Am I boring you darling?

I don't know whether my photography is hurting his eyes or I am just boring him (he is such a cheeky one). If he confirms either of these you will also note from the photograph that he has my dogs lead round his neck, any smart comment and i'll be yanking that for sure!!!!

Bad husband, bad!

Questions, questions, questions!

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Many sides of......

Cryptic message

I can't understand it either!

what's going on?

Name the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

thanks Anika for the info for this new iphone app too.

I felt ill on Saturday....

On Saturday I felt ill, I had a cold and my throat was very sore so when I spoke my voice was very husky. Perhaps I therefore hallucinated the day because of the cough medicine I was taking, but here are some of the pictures of what I thought I saw!

1. Had my feet cleaned by some fish!

2. Went on a Battleship

2. Had lunch at the Palace!  Well in the cafe there, and I ate Haggis, Neeps and Tatties followed by Dundee Cake and some tea, it was yummy - they do say starve a fever, feed a cold!!!

3. Met a lovely spitfire pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain.  He was 94 years of age.

4. Met a charming Archbishop who fought for the red army in Stalingrad.  He was in his 90's and called Bishop Ronny Harwood.  He told me:

"Full medals displayed on a Man's chest, are the ones that the Ladies think looks best"!

5. Met this dog

6. Met a General, in fact The General, General David Richards the current commander and chief of the British Land Forces

7. Saw Dexter holding a Machine Gun!

8. Met the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and he kindly let me photograph him with Dexter

9. Was told Prince Charles was around, but I didn't see him, so was this all a hallucination?

Living in harmony....

That is what I thought of when I captured this picture.

Scavenger Hunt even managed to get the UK Prime Minister for you!

I travelled to London by train, normally fly, but think I might start using the train more as you see so many beautiful things through the windows.  I really love this picture I managed to snap.  So, it is Scavenger Hunt prompts Sunday, and this weeks prompts are Faceless Portrait, Windows/Doors, Eyelashes, Paint, Leaf Veins and Faceless Portrait. This week I have managed to get some surprising results as you will soon find out! So lets start with Faceless Portraits, can you guess who this is?

I take a huge amount of photographs and in snapping away this weekend in my own wee world, I snapped my way right up to the back of our very own Prime Minister, David Cameron's head too!

If you want to read all about this encounter between me and The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, then just click here

Next on the Scavenger List is eyelashes....

..... Doors/Windows, well I did show you some in my first image, (see the ice cream van window is behind them!).....

not convinced? well what about another view from the train window?

 Now for paint, this old nuclear bunker (built but never used) is completely abandoned and covered in graffiti paint.....

 even when you look through the windows/doorways, there is paint, and more of this place I will post another time as we are planning on going inside it sometime very soon - it goes down 4 stories underground!

and lastly, leaf veins.  I have done 2 types, first one below....

..... and this second picture shows very fine in the left almost like a spiders web

So to recap, Scavenger Hunt Sunday prompts this week are: Windows/Doors, Eyelashes, Paint, Leaf Veins and Faceless Portrait

I have just met the Prime Minister David Cameron!!!

I cannot believe I just met the Prime Minister David Cameron! Anders, Dexter and I were at Arthur Seat where there is all sorts of military displays going on for Armed Forces Day, I was busy taking photographs of everything (there's a surprise!), when l realised I had gotten right up close to David Cameron, our Prime Minister, which until that moment, I had not realised he was there!  I mean, look how close I got before I realised!

I was shocked, and said "Oh, look, it's the Prime Minister, this really must be my lucky husky voice that is getting me through so many things" (my voice is really way more deep and husky than it normally can be as I have a bit of a sore throat. Every male who has heard me speak in the last 48 hours has stopped, smiled in a wry fashion and commented)......

....David Cameron was no exception to being lulled by my voice, no sooner did I open my mouth to say what I did, he turned round smiling and said "hello" to which I laughingly replied "hello to you too, and yep, this definitely seems to be a voice that is lucky", and everyone around about started to laugh and we shook hands. He then very kindly let Dexter get his photograph taken with him.

