“What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms”
― Kobayashi Issa, Poems
A follow up to my last post featuring more photos captured during a walk along the banks of the river Tormes in Salamanca…
*All images with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED VR lens, and some glorious February sunshine!*
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
– Emily Dickinson
Taking advantage of some mid February sunshine I took a walk yesterday from the centre of Salamanca along the banks of the Tormes river to the Isla del Soto, these images are from the start of that walk and feature some of the beautiful architecture of Salamanca, the golden stone and the cigüeñas that seem to make every rooftop their own. More images from the banks of the river to follow…
room with a view, open plan accommodation for two to three families…
domes and antenna mast (those who know my history may recall my ‘thing’ about TV distribution…)
dark thoughts…
homecoming…
x marks the spot…
penthouse suite…
caught on the balcony…
you lookin’ at me?
stoned…
are you sitting comfortably? (note – this is through the locked gates of an interesting museum to which I will return…)
dome (and this time) dishes…
imposing…
hidden…
*All images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED VR lens, and some glorious February sunshine!*
dancin' and prancin' in jingle bell square in the frosty air giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet - lyrics from jingle bell rock, tarja
the incredible shrunken man…
…catch a falling star
choices…
…standing man
…cervantes
imposition…
…got my eyes on you
pa-e-lla…
shelling out for christmas…
…pointing man
reach for the sky
cherche la grenouille
rapunzel’s bad hair day
hemmed in
men in hats (lazy)
another imposition
I spy an eye
framed
ho ho, ho
now, let’s go over that again…
crossed out
christmas cell
jingle bell rock
…the morning after
*all images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 35mm f1.4 G lens, plus a dash of humour*
cold earth sleeps
underneath a flaming northern sky
the snowy trees gently weep
– dark christmas, tarja
*…images made with Nikon D850 and AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8 lens*
Flowers scattering –
The water we thirst for
Far off, in the mist– Kobayashi Issa
*images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikon 35mm 1.4G lens*
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in
― Robert Frost
(Sometimes)
This city is where I live, as to where my home is, that’s a moot point.
Random shots on a cold autumnal day in Salamanca.
A practice shoot for a portfolio I am planning, over on salamancastreets.
*All images made with Nikon D700 and Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G lens – a blast from the past*
Give me a land of boughs in leaf
A land of trees that stand
Where trees are fallen there is grief
I love no leafless land
― A.E. Housman
At this time of year, I tend to drop my vinyl copy of The Doors’ Waiting for The Sun on the platter and listen to Summer’s Almost Gone.
It is 7 October, after all.
Except, on this specific 7 October, it was 31C, in the afternoon. Not particularly autumnal.
There are some signs, in the photos (below), of the change in season. Some.
In other news, I have signed up for NaNoWriMo, so, from 1 November, and until 30 November, I will be attempting to write 50,000 words, and hoping at least some of them will make sense we will see what we will see…
If you are interested, I have tried writing here before…
Musings, very sporadically, out in the midday sun.
Random thoughts (or poems if you stretch a point) from lockdown in Accra in April 2020, am thinking of publishing these.
My first sustained attempt to write anything, Dark Side Thursday.
WordPress Writing 101 back in April 2015.
Be seeing you…
*Images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED lens*
You always own the option of having no opinion.
There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control.
These things are not asking to be judged by you.
Leave them alone– Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
It has been a long time since I posted here actively, or at all, and I do keep promising to remedy that.
For several years these pages, and others, have sustained and inspired me through difficult times.
So, with no promises, I’m back for a moment, perhaps longer.
The images which follow were captured on a walk on Saturday, 30 September. The skies were a deep blue, the temperature was around 33C and some, who saw my related posts on Facebook, asked where I was. The answer was not Australia, or somewhere in Africa, as some reasonably surmised. No, I was a short walk away from home in the province of Salamanca, on the last day in September. The dusty red paths a testament to the reality of climate change.
There is no particular theme or message in my photos.
They are simply what caught me attention (again) on a well trodden path…
It is good to write and shoot again.
*all images made with my fujifilm x100f and its fixed 23mm f/2 lens, minimally edited in Lightroom with Fujifilm’s luscious velvia profile*
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again
*first (experimental) set of images made with Nikon F5 loaded with (very old) Ilford XP2 400 film, digitised with Nikon D850 and ES-2*
andy townend 