Now get this
London calling, yes, I was there too
And you know what they said? Well some of it was true
London calling at the top of the dial
And after all this, won’t you give me a smile?Lyrics from London Calling, The Clash
Expect more to come.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a New Year full of joy, light and love.
*all images made with fujifilm x100f*
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*
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more― Lord Byron
Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light
― John Milton, Paradise Lost
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house
– Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks
Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with that there is.
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
And now we welcome the new year
full of things that have never been
― Rainer Maria Rilke
New trees, new hope, a pair of robins, a family of blackbirds and assorted wagtails have made their new home amidst the olive grove (well, there are now two such trees). Nature has shown that even a brief respite from the toxic side products of human endeavour pays (green) dividends.
Let’s hope ‘we the people’ can now renew and heal as we transition to a new year, working together to heal differences and put aside toxic divisions.
(newly planted) olive tree: 1/200s, f/8.0, ISO 64
(newly planted) magnolia: 1/200s, f8.0, ISO 64
(precocious) prunus: 1/200s f/8.0, ISO 64
(ready for new residents) White House 1/200s f/8.0, ISO 64
*All images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E VR lens with limited edits in Lightroom*
It comes to this: like all of us who have not yet died of plague he fully realizes that his freedom and his life may be snatched from him at any moment”
―
The streets of Salamanca stay muted as Covid-19 shows little sign of receding – although even in the darkest shadows light can be found.
A brief snapshot of the streets of Salamanca in September as the summer slides slowly towards the autumn. The outcome of my latest experimentation with the settings on my Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 E VR lens.
More to follow.
Wherever you are, stay safe and look for the light in the shadows…
*Images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 E VR lens*
So I took my guitar And I threw down some chords And some words I could sing without shame And I soon had a song I played it around For some friends but they all said the same They said music’s for fools You should go back to school The future is prisons and math […]
andy townend 