Take my hand?
Tag: photography
Come away with me!
As we inhale soothing well-being through the radiant glow of an unsuspected lighthouse in the dark stormy nights of our life, we can come to feel the exhilarating rhythm of our heartbeat, finding compassion with ourselves and at one time reaching out to all the others. ~ Erik Pevernagie
I’m back from Austria! I can finally say that I’ve walked the streets where my father walked.
In another life, I would’ve been writing about the trip for weeks on end, because it was a trip that I needed to go on for a multitude of reasons. My father’s family lived in Vienna. It was especially poignant that I was able to go and be in Vienna after my father passed last year. But I’ve been fairly introspective lately and I haven’t been writing on the blog as much. Not because I haven’t had much to say (far from it, my thoughts and my feelings are can give Lewis Hamilton’s car a run for his money!) but I’ve been allowing myself to work things out in my head (and heart) privately. My journal has been enjoying my attentions.
I am grateful for the soothing balm for the soul that is the loving embrace of family. It has been a particularly lonely and difficult few weeks. But I am slowly finding myself again after losing sight of who I was. And althought, it has been a difficult and scary journey, recognising the face looking back at me in the mirror is worth all the heartache. The reassurance of family is a necessary and comforting guiding light.
Solo photo walk surprises
I don’t remember taking this photo. But I remember the day I went out on a walk because I needed to stop staying indoors and crying my eyes out. I thought I’d take my camera with me and try to get into photography again. It wasn’t the best of ideas because taking photographs brought back a lot of memories of a life I once thought I was going to live forever. But it gave me something to do that day. It allowed me to focus on something else. It allowed me to look at what was right in front of me, to be in the moment, to focus on what was happening at that very moment.
Funnily enough, I can remember the wind blowing that day, and how refreshing it was, compared to the heat beating down on that lovely sunny day. It was a good day, hot, but the wind blowing was a welcome relief! It was nowhere near as punishingly hot as the heat we went through a few days ago! Now that was a different kind of hot!
I like this photo though! I can never properly set up my camera so that I have sunbursts but sometimes I remember and I do it sort of right. It’s either that, or I get lucky! Ha! I love how the sun gets filtered through the tree branches and the leaves.
I need to review the notes I wrote about camera settings a long time ago. I need to start taking this photography malarkey seriously again. I have all this gear sitting in the bottom tray of my stationery trolley not doing anything. It’s not like it’s fancy gear, mind you. But I do have an amazing camera and a few nifty camera gadgets. Waste not, want not, eh?
Read a good book lately?
I went to the V&A last week.
It was the Easter bank holiday and I was at loose ends. I went to visit John Gibson’s Pandora (which was a thing I did whenever I was at the V&A because she was a character I could relate to…but reflections on that is probably another blog entry all together!).
I missed going to the V&A and just exploring. If my hip hadn’t started hurting, I’d have explored some more. I couldn’t move my left leg without feeling pain. So I thought I’d take myself off to pick up provisions before I couldn’t actually walk anywhere. I probably need some physio on my hip.
One of the things I “rediscovered” was a reading room at the top of one of the stairs near the Cast Gallery. It’s the National Art Library. It has one of the best collections of public reference materials on art and design. I do want to be able to sit at one of the desks just to be in the space. It’s meant to be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in May and the V & A hope to open more days in the summer. It’s on my list to visit!
The photo below was taken from the doorway, through one of the window panes. If this is what it looks like through the door, how amazing would it be to sit at one of those desks and just absorb the gorgeousness?
Perspective
I’ve not been feeling the urge to write. So I’m thankful for the ability to take photos. It allows me to put in content in other ways. I think the writing muses are letting me adjust to the massive change in my life. I don’t think I’m in the right grief stage. I’m waiting for the despondency to hit me…right when I’m vulnerable and not expecting it.
My feelings are still spaghetti-in-bowl tangled and I think I need to sort things out in my head first so that it makes sense to me.
Published!
So in 2016 I posted this photo on Instagram:
I loved the photo because it has one of my favourite London building icons, the Elizabeth Tower, aka Big Ben (which actually is the name of the bell that’s inside the tower). I was quite pleased that the photo came out pretty well. It probably didn’t have as many likes on Instagram as I would have wanted, but in the end, it’s not necessarily about the likes. I was really proud of the photo. It showed textbook depth of field and I was really pleased with how it turned out. It was a perfect representation of how pretty springtime sunshine in London can be. The Marketing girls of the firm I worked for loved it so much too that they used it on the firm’s website for springtime themed posts.
And two years later, my lovely little photograph of the Queen Elizabeth Tower and the daffodils in the gardens at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital has been featured in the Essex Chronicle business supplement in a two-page spread in the that my firm contributes to. I am grateful to the Marketing department at my firm because they want to support and promote home-grown talent, as it were.
What’s even better is that I get credited for the photo!
