A fairly perfect sky, all things considered… somewhere on Palawan island, May 2016, the Philippines….
Skywatch Friday: 3/6/16…
Tag Archives: photography
Travel theme: Neutral
After a little break, joining back into Ailsa’s travel theme for this week’s theme of Neutral.
My location in the Middle East is perfect for neutrality. Outside of the city, the hues of the country are neutral , but with their own tints and in my quest for seashore life of this region, shots of interesting underwater life blend into a neutral hue…
One of the sand lizards whose home is in the vast desert…
Wetland rushes…
Footprints in the sand… probably flamingo but I could be wrong…
Five point starfish in the inter-tidal zone…
Before sunset, in the desert..shadows creating neutrality…
A Carpet Anemone, underwater at low tide…
“Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 27 – ‘Vintage’
Hugh asks us to share our representation in photographs for “Vintage” this week.
Vintage can describe something old or old-fashioned.
Vintage adjective (HIGH QUALITY)
” of high quality and lasting value, or showing the best and most typical characteristics of a particular type of thing, especially from the past”
My photo’s selected for the theme below, a small capsule of vintage Britain seen through my eyes on a whistle-stop tour….
Bristol, home to the SS Great Britain, a monument to 19th-century engineering. Isambard Kingdom Brunel rejected using conventional paddle wheels to drive his iron ship. Instead, he gave the SS Great Britain a screw propeller…vintage engineering from circa 1842….
Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, now in its 64th year of West End Theatre performances, qualifies as vintage….
Christine Keeler, the iconic beauty from the 1960’s whose sultry allure caused the downfall of eminent men in London society and government. Photographed by Lewis Morley in June 1963 , a vintage silver gelatin print, on display at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
So, come on, who remembers these buses, I mean the green ones if you didn’t live in London! If you recall skipping up onto the platform, paying the conductor with his wind up ticket machine slung around his neck, scooting up to the back seat on the upper deck, well, you get to qualify as vintage too, be it a green or red bus!
The Penny-farthing was the first machine to be called a bicycle… definitely a vintage mode of transport. also known as “The Bone-Shaker”, for reasons which are probably fairly obvious…
A vintage example of the water-closet or modern day toilet, originally invented by Sir John Harrington at the time of Queen Elizabeth the first and not, as widely believed by Thomas Crapper…
Sir Winston Churchill, portrayed in bronze at the National Portrait Gallery, London. A vintage statesman….
Soho, vintage style. I couldn’t resist adding this picture of an older gentleman making his dapper way along the street, the purple suit is just so eccentrically British, wonderful….
Pietro Annigoni’s serene 1969 portrait of Queen Elizabeth, now a vintage nonagenarian…..
Thursday Doors: The Bloomsbury Hotel
This week, a floral extravaganza around the entrance doors of the Bloomsbury Hotel, Great Russell Street, London. Continue reading
Weekly Photo Challenge: Spare
Travelling across the desert in the Al Gharbia western region of the UAE, from White Sands to Liwa, the landscape is almost devoid of life. Occasionally small bushes break through the sand, a welcome sight contrasting to the ochre hues in this spare landscape. Not too many camels this far out into the desert either, but I did find a mother and baby….
Skywatch Friday: 27th May 2016
After storms,on the east coast UAE….
Linking with Skywatch Friday, head on over to see some sky!
Wordless Wednesday…
Monday Window: From a window, reflections….
Early morning in May in Dubai, from my window, the rising sun reflects off one building’s windows on the trunk of the artificial islands of Palm Jumeirah. Continue reading
Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant
Jubilant:adjective
1.showing great joy, satisfaction, or triumph; rejoicing; exultant:
High in the sky… plenty of reasons to feel jubilant…
Skywatch Friday: 20th May 2016
Linking with Skywatch Friday , drop in to see some sky!
Thursday Doors: In Jaffna….
Jaffna, capital of the Northern province of Sri Lanka, has been a contested city since 1619. The more recent civil war was not considered as ending until 2009.
Visiting in July 2015, it’s obvious the rebuilding of the ravaged region is still continuing and will for a long time. Not a top of most people’s list as a tourist destination to visit, but as always somewhere off the beaten track lures me into its web. Continue reading
Wordless Wednesday….
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 26 – ‘Distance’
Joining back into Hugh’s weekly photo challenge after a couple of months of blogging courses and April’s A to Z challenge.
This month Hugh asks us to consider distance, focusing on an object in the distance or a scene from a distance which shows up really well in a photo.
Resisting posting yet more pictures of the iconic Dubai buildings which are the ultimate distance shots in this region, I chose instead some aerial photos, taken over Java on the flight to the island of Lombok.
My focus is on the distance scene, the patchwork of colour created by farming, irrigation, bright roofs of houses and the linear abstraction from the air.
Lastly, the striking gold mosque amidst the patchwork conurbation of Mataram, the capital of the province of West Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Barat). The province is administered from the provincial capital of Mataram in West Lombok.
Want to join the fun? Here’s what you need to do.
1. Take or choose a photo that you’ve taken which defines Distance.
2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 26 – ‘Distance’
3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to the post and tell us a little about what you are showing.
4. Create a pingback to Hugh’s post or leave a link to your post in the comments section on Hugh’s page so other participants can view the post.
Monday Window: Jumeirah Mosque
Jumeirah mosque was opened in 1979 when Dubai was a much smaller place than it is now. Built in white stone, the architecture is of the medieval Fatimid tradition (909-1171 AD). Continue reading
Garden Photography Challenge: May: Wild flowers
May’s theme is indeed a challenge. I have no garden in the Middle East and this arid region produces few wildflowers.
