Tungsten

Once again, it's been awhile. I'm hoping to have some new images to upload soon, and hopefully I'll be able to be a bit more regular in updating. Sorry it's been so patchy!

Salted

A beautifully patchy sky. Broken.

Warehouse

Dark, Dank, Deserted.

But full of beauty, under the tungsten and lunar light.

And by the sign of the setting sun

I'm back. Sorry to be away for quite so long, I was both low on photographs and inspiration. Comments always welcome!

The View From On High

As anyone who has been trekking or hiking in the mountains, reaching a peak is a beautiful, satisfying experience. Whilst this peak wasn't the highest around, the view across the valley was stunning. It's extraordinary what a different perception of the world one gets when you take some time to climb to a level different from that which we are used to.

Fraternité

It's great how sometimes, when you start taking photos, the images just form for you. After I'd shot this one, the excitement of the kids was extraordinary: it's amazing how special your run-of-the-mill LCD screen showing their picture, can be to a child who five minutes earlier was being hit with a whip by a teacher during their outdoor lesson.

We may be distant cousins, but we all have a brotherliness which distance and development can never, ever deny.

Mariposa Jardínal

One of a pair, sadly only this one 'posed' long enough for a good shot.

Summer is with us, beautiful it is.

Water

Iodine water is a refined taste, and yet one which is somewhat addictive. Sadly for millions of people, still without clean water in the developing world, even Iodine is a luxury. For more information, and to help get clean water to people across the world, see the WaterAid website.

All Hooked Up

Telecommunications are a phenomenal thing. Telephone lines in India are quite another. But somehow, I find, they have some appeal; within these densely-packed wires are people's lives being borne out in delicate detail. When I was in India, connections with home were few and far between, but being able to sit and make a call in one of the 'ISD' phone booths was a lovely feeling, even if it cost 50 rupees a minute.

Luminous Times

Just hanging in the sky. A follow-up to my earlier post on the moon and taking photos of it: this one was easier because of the greater light available to me, by taking it earlier in the evening.

Still annoyingly difficult!

The Village

Taken at the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Academy: Two alternative villages, each with their own distinct community... For more politics see Potwalloper.

Moon Shadow

Moonlight casting its rays over fields nearby. Nothing like the moon pics over here though:
Creative Lens Photography: You've Been Mooned

Beautiful.

Night Light

Human Rights Day

Time to get political.

20,000 or more dead in China, ten times that in Burma. Whilst the cameras are allowed in China, keeping up the appearances of a good, humanitarian government (mostly in anticipation of the Olympics, don't forget!) We must not forget the people of Burma.

This is the country which has seen its military junta dominate political life for the past 60 years, disavow its pledges on democracy (repeatedly jailing democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi who remains under house arrest to this day) and even taking the disappointing move of pushing through its unjust referendum on 'democracy' literally days after Cyclone Nargis struck.

Disappointing.

So, don't forget Burma, even though, already, it is fast disappearing from the television news.

Incidentally the above photograph is from New Delhi, and example of a stable, democratic state in the area, which is now fast approaching China for economic progress. An example to many.

Morning's Light

Where Is Home?

Solitary Man

Idyll at Altitude

~O father Zeus! ageless immortals all!
Two hundred ages hence may one recall, Down-coming to the irremeable river,
This to my mind, and this good news deliver:
'E'en now from east to west, from north to south,
Your mutual friendship lives in every mouth'
This, as they please, th' Olympians will decide:
Of thee, by blooming virtue beautified,
My glowing song shall only truth disclose;
With falsehood's pustules I'll not shame my nose.
If thou dost sometime grieve me, sweet the pleasure
Of reconcilement, joy in double measure
To find thou never didst intend the pain,
And feel myself from all doubt free again.

Idyll XII excerpt (Theocritus)

A View From Above

The Dusk Is Deceptive

White Light

Something Burns in the Night

Blue Sky Calling

Over The Top

Dusty Sky, Dark Days

I've Seen It All

A View From The Bridge

Peace on Earth

Find Our Way To Freedom

Heaven, Have Mercy on Us

Blue Sky Thinking

Morning Splendour

Catch The Rain

Springtide

Fake Plastic Trees

To Go Home

Light and Shadow

To The Moon

Moon River

~ 384,403 km from the Earth, yet still striking to those who see it.

This Weather

~Snow, Wind, Rain, Sleet and Sun

As someone said to me today, at least it gives us something to talk about.

Makes beautiful images too.

Something Burns in the Heart

~ If I could stay...
Then the night would give you up
Stay...and the day would keep its trust
Stay...and the night would be enough

Faraway, so close
Up with the static and the radio
With satellite television
You can go anywhere

Oh, to travel.

A Summer Wasting

~ It's a crisis I know
At the end of the show
People change but we don't falter
Cause we know love is real
This is no place to shiver
So get up off the grass
You were once the main attraction
but all that's in the past

Agricultural heritage.
Our remnants remain in the place they were in the past.
Beautiful.

Run Wild

~ On the steps of the Valley of the Fallen, the 'great' memorial/mausoleum to Spanish Fascist leader Franco. Shrouded in mist, it is a place of great mystery, and misery - it was built by force: the losers of the Spanish Civil War, the Republicans were punished by being forced to construct the monument.

Down The Road

~And so I came to this dream-like place
But I can’t remember how
Our lives just break open in front of us

Echo of Memory

The Music We Are

Did you hear that winter’s over? The basil
and the carnations cannot control their

laughter. The nightingale, back from his
wandering, has been made singing master

over the birds. The trees reach out their
congratulations. The soul goes dancing

through the king’s doorway. Anemones blush
because they have seen the rose naked.

Spring, the only fair judge, walks in the
courtroom, and several December thieves steal

away, Last year’s miracles will soon be
forgotten. New creatures whirl in from non-

existence, galaxies scattered around their
feet. Have you met them? Do you hear the

bud of Jesus crooning in the cradle? A single
narcissus flower has been appointed Inspector

of Kingdoms. A feast is set. Listen: the
wind is pouring wine! Love used to hide

inside images: no more! The orchard hangs
out its lanterns. The dead come stumbling by

in shrouds. Nothing can stay bound or be
imprisoned. You say, “End this poem here,

and wait for what’s next.” I will. Poems
are rough notations for the music we are.

~Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

Shamelessly copied from 'So Many Books'