Turkey is a country full of marvellously photogenic old things ….. from the travertine terraces of Pamukkale
to the ancient ruins of Aphrodisias
and of Ephesus
to more recent old buildings in the abandoned Greek village of Sandima
and thence to its people
Visit Skinnywench’s site to see how other people have interpreted OLD this week
In today’s challenge we want you to grab an image from your world that holds the promise or portent of the future. It could be:
As everyday as the experience of waiting for a bus or train.
As abstract as something that symbolizes your ambitions or hopes for the future.
A note, prayer or promise jotted on a napkin or cross-stitched with exquisite tenderness.
The promise or portent of spring, sunrise, or storm in nature.
A street candid of someone nervously waiting on their date to arrive.
A piano falling from a third storey flat into the oncoming path of an adorable kitten. Or any other action about to take place.
Anything that involves the present and a hint of the future all in one frame.
We spend so much of our lives thinking back, or looking ahead, and even though a photo captures only one moment in time, with a bit of thought it can freeze the process of moving forward, or the promise of things to come. Your challenge this week is to seal one such moment in amber.
I’ve chosen to share some photos taken in Sri Lanka, Bali and Turkey.
Poya or Poya Day is the name given to a Buddhist public holiday in Sri Lanka which occurs every full moon day. Men, women and children flock to the temples to leave offerings of flowers to Buddha.
Every good Buddhist is expected to make the pilgrimage to the temple of the sacred tooth relic in Kandy at least once in their lifetime. The inner sanctum containing this holiest of relics is only opened for 20 minutes twice a day and people queue for hours for a chance to file past and catch a glimpse of the casket which contains it.
Many Asian people believe in the protection provided by the spirit world and Sri Lanka is no exception.
There is a great tradition of mask carving here and many buildings will have a mask of one or other of the spirits fixed somewhere to protect the building and the people living or working inside it. One of the most popular ones is that of the peacock spirit. These are a selection of masks we saw in the mask museum at Ambalangoda.
In Bali it’s hard to avoid stepping on offerings as there as so many of them everwhere. Creating them is considered an artform and they are designed to be as appealing as possible.
when a child reaches the age of 2 a little boat with a flower offering on board is sent out to sea to wish him/her well in the future
carrying baskets of offerings on their heads the people make their way to the temple
In Turkey too, the famous blue and white beads are incorporated into decorations for protection against the evil eye and are displayed in homes and businesses
Jake’s challenge is ‘bay’
Porlock Bay, north Devon, UK
a rainbow over Lynmouth Bay, north Devon, UK
another view of Lynmouth Bay with Countisbury cliffs rising in the background
the bay at Amed, Bali
the idyllic Mango bay on Koh Tao, Thailand
bays in south western Turkey, near Yalikavak
For this week’s challenge, Bonnie invited us to share a piece of photo-art depicting ‘minimalist’ :
The WordPress weekly photo challenge this week invited us to share photos that illustrate the changing of the seasons to us.
The changing of the seasons is marked both by nature and by man in his seasonal celebrations – spring and summer solstices for example, cross-burning, harvest festivals, etc.
this lake in north eastern Thailand is only covered in a floating carpet of pink water lily flowers in January
dawn in February
cross-burning in February in Luxembourg to bid farewell to winter
winter sunsets are vividly coloured
ferns unfurling herald the promise of spring
pussy willow buds appear in March
apple blossom appears in late April
as does pink ornamental cherry blossom
edible cherry blossom in Provence
but in April 2005 we saw snow on the lavender fields in Provence
bluebells appear in late April/May
summer in Provence is represented by ripe cherries
poppies
lavender
and sunflowers
autumn colours in Luxembourg
nature’s bounty
winter in the garden
Jake’s challenge is to share something relating to natural resources. Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its fundamental level.
According to Wikepedia: “The Cascata delle Marmore (Marmore’s Falls) is a man-made waterfall created by the ancient Romans. Its total height is 165 m (541 feet), making it one of the tallest in Europe and the tallest man-made waterfall in the world. Of its 3 sections, the top one is the tallest, at 83 m (272 feet). It is located 7.7 km from Terni, a provincial capital of the Italian region of Umbria.
Its source is a portion of the waters of the river Velino (the rest of the river flows into a hydroelectric power plant), after flowing through Piediluco lake near the community of Marmore. It pours into the valley below formed by the river Nera. Its flow is turned on and off according to a published schedule, to satisfy the needs of tourists and the power company alike. Tourists try to be there the moment the gates are opened to see the powerful rush of water”.
It was obviously a very popular spot with families at the weekend; on the day we visited the falls the car park was soon full and there was standing-room only on the small viewing platform. The water thunders over the ledge and down in the valley far below, sending up plumes of spray with rainbow lights in them.
prickly pear
caper berry bush
yellow courgette flower
bitter gourds – used to cure stomach upsets
This afternoon I joined our local H3 group to go for a run/walk in the countryside near Derekoy in south western Turkey. As I drove along the track towards the rendezvous point I came across three guys taking their camels for a walk
this one decided to take a lunge at me and his handler had a hard time restraining him
It was a lovely sunny day, and still surprisingly warm considering that this is mid-November. The hillsides were covered in purple flowering heather and there were bees and bee hives everywhere.
the bush with the yellow and red fruits on it is a strawberry tree although the fruits don’t taste much like strawberries. Apparently they are somewhat hallucinogenic if you eat too many of them ….
how about this for a “des res” (the house on the skyline)?
at one point we followed the course of the stream
these meadows were the most glorious green colour after the recent rains
we saw lots of these pretty wild cyclamen as well as some minute narcissi whose flower heads were smaller than my thumbnail, apparently there will be more of these in flower next month
Altogether we had a great time, only slightly spoiled by the fact that 3 of our party, myself included, got stung by bees.
Thanks to Magical Mystical Teacher for taking over the baton and organising a new SOOC site
I’ve been following Kim Klassen’s Beyond Layers class and this week she asked if we were “makers” or “takers” of photos. “Makers” are those who create their own still life compositions, then take photographs of them and alter them and “Takers” go out and take photographs. I’m definitely a taker; I don’t think I’ve made more than a couple of still life compositions in my whole photographic life. Coincidentally this week Bonnie challenged us to share a ‘digitally manipulated still life’ (as opposed to simply a still life photograph), so this was quite difficult for me. As luck as would have it, I’d taken a series a photos last month of a still life I’d come across in a hotel garden.
I superimposed 2 of the photos in Picasa and then opened the combined image in PSE10. I experimented with several different filters, keeping each result on a different layer. Then I merged them all together and got this as a final result.
Ailsa’s travel themed challenge this week is “couples”. Here are some of my couples:
camels and their handlers at the camel wrestling in Turkey
one man and his dog
one man and his water buffalo take an evening stroll along the beach in Koh Samui, Thailand
at the Jurong bird park in Singapore
pink dolphins at the aquarium in Singapore
a couple of white flowers – if anyone knows what they are I’d love to know – they also come in red and pink and, I think, are eaten as a vegetable in Thailand
I’ve just been introduced to a new weekly photography challenge blog. The challenge this week was to illustrate our favourite spot. I have several favourite spots:
our garden
the back garden at my parents’ house, this garden has been part of my life since I was 3 months old
the village of Lynmouth in North Devon (UK) where my family has holiday’d for 40 years
my favourite beach on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand
