Challenge: I’m on the phone…
Posted on March 31, 2026
This week’s challenge is to display image(s) captured with a mobile phone rather than a traditional camera. That’s no problem for me as, despite the name of this blog, I no longer own a D800 – or any photographic device other than my trusty iPhone 14 Pro Max.
I gave our dear daughter all my traditional photographic ‘kit’ a couple of years ago: she’s a much better photographer than I am. You can find her work on Facebook and Instagram at NJC Photography. Take a look, then tell me I’m wrong.
In practice, I don’t really miss having a ‘proper’ camera. The iPhone delivers perfectly good images and there are plenty of apps to give it an extra boost if you want to. Plus, it doesn’t weigh a ton.
Anyway, I snapped this in the Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough last summer. If you’re viewing it on a desktop screen, I suggest you lean back in your chair for the best effect, rather than hunch forward. Leaning back just a little emphasises the leading lines formed by the breaking wave at the top of the picture and more detail on the rest of the water.
Either way, you get a human figure with both a reflection and a shadow. What more could you want?
Lens-Artists Challenge: Colour in Monochrome
Posted on March 23, 2026
It’s all there in black and white.
This week’s challenge is to present in a monochrome image something that we absolutely know is actually a specific colour. As Egidio says in his post, reducing an image to grayscale emphasises form and texture which could well be overlooked in ‘natural’ colour.
My example is of a Romanesco, that intriguing cross between a cauiflower and broccoli. We all know it’s bright green in the ‘real’ world, but how much of the symmetry and detail of those characteristic swirls is missed when just seeing that vibrant shade?
Lens-Artists Challenge: Shadowed
Posted on March 2, 2026
There is a path that runs right along the Corniche in Abu Dhabi. It’s not just a path, though (c’mon, this is Abu Dhabi we’re talking about), as interest is added thanks to fountains, underpasses and other features.
Also it being Abu Dhabi, it’s hardly ever cloudy and the sunlight is very strong; consequently, the shadows are well defined. In this section, the high wall is completely in the shade and a strong, dark shadow is cast by a lower wall and something else (I’ve forgotten what it was exactly) to the right. I’ve converted the original image to monochrome to produce this abstract, but definitely shadowed, image.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Juxtaposition
Posted on February 24, 2026
When i saw that this week’s challenge was ‘juxtaposition’, my first thought was of one or more human figures set against part of the colossal ruins of the city of Petra, but as I searched my photo library I happened to come across this one first.
It shows a team of window cleaners carrying out the (almost literally) uphill task of cleaning the exterior of the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. I took it from my own office in that edifice, which was on the 23rd floor. I can’t remember how many floors there were exactly – about 36, I think, so these poor guys still had a way to go, in 40 degrees-plus heat and supported only by an individual safety harness.
Before I retired, at least they were given a safety cradle to use, but it certainly made me resolve never to complain about my own job again.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Unusual Crop
Posted on February 17, 2026
The challenge this week is to crop an image to provide a new slant on the subject. This is one of my favourite parts of the editing process; after all, isn’t it always good at least to try and find a new angle on a subject?
For this exercise, I’ve cropped and rotated the original photo, which is of the exterior of one of the smaller shopping malls in Abu Dhabi, to produce something that is at the same time structured yet almost abstract. For comparison, I’ve also reproduced the out-of-the-camera image below.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Shapes of things
Posted on February 4, 2026
It must be at least twenty years ago that I took this photograph, in the old fort at Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates. However I still recall thinking at the time that it was a very good example of symmetry.
The characteristic roundness of these old jars is mirrored in the circle of cobblestones on which they stood (and, for all I know, still do) and also the low stone wall that is visible behind.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Monochrome minimalism
Posted on January 20, 2026
‘What is it?’ you may ask.
The answer is: raindrops on the bonnet (hood if you prefer) of our car.
Top Posts & Pages
theonlyD800inthehameau 