Posted on February 18, 2024
This is the organ of the massive cathedral in the city of Albi, in southern France. The human figures give an idea of the scale. I can only imagine the sound of it filling that enormous space.

Category: Uncategorized Tagged: Albi, Albi cathedral, Lens-Artists, organ, sound
Posted on February 6, 2024
Photographing fireworks is always a bit of a lucky dip (basically, press the shutter and hope), but sometimes the results can look spectacular. I wouldn’t pretend that this image – captured at a National Day celebration in our local village a few years ago – was especially outstanding, but it certainly meets the brief of warm colours for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Warm Colours
Category: Abstract Tagged: Fireworks, Lens-Artists, Orange, Warm Colors
Posted on January 28, 2024
I took this photo in Australia’s Hunter Valley as storm clouds gathered. It wasn’t shot in black & white and nor have I converted it to monochrome.
It was actually mid-afternoon, but as those menacing clouds rolled in, they had the effect of turning day into night.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Day and night
Category: Black & White, Landscape Tagged: Australia, Clouds, cloudscape, Hunter Valley, Lens-Artists, Storm clouds
Posted on January 21, 2024
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,…

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn
One of my favourite poems by one of my favourite poets, John Keats. The entire poem consists of five stanzas of ten lines each and is well worth reading in its entirety.
The urn in the image is an authentic museum copy.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Illustrate A Favourite Poem
Category: Uncategorized Tagged: Grecian urn, Lens-Artists, Ode on a Grecian Urn, poetry
Posted on January 15, 2024
The stark Hajar Mountains form a dramatic backdrop to the mountain town of Hatta, in the emirate of Dubai but well away from the city.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Dramatic
Category: Landscape, Travel Tagged: dramatic, Dubai, Hajar Mountains, Hatta, Lens-Artists
Posted on January 7, 2024
The first Lens-Artists challenge of 2024 is to select some favourite images from 2023.
Madame and I visited the city of Albi in October last year and I took rather a lot of photos, partly because it is a very photogenic place but also because I wanted to put the camera of my (relatively) new smartphone – an iPhone 14 Pro Max – through its paces.
I’ve already featured quite a few of the pictures I took on this blog, but not this one before. It was taken in one of the stunningly decorated rooms of the Henri Toulouse-Lautrec museum and features yours truly being unable to resist the slight ‘weirdness’ of the reflections in the large mirror over the fireplace.
You could call it ‘portrait of the artist completely out of his depth’.

Lens-Artists Challenge 6 January 2024
Category: Composition Tagged: Albi, Lens-Artists, Mirror, Reflections, selfies, Toulouse-Lautrec
Posted on December 18, 2023
Since I’m fairly new to the Lens-Artists Challenge, finding an image that I haven’t already used for it this year wasn’t really a problem. In fact, I haven’t posted this image anywhere before, although since I took it in August I’ve been itching for an excuse to put it in a post.
It was taken at a kiddies’ playground near my son’s home in Oxfordshire. Our two-year old grand-daughter gets taken there quite often. so will definitely have crawled through this tunnel many times.

Lens-Artists Challenge #280 – Last Chance
Category: Composition Tagged: Colour, Colourful, last chance, Lens-Artists, playground, tunnel
Posted on December 12, 2023
This is a view of the pond that lies in the middle of our little hamlet. By the way, the reflection is at the top of the image. And that’s magic.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Magical
Category: Landscape Tagged: France, Lens-Artists, Magical, Reflections, Rural, Water
Posted on December 3, 2023
Clouds are like snowflakes: no two are ever the same.
This one was floating above The Corniche in Abu Dhabi when I snapped it from the terrace of our apartment as the sun went down. Until I pulled it out of my files for this challenge, I’d never even noticed the aeroplane. I guess that makes this particular scene really unique.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Unique
Category: Uncategorized Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Clouds, cloudscape, Lens-Artists, Unique
Posted on November 27, 2023
The Emirate of Dubai isn’t just the city itself – that’s probably the least attractive part of it – but quite a lot of empty desert and mountainous terrain, like this at the old Hatta Fort Hotel.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Empty Spaces
Category: Landscape Tagged: bush, Desert, Empty Space, Hatta, Lens-Artists, Night, Rocks