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First snow
The first snow always comes as a surprise and when it is like it was this morning – meaning I woke up, got out of bed and saw our garden covered in white – it feels especially special. I even held my breath for a while. And even though the day was eventually overcast and felt like a dreary winter’s day, I was impressed by the change. Snow stands for beauty, wonder and awe…as well as for cold, difficulties and obstacles…and we have to live with both sides of the phenomenon. But we can always choose which side we stand on – that of exasperation, anger and dissatisfaction or that…
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Round the village
The last week was cold, with occasional snow showers, and as much as I like snow, the time has come for spring to seize control. I’ve been looking so much for flowers to bloom in the garden and fresh leaves to appear on the trees and plants! In the meantime, before that happens in our neck of the woods, here are a few photos from Saturday’s walk around the village. Birds singing and chatting loudly in the branches (and I love how different impression the tree with the birds gives in colour and in black-and-white)… …and hopefully the last snow of the season… When passing power lines outside the village,…
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Curious attraction
It is a curious feeling to be taking a photograph you expect no one else would like. It is a feeling, as though you were entering a universe that holds no attraction for potential visitors but for you. Yet you hear the calling and you can decide whether to follow it and perhaps seem foolish or ignore it and throw away expressing something deep inside you what might take you further. I love this great adventure of photography teaching me to be myself, to look at the world around me through my own eyes, and to go deeper than to the longing to create something everyone would admire.
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End-of-year reflection
I won’t let the cat out of the bag when remarking that the end of this year is on its way to arrive pretty soon. I’m sure many of us have been pondering over this ending year, how unusual and challenging it has been, and wondering what the next year will be like. Who knows… But I’m sure, even if some days are messy, there are also opportunities to smile, notwithstanding occasional bleak outlooks. I believe in hope… I’ve already discarded this year’s diary of mine and while doing that, I noticed the remarks I started that diary with. I reminded myself that I needed * to use our treadmill…
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Formats and negative space
The other day I took a few photos in our village and I loved especially the following one: The portrait format brought the rippled water with reflections of the clouds into the picture, thus creating a valued negative space adding to the main contents. Then I thought, “well, I’d like to post this photo on my blog so now I need a landscape version to place it as the featured photo of the post”. I cropped the photo, setting the bank of the pond somewhat higher above the middle, leaving just a bit of that precious negative space in the picture. And finally, I thought “this would be a nice…
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My word for the year and walk in the village
Since 2014, I’ve been choosing my word for the year to be my guide and companion teaching me to grow in some regard. As I’ve explained in my previous posts, I don’t look consciously for the word, it always emerges from somewhere deep inside. This year it wasn’t different. On Christmas Eve I attended a mass and the priest concluded his sermon with an extract from Pope Francis’ Christmas reflection. I don’t like when such extracts are read during sermons, they often sound incomprehensible for ordinary me, but this time the extract ended with thoughts where joy was mentioned among others. When the mass was over, I saw the word “joy” in…
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Spring in and around the village
This morning my hubby and I took our cameras and went for a walk around the village we live in. Temperatures have dropped significantly lately and cold winter was blowing this morning but spring views made up for the unfavourable weather. First we visited the old local cherry tree orchard where we wanted to take some photos. The orchard is most beautiful in spring when the blossom is out. As you can see in the photo, the cherry blossoms have been partly brown already and I’m not sure whether it means that they are changing into fruits or whether they have been damaged by morning frost that occurred during the last several days. We will see…
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White January
Unlike many previous winters, this year we’ve had beautiful white and frosty January. After the muddy and windy Christmas time it was a welcome change. One morning a few days ago I looked out of the window and saw a beautiful scene lit by early sun rays… I grabbed my camera and ran to the garden, the light and fog and colours felt wondrous and magical… We were lucky not to have many problems with the snow at the part of the Czech Republic where my family live, there were other parts that had to deal with serious problems, but the truth is that after several quite mild winters we’ve…
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Snowy
When I woke up on Sunday morning, the light felt different. I was wondering what was going on but as soon as I got up, I knew the answer. Everything behind the windows was covered with snow and its fresh white colour dominated surroundings of our house. Our garden, neighbours’ garden, our yard… I loved the occasional colourful contrast like in the following photo. Our neighbours across the road are building a new house and its unfinished condition looked wonderful against the snow. As soon as I saw it, I grabbed my camera, opened our kitchen window and took a few photos. I took some also from our dormer window…
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Spring wandering
Every year, when cherry trees open their beautiful white flowers and enchant me with their charm, I feel compelled to go and capture the beauty. Last year I missed that occasion which doesn’t last very long but this year I took advantage of a nice weekend afternoon and asked my husband to go with me to the cherry tree orchard situated near our village. I intended to take a few captures there and go home but my husband took advantage of that stroll to get much further and eventually we explored the surroundings of our village much more thoroughly. The following photo was taken just at the beginning of the…
