winter landscapes

Happy Christmas

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas and I hope that 2017 will bring you health and happiness.
My wish for the world is that there be peace.

Sally Ds mobile photography challenge: challengers choice

 

In case you hadn’t guessed, my challenger’s choice is “architecture”. The following 3 photos were taken with the iphone 6+ in camera app and were edited using various settings in the Enlight app. This app produces some great abstract effects.

 

Bellapais abbey, Northern Cyprus

Bath abbey, UK

a chapel in Clifton, Bristol, UK

 

take a peek at other challenger’s choices

I have walked in sacred places

photo composition by me

I have walked in sacred places
Seen colours never seen
Awake have dreamed of mysteries
Of things that ne’r have been
In trees heard music never writ
Of chords that are unknown
In those hidden sacred spaces
Where I journey all alone

Last night my life was woven
Within that sacred knot
Of ages past, forgotten mists
Of nature’s sacred lot
As the mysteries of life unfold
A tie that has no end
Enlightened by that mystic light
Of mysteries veil to rend

On darkest moor, high stones stand
My spirit is set free
As they speak to me of ages past
Touchstones of eternity
They rise upon those mystic lands
If only we might see
That in each secret stone is hid
A gift of nature’s memory.

To stand in dreams on hill top high
To soar above on eagle’s wings
Where visions are no longer hid
And spirits soar as nature sings
Above those lesser things of life
Above its woes and care
As dreams and visions are fulfilled
As we at one with nature share.

As lightning rends the sky at night
And thunder roars in angry swell
As nature groans in agony
Its song of loss – a tale to tell
Within such wondrous beauty there
Where stars are hidden from our sight
The seeds of dawn are gently sown
To bring new beauty with dawn’s light.

To gaze into life’s deep, dark wells
As though into the deepest grave
Of shadows cold – life’s blackest seam
Where hope seems lost – no hope to save
But from within those darkest deeps
New life springs forth in sweetest span
And flows to quench the longing thirst
That dwells within the soul of man.

Or stand beside a river clear
And gaze in wonder as it flows
A myriad of crystal lights
As to its journey’s end it goes
To hear in nature’s gentle breeze
As willows sing in harmony
As nature’s healing gently flows
If only we would hear and see.

Words by © Les Cruttenden, from Insights into Meditation

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: editing a photo with apps

There is something intensely appealing to me about abandoned buildings. Apart from the fact that I find beauty in decay there are always unanswerable questions – who lived there, what were their lives like, what inspired them to build the building and why in this particular place?

The original photo was converted to a watercolour image

the same original photo was converted to a pencil sketch

the two resulting images were then combined

and given a different colour cast

This was the original photo

this is a larger view of the same building – unifinished – I suspect it was going to be a hotel and the owners simply ran out of money to complete the project

Which one do you prefer?

Inspired by Sally Donatello

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: challengee’s choice

We’ve been on our travels again recently so I have plenty of images to choose from for this week’s challenge. For the fourth Monday in the month the challengee (a word I’ve invented to describe the person responding to the challenge) can choose the theme. As Sally has just added a new category – photomontage – I’ve decided to run with that.

This is a very simple one, with the two images blended using the Superimpose app and I reduced the opacity so that more of the flowers is revealed than the wooden texture which forms the background.

Sharing with Sally D

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: black and white

Although I have been a subscriber to Sally D’s blog for some time now, this my first entry for Sally D’s mobile photography challenge

taken with Iphone 6S+ native camera app and edited in Snapseed

thistles in Provence

one word photo challenge: cat

Are you an ailurophile or ‘phobe (in other words cat lover or cat hater/fearer)? I’ve been a cat lover all my life and my parents gave me my first cat when I was 5 years old and I’ve had one, on and off, ever since.

Scampi

Milo

Buttons

view other people’s interpretations of the theme “cat” here.

Cee’s black and white challenge: flowers

Photos of flowers lend themselves particularly well to being converted to black and white. These are hollyhocks, photographed in the seaside village of Talmont, in the Gironde, France. The village is tiny, blessed with a church that almost has its foundations in the sea and has what must be the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever come across.

shared with Cee and other lovers of black and white photography

I’ve been published!

At the beginning of June 2015 I took part in the 5th annual Exposure competition. Much to my surprise and delight one of my images was chosen to feature in a special exhibition of digital art in the Louvre on 13th July in the Art Photography Collection. If you scroll down to my image and then click on it you can then see the other images I submitted.

That photograph has now been included in the book that has been produced to celebrate this year’s competition, my image is on page 27. The book will soon go on sale to the general public and net proceeds from the sales will go to the charity Pencils of Promise.

Until 26 August 2015 the book will be on sale at the disounted price of $53, after which the price will be increased to $78.