Trying to stay close to my present home in the Middle East for this month’s wildflower challenge, I’ve found one wildflower in 4 years! The Desert hyacinth or Orobanchacea (Broomrapes): Cistanche tubulosa. I’ve found this in wetlands and on the dune line behind the seashore, always growing in sand. Continue reading
Skywatch Friday: Above the Western Ghats, India…
Just before sunset, getting dark on the ground under the clouds, but up in the air, the clouds are highlighted by the sun’s last strength….
Linking to Skywatch Friday…. head on over and check out the sky….
Thursday Doors: Doors and more….
One of my favourite weekly challenges is Thursday doors. Since joining in this quirky challenge and one or two others, I find I have become so much more aware of my surroundings from a feature viewpoint. Continue reading
Wordless Wednesday….
Monday Window: Philippines windows or not….
Palawan island in the Philippines, referred to as the last frontier, for a variety of reasons. A new island for me, with some very different windows….
Palawan officially the Province of Palawan, is an island province of the Philippines that is located in the Mimaropa region. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, but it is governed independently from the province.
The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island , measuring 450 kilometres long, and 50 kilometres wide.
Bamboo is the construction basis for all housebuilding outside main towns. Palm fronds are also put into use too. Shops selling every conceivable part of bamboo, from stems to woven panels line the road outside Puerto Princesa. Tricycles and jeepneys laden with bamboo and palm fronds were not an uncommon sight.
The climate is hot and humid. In small remote settlements, electricity is not part of everyday life, fans and air-conditioning seem a luxury confined to towns, so window openings are a necessity rather than a design function.
I checked the Oxford dictionary for window definition whilst writing this post as I’m not sure some of these “windows” can be defined as windows.
An opening in the wall or roof of a building or vehicle, fitted with glass in a frame to admit light or air and allow people to see out.
You can decide for yourself….
Palm fronds on the ubitiquous jeepney…. interesting window too…not much line of sight….
Ingenious transportation of bamboo…. this is a motorbike with a tricycle conversion, used as a taxi and family transport…a motorbike with windows…
Fancy bamboo fretwork for privacy and decoration….
It is rare to see glass used in windows outside a town…
Bamboo decoration used for air and light….
A remote church in a jungle settlement, the windows were the only windows with glass for many a mile………
A jeepney stop, fretwork decoration and election posters decorating these “windows”….
Just a piece of bamboo to close the window at night….
No windows at all , just a makeshift baby gate to stop this little one wandering…..
Window frames and curtains only….
A roadside church on the Southern highway, colourful and with windows….
The Bamboo Bar at Honda Bay, stylish bamboo windows…
Beautiful eyes through a window…..
Come and join into Monday Window blogging… find some windows every week….
Weekly Photo challenge: Earth…
Colours of our Earth… layers of soil, undergrowth, tree trunks and foliage up to the intense sunlight…. taken from a moving jeep in the jungle using Slow Shutter app on Iphone6 and Snapseed for editing…
Earth
Daily Post : Beach
I try to spend as much of my free time on beaches, not sunbathing , but walking along the beach shore searching for shells and looking at the aquatic life that inhabits this zone.I wrote my April 2016 A to Z challenge around the sea shores of UAE and Oman.
Yesterday I spent time on a beach which I can only describe as magnificent.
View from the beach….
A beach on one of the islands in Honda Bay, Palawan, The Philippines. No other people on this beach. A mile of snaking beach, full of sea biscuits, jellyfish and starfish. Flat calm, aqua water lines the beach, a 2-hour walk on the beach, to the end and back. Bliss on the beach, a memory to treasure….
My boat to the beach….
Starfish on the beach….
Reflections from the beach….
A to Z Challenge: Y is for Yellow shells….
There are not that many Yellow shells around the Arabian coastline but I have found most of them! Continue reading
Wordless Wednesday…..
Monday Window: Blue Souk, Sharjah…
I found a plethora of windows at the Blue Souk, Sharjah, UAE on Saturday, so for once my post has more than one window! I think you will like them, the Islamic style of the Souk is eye-catching with the beautiful blue sky above, setting off the tiles and architecture perfectly. Continue reading
Weekly Photo Challenge: Abstract #2
A to Z challenge: S is for Starfish…
Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or “basket stars”. Continue reading
Skywatch Friday: UAE, an eastern region sunset…
Linking with Skywatch Friday.. join in the sky fun and check out the other posts…
Garden Challenge : April: Macros in the Garden
Home for a long weekend in Cyprus, I can finally enter into this month’s challenge. Colour everywhere in my garden, a chance to experiment with my Nikon and a Moment macro lens for iPhone 6. Sadly no tripod, I had to have a steady hand…. Continue reading
Day Twenty: Triumph & Contrast
The Burj Khalifa, at 828 metres high is currently the tallest building in the world and the Burj Al Arab, the first seven-star hotel, are two of the triumph’s of Dubai. Here are some contrasts… Continue reading
Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation, Part 2
Arriving home very late, after a late end of quarter night at work and losing my entire Photo program due to a massive crash, but having already posted today’s assignment via my phone ( I was fairly proud of this achievement, WordPress on iPhone takes a bit of getting used to, but once on track it’s relatively simple, but it was a first!) I managed to restore my photo program and can post my original double thought for this assignment…. Continue reading
Travels in the Middle East and beyond 