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*
Dark Christmas
Author: andy townend
misty meanderings
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*
random wanderings
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*
summer’s almost (but not quite) gone
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*
out (again) in the midday sun
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…
- There are, of course some (unintended) themes, notably barbed wire, and an impaled coke can which seems to have developed a life of its own.
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*
analogue ghosts
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*
about Christmas…
about christmas
russian shell(s)
ukraine hell(s)
about christmas
freezing cold
forgotten old
about christmas
homeless (not) hopeless
clueless politician, regardless
about christmas
behind closed doors
lie (closed) minds
about christmas
how much, is enough
for you
for them
for us
let's talk... about christmas
exposed
spotted
spirit (me away)
not just for christmas
not the pandemic
do you feel lucky?
palmed off
face off
caged dreams
lack of intimacy
you looking at me?
where are all the little people?
no, on reflection
closed (for christmas)
*images made with Fujifilm X100F with fixed 23mm f/2 lens*
Under these skies…
The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
Images from a well travelled path, each season something different, and yet the song remains the same.
Under these cloud splattered big blue skies, in this place, there is plenty of time (and space) to think.
About what would make things right (because, they aren’t).
Images made with Nikon D850 with AF-S Nikon 14-24mm 1:2.8G ED lens.
macro meanderings
A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in –
what more could he ask?
A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
*All images made with Nikon D700 (well hello again, old friend) and AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens (an old, new friend)*
andy townend 