This gallery contains 7 photos
The car we used for this road trip around Tuscany was our MINI JCW Coupé. He performed in sterling fashion and the Italians loved him. The owner of the castle where we stayed loved him and when we pulled up in roadside lay-bys for a drink at a roadside café they would admire him too. It added to the fun.
We had a recent holiday break in Venice for the Carnevale and to enjoy St Valentine’s day together and you can see our holiday photographs for this here. We also took a collection of photographs of people celebrating the Carnevale and these can be seen here. We were sold on going to Venice in February by our good friend and keen photographer Andy Williams, who explained how the people dressing up for the Carnevale would happily pose for photographs etc. He suggested we get up before breakfast as the models are around then and you can photograph them without all the tourist being around. Continue reading
More Venice photos this time on the theme of ” Venice Views”.
It has long been a wish of Mrs P to see the sun rise on the Malvern Hills on the longest day but she is a sleepy head and the actual deed had eluded her. But of late our mission is to turn dreams into realities and this was one of those wishes that needed to be addressed. The Sumer Solstice this year was on a Saturday morning and the weather forecast was perfect, so the plan was hatched. We would take a selection of French breakfast pastries and a flask of Bellini to see in the day, and a blanket to sit on
Having discovered that Sunrise was in fact 4.48 and dawn was about 45 minutes before that, we decided to get up at 3.45, drive to Black Hill car park on the other side of the hill and make our way to the crest of the hills in time for sunrise.
We had panned to sit at our regular picnic place but once there, we were not sure quite where the sun would rise and if we were in the wrong place we would not have had time to move, and to miss the sunrise having got up so early would have been dreadful. So we walked a little further up the hill and sat and waited. It was quite light and the horizon was tinted orange with no real idea of where the sun would rise. But as the minutes passed it soon became obvious, and a shaft of light lit the sky upwards from where the sun would later emerge. Then followed a pool of orange light stretching along the ground in the far distance, where the sun had already risen. Then finally we saw the tip of the sun peep over the horizon. It was quite exhilarating and it seems quite reasonable to worship the sun as the giver of life when you sit and watch it rise.
Despite the beautiful weather it was very cold and windy on the hills so by this time we were both wrapped in the blanket, snuggled together toasting the sun on its new day with our Bellini cocktail. It took a very short time for the sun to be fully above the horizon, it moves quite fast when you have something to measure it by.
We bade farewell to the sun and walked back down the hill to the car, for a quick blast home on an empty road. Once home we made a cup of tea and took it back to bed. Job done and we were both very pleased that we had made the effort to see this wonderful sight. We were quite pleased with these photos as we feel we have captured some of the sun’s awe and the epic qualities of a truly wonderful sunrise.
Last weekend we were walking on The Malvern Hills starting from Black Hill car park and shot some photographs of the bluebells there. This week – our third weekend on the trot walking the hills – we went to Midsummer Hill where an initial steep climb was rewarded with what in my view is the finest bluebell walk in the UK. It was simply beautiful up there and we have never seen so many bluebells before. The weather this year must have been perfect for them. We got up as if it was a school day, so 8 am saw us on the hills, in glorious sunshine and with lots of wildlife out and about. There was no-one else around and the birds were singing their hearts out, it was an exhilarating start to the day and we were very pleased with the photographs we shot. It was so lovely that we extended our walk to go around the other side of an old quarry before descending back to the car, so when we then headed to Malvern for a full English breakfast in The Foley Arms, we both felt that we had earned it. Lady P was especially please with a shot she grabbed which caught the sun beaming down through the trees.
Good Friday saw a lovely bright sun in the sky, so after a lazy morning and a sausage butty, we headed out for a smallish walk. One of our favourite walks when we don’t want something too strenuous is to head for the pond at Golden Valley in Castle Morton and do a two and a half mile walk which is a loop heading southish to the road, turning right to the hills and right again just in front of the hills and back across the common to the pond. It is a lovely walk, not steep and overflowing with beautiful scenery. Check out the cluster of orange trees in the photo above. Sheep wander freely across the common and it is a joy to walk amongst them. Finally check out the new home that has emerged phoenix like from the ashes of the old farmhouse that was there but burned down. I would love that house!
We had a camera each, The X-M1 and the X-E1, one armed with the 18-55 zoom lens and the other with the gorgeous 35mm 1.4 prime lens. Between us we feel we have captured a little of the beauty and warmth that is the Malvern Hills landscape.
The sun turned up today, so we took the opportunity to take a walk on the Malvern Hills, close to where we live. We headed up and around British camp and were rewarded with some lovely blue skies but long shadows. Anyway it blew the cobwebs away and gave us an excuse to take some photographs with the Fuji X-E1.
These are the more general shots, vistas, panoramas, landscapes, cityscapes – you get the idea – and we shot them over the three days we spent exploring Venice. There are a lot of them so we have blogged them in two halves and this is the second set in our Venicescape theme. I would hope that after seeing our photos from Venice it would make you want to visit this beautiful city. It has certainly left a lasting impression on us and God willing it won’t be too long before we return. We were armed with the Fuji X-E1 with the 18-50 lens, which is a perfect walk around set up and the Canon 400D with the 70-300mm Sigma zoom. Most of the shots are from the Fuji but between the two cameras we had most bases covered.
These are the more general shots, vistas, panoramas, landscapes, cityscapes – you get the idea – and we shot them over the three days we spent exploring Venice. There are a lot of them so we have blogged them in two halves. I would hope that after seeing our photos from Venice it would make you want to visit this beautiful city. It has certainly left a lasting impression on us and God willing it won’t be too long before we return. We were armed with the Fuji X-E1 with the 18-50 lens, which is a perfect walk around set up and the Canon 400D with the 70-300mm Sigma zoom. Most of the shots are from the Fuji but between the two cameras we had most bases covered.
PhotoBeast 