Hay unstacked

Yesterday afternoon I had a wander round Hay-on-Wye prior to giving my “Close-up and Macro Photography” talk to the local camera club.  Hay is a very attractive town, and has the world-famous Hay Festival every year.  Hay is well worth a visit.  Being me, I was on the lookout for the curious corners and quirky bits, rather than the tourist views.

Here’s a bunch of those fairly useless stirring sticks you get at some coffee places.  They were just lying on the pavement.  I thought the found arrangement had a sort of Zen look to it.  A quick edit in Snapseed to boost the contrast and edit out a couple of light patches gave the simple image I wanted.

In a little alley leading to a riverside path I found this line of hanging basket brackets.  The lines of rust stains running down the wall appealed to me.  They’ve obviously been there a while!  The light shadowing from the surrounding buildings helps your eye go to the brackets with their looping lights.

Bus shelter plastic windows are a rich source of images.  As here, they are often used as unofficial poster sites. The repeated addition and removal of posters leaves tape residues which, when backlit by the setting sun, help tell the story of the window and make a sort of Mondrian pattern.  The multiple scratches add opacity, and just allow a hint of what’s behind.

My talk went down very well, and I hope to go back to Hay very soon.