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Magical
Some places feel magical without any obvious reason. While you might be bored and wondering why I am staring at a spot or an object, I might feel a pull towards it not being able to take my eyes away. Another time it might be vice versa. Me wondering and you staring. I experience such a situation repeatedly on photo walks with my husband as we are often attracted by quite different sceneries and objects… The triptychs below are created from two photos that I took at the end of last year – one of an old cemetery and the other one of a garden in the same village. Both…
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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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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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When sunny day turns into foggy view
…and vice versa. The other day I looked out of a window early in the afternoon and saw a beautiful sun-lit scenery embellished with fog forming layers in the distance. I thought it could be a nice photo opportunity and decided to go and give it a try. I even tempted my hubby to go with me but when we arrived at a neighbouring village, instead of facing a breath taking vista, we found ourselves surrounded by dense fog. The impenetrable foggy scenery continued further so we decided just to buy some groceries and return home. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was and unwilling to give up… so eventually…
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Following and imitating, or rather not
A few days ago I arrived at the parking lot in the premises of the company where I work. I chose a place to park at and directed my car to the place. There was snow in the parking lot and the borders of the parking places were not quite clear but I did my best to fit in there. Yet when I stopped the car, I noticed that I was not aligned to the car in front of me so I shifted into reversed gear, reversed and then aligned my car with the one opposite me. When I got off, I found out that my car stood quite amiss,…
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Visiting Klatovy and leaving way too early
In January my hubby and I visited Klatovy, a town in Western Bohemia. There are nice places to take photos of but unfortunately the weather changed significantly while we were going there and when we arrived at the town, it wasn’t much favourable for shooting outside. Having said that, we didn’t let the weather deter us entirely from our intentions and spent some time in the town. I would like to share a few photos here that I took by on old church situated not far from the town’s centre. I wanted to capture the side wall of the church with the adjacent little house when the man with the children stepped in front…
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Buildings
It is the last day of January today and according to the rules of my 12-month photo project I am supposed to publish 3 to 5 photos that I took throughout the month based on the theme of the month, which was BUILDINGS. It wasn’t easy to select those 3 to 5 representative photos for this post but here is the selection. In my opinion, these photos fulfil the theme appropriately and are interesting enough to stand on their own. They are presented in random order. No. 1: A house in Dobřany The simple and yet prominent shapes and lines of this house felt attractive to me and the snow covering…
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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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12-month photo project – first lessons taught
My hubby and I have made four little trips since the beginning of the year to get some interesting photos of buildings for the first month of our 12-month photo project and already those little trips taught me a few lessons that I would like to share with you. Lesson 1: Take your timeIf you are busy, you usually don’t want to waste the time you have and hurry in many regards. But photography needs certain slowing down, pushing away other matters and paying full attention to what you see, what you perceive, what you are looking for. Thinking about it, making your choices, using a tripod if necessary, and…
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Beauty of the ordinary
On Friday we had what might be the coldest morning this winter with its -20°C, which equals -4°F. Actually, it would be the coldest morning in the 15 years we’ve been living in this village. I was a bit afraid that my car wouldn’t start because I was supposed to get to work and to get my children to school so it was a relief to hear the car making up its mind and waking into operation. The gear box was stiff and was moving with slow deliberation but we were on our way and that mattered. It was cold the whole week and we got plenty of snow but…