What shocked me more than anything, is how close I got to him unintentionally, I mean, could you see this happening with President Obama?!  There were lots of secret police about (not that I noticed until after the scene unfolded), but everyone there was in in a good mood, and the whole event was, well, upbeat, jovial and "normal"!

Dexter and his Auntie Laura

Dexter got to see his Auntie Laura at the weekend. 

He likes his Auntie Laura a lot, he says "she is really pretty and is great at playing games".  This is them playing consequences round the dinner table :-)

I can understand him having a wee crush on his Laura, she is a really lovely person, and indeed very beautiful. She also happens to be one of Ryan McGinley's models "Thunderstorm" and "Laura 2007".  In fact she and her husband Jonathan (my husband's brother) were the couple in the Dentyne adverts which Ryan shot too!

I think her and Jonathan are coming up again to see us at the beginning of July.  

That makes us all very happy.

Musing Robert Frank in my head over coffee....

Elliot Erwitt once said about Robert Frank: "Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy - the tone range isn't right and things like that - but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention"

This quote made me think. I saw some of Ansel Adams photographs of New Mexico whilst I was in Santa Fe earlier this month. It was beautiful, absolutely like Elliot described as being picture postcard perfect and so far and away different from how I saw New Mexico and the pictures I took. I had wanted to take pictures of New Mexico the way I saw it and in a way that I would feel happy feeling that I had captured it which was different to how he had depicted it. Maybe this was me being stubborn, it was definitely me trying to stubbornly justify myself being at the Review.  It was me trying to see if could capture images in a style that was both me as well as being of visual interest to me, so that it would in some way result in me feeling I should be there at the Review as one of the 100. In capturing New Mexico I hoped to gain an understanding of what it was that got me there in the first place and to stop questioning why I was there and that I was worthy of a place there.  I mean, those photographers are really talented.

I have said before, I take pictures because it is my way of expressing the way I see things.  Whilst I try to take images that I like (isn't that why people take pictures?), being liked by other people too is not what I set out to do.  Yes it is without a doubt hugely flattering, and something I never expected, let alone by people who were professionals in this area, but it was not and is not the driving force behind me taking them.  In reading the comment by Elliot Erwitt on Robert Frank, I wondered whether Robert thought of his work in the way Elliot interpreted, before, after or ever when this was pointed out/said?    

You see, since going to Review Santa Fe, and also since returning, I have been really trying to analyse why I got selected, what was it that the people saw in the images that I take and what it all means.  I have never done anything like this before, but now I have, I want to take things much much further, I want to share and be inspired more! The pictures I take are intentional (isn't that why we take pictures?) and show the mood I am in, how I am feeling. I am not of course saying the images I take are in Robert Frank's league.  What I am trying to understand is if Erwitt was right about Frank?  Was he saying Frank was great because he made the camera convey what he was thinking/feeling in addition to what he was seeing?  Was Frank always intentional in his taking images? My pictures are taken with intent, my interpretation of intent.  Is that what lies at the core of a good image, intent?  Is that the key to what to me is still a mystery, taking great images?

Thank you Anika for providing your extra inspirations, I really do love them.

Fleeting thoughts.....

Outside my window falling raindrops oh so plump, almost looking like they want to find a place to jump.

My mind is playing, but outside the window birds are swaying and flowers are bursting from the earth.

Stems are soft, trunks are rough; so what will happen when the wind goes puff?

The flowers smell fresh, the bees smell like honey,

Now back to work to try and make some money!

Sharing some happiness...

Isn't it nice to see something that makes you smile and feel happy? Well it is for me, and it is one of the reasons I love taking pictures as I can capture these memories forever and maybe also make someone else happy too if they see the picture and get the same reaction I get from seeing it and taking it....

The flowers this man is carrying were not for me as I don't know the him. Just seeing him smiling as he walked towards me along the road was enough to make me want to capture the moment.  It still makes me happy and hope it does the same with you.