I, of course, did what any self-respecting, modest person would do – I posted stories on Instagram about my photo in the paper and added the same videos on Facebook. I’ve bought a couple of copies of the paper to send to my mum and sister in Manila, too! Oh, and if you’re in Essex, it’s in this week’s print edition of the Essex Chronicle! Of course, I would also recommend you reading the brilliant business articles that my colleagues at Rickard Luckin have written as they provide really good business insights! I’ve tried to play it really calm, cool and collected but of course in true giddy-giggly Bridget Jones-esque fashion, I failed miserably. I was far too pleased with myself! It was quite the event in my life!
#2017bestnine
Thank you to everyone who visited my Instagram page and has supported my journey to better photographs. I am thankful for all your support. Drop by and say hi if you have the time!
Here’e to another year of taking photographs of London, Essex and food!
Waiting…
“Time was a funny and fickle thing. Sometimes there was never enough of it, and other times it stretched out endlessly.” ~ J. Lynn, Be with Me
It’s part of that list – the list of the iconic London structures that every tourist will want to see. The Elizabeth Tower, the structure that houses Big Ben, the great bell that has marked the passing of each hour for 157 years, since it began service in 1859. The Big Ben was silenced in August of this year for necessary restoration work that is meant to take about 4 years to repair the cracks and the Elizabeth Tower was slowly covered up with scaffolding to also undergo restoration work, along with other areas of Westminster Palace. Although Ben was meant to be silent for 4 years, it did chime during Remembrance Sunday and Christmas Day. It is also meant to chime in the New Year.
While I have always said that since I moved to the UK, time has rushed past me, waiting for Ben and his “braces” to be removed seems to be quite a long wait. Sometimes waiting for Ben to be unbraced is unbearable. I keep telling myself it’s for the best, because Ben will come back, stronger and restored. So wait we must. Patience is a virtue. But oh my goodness! 1146 days (give or take a few days, as I can’t be completely accurate) is a lot of days!
I miss you Ben!
Christmas wishes
“Our many different cultures notwithstanding, there’s something about the holidays that makes the planet communal. Even nations that do not celebrate Christmas can’t help but be caught up in the collective spirit of their neighbors, as twinkling lights dot the landscape and carols fill the air. It’s an inspiring time of the year.” — Marlo Thomas
As the debris of Christmas eve, Christmas Day and all the lovely Christmas meals are cleared away, I turn to thoughts of Christmas as one often does during these times. Christmas is truly a great uniter…as the real reason for the season truly brings us together. God’s love truly unites us and binds us together, and it is fitting that the season that celebrates the embodiment of God’s love, His Son coming down to live amongst us, unites the world in a celebration of love, joy, peace and selflessness – because Christmas brings about a reason for us to think of others first instead of ourselves, of giving, instead of receiving, of forgiving and letting go.
My heart goes out to all those who have suffered a loss this Christmas. I can only pray that you feel God’s loving arms enfold you in the warmest and most comforting of embraces.
I hope all your Christmases were wonderfully blessed. I hope that all your Christmas wishes came true.
Allow me to say, that despite the sadness that some people may be going through, God will carry you through these difficult times, and I would still bravely greet everyone a very Merry Christmas!
Wading in!
I’ve never been a spectator…not really. I’ve always had an opinion and more often than not, I opened my mouth to express it and I have, on occasion inserted my foot in my mouth. It hasn’t stopped me from expressing my opinion though.
In the process, I’ve hurt feelings and lost friendships that I valued. I thought I’d learn from the mistakes and keep my opinions to myself, let other people say what I wanted to say. It was only recently that I’ve allowed myself to step back, or hold my tongue and keep schtumm. But last night, I couldn’t keep quiet.
One of my pet peeves is people taking credit for something that they didn’t do. I’ve always tried to credit people when they’ve done something clever or if they’ve helped me do something clever. I’ve always tried to say thank you.
Last night, Alan’s photo was grabbed by someone, posted on their Instagram feed without acknowledging that it was Alan’s photo. I posted a couple of stories to protest the injustice. Once that was done, and we saw that the “borrowed” photos started disappearing from the account’s feed.
I woke up to find the comments section of the photo I posted before 8:30 last night turned into a chatroom for Instagram bot accounts. I would laugh if it wasn’t frustrating. To top it all off, a few people who follow me on Instagram were messaging that the account that grabbed Alan’s photo was claiming that they took the original photo of the look-down view of the rollercoaster in Winter Wonderland that I posted.
I took to Instagram stories again to just get things off my chest. I told my story, and shared my thoughts.
It is certainly a sad commentary on our times when people think it’s acceptable to take other people’s work and pass it off as their own to gain followers and popularity on social media.
I know that I took the photo they’re claiming is theirs. I have the original. I posted it hours before they did and putting a banner of their instagram name across the photo doesn’t prove ownership.
Yellywelly 