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A 21st century icon
At a recent trip to Shelsley Walsh for a motorsport hill climb event, I was struck by this marshall’s face against the red circle. The marshalls, all volunteers, do fantastic work making sure the event is safe for all the competitors and for the spectators. He was relaxing for a moment while the hill was cleared to remove a car that had broken down. With his head against that red circle I thought he looked like one of those icons from medieval or Orthodox Christian art. I just loved his contemplative expression, so I used my telephoto lens to isolate him. This was what I thought he looked like; uncanny…
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Up close and personal in Sicily
I recently went to the sunny island of Sicily. Whilst we were there trying to tolerate roasting temperatures of 28C the UK was shivering with just 30C. I took my trusty Olympus macro lens of course, and it was very useful. One of the insects we wanted to see on the trip was the Violet Carpenter Bee. These are pretty chunky things and not only did we see one, but I got close enough to photograph it. It was covered in pollen from other flowers, which gave it a lovely golden sheen. When it flew off right past my ear it was very noisy! Another impressive insect was the European…
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Always looking for odd collections
When I’m out and about I’m always looking for incongruous or odd collections of things, or things that make a visual joke. It does slow down a walk though, but that can be useful sometimes. One recent useful time was this Sicilian answer to IKEA flat-pack furniture. I saw it in the beautiful town of Modica, near a viewpoint. It was very hot, so slowing down was a good idea. I loved the use of the food waste “umido” bin to act as a support for the planks. I reckon it’s made a two-seat bench, so why not just sit on the food bin and the chair instead? At a…
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The word’s on the street
When I am away on holiday, as well as taking in the views, it’s great to observe people going about their daily business. They can be locals or other visitors. If you are in a busy location it’s quite easy to take your shots without anyone noticing. Sometimes you get lucky and see something a bit unusual. Outside the MAAT museum in Lisbon there was a bride and groom being photographed. As an ex-wedding photographer I was interested in what was going on. Imagine my surprise to see a cyclist coming towards them with her camera out. I only had time for one shot before she was gone. Late one…