Friday 28 September 2012

Words and Pictures

If I've been a bit quiet on the blog front this week, please bear with me. I haven't exactly been lazing around. As I said 'arrivederci' to Italian with a disastrous on-line speaking exam on Monday, Tuesday dawned to my new Open University photography course.

For a long time now I've been interested in the interplay of words and pictures in blogs, and I've been keen to see how I can incorporate photography into my posts. I've been inspired in part by others who have brought their blogs to life with some fantastic pictures.
My first task was to dust down my camera and venture into the garden in my lunch break. For me one of the pleasures of photography, like writing, is to find the beauty and the interest in the most unexpected places. Given my utter neglect of all things horticultural, my garden definitely falls into this category. But no, amongst the long grass and weeds I did still find enough of interest. If you look close enough, you can find beauty in the wilderness after all.


The French lavender has attracted bees all summer and, despite the wind and rain, is putting on one last show.


The wind has brought down the last of the apples I think, or at least the ones that haven't already been pecked by two large black crows that refuse to be intimidated by my frantic window-knocking.


It's the season for picking blackberries and making crumbles. Time to hunker down with some autumn reading.

More on that in my next post.

12 comments:

  1. Lovely close-up photos. They have reminded me to go out into my garden and start picking pears...

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    1. Believe me Annabel, the state my garden's in, close-up photos are the only option!

      Our pear tree hasn't produced a single fruit this year.

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  2. I'm sure I should know but what course are you doing now Karen? I'm looking forward to seeing more of your photos, that French Lilac one is lovely.

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    1. Good to hear from you Denise.

      I'm doing the OU course that you did. How is your photography course going?

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    2. The OCA course is great but for various reasons I haven't done anything for two months except the recommended reading - of which there is loads! Getting back into it now though. Fortunately it's very flexible. I'm not sure which OU course you mean so it's either one I loved or one I really disliked but learned a lot from. Good luck with it either way.

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    3. I'm sorry Denise, I didn't realise there was more than one OU course. I'm doing T189 Digital Photograpy. I've just downloaded the editing software. I could play with it for hours!

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    4. Duh! Just me being stupid. I didn't know if you were starting A363 or the photography course but given that your post is about photography... I absolutely loved T189. It was a disaster. It is responsible for the fact that I now find myself doing a degree and spending loads of money! I'm sure you'll love it.

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    5. And now I've just re-read your post I see that you actually say you're doing the photography course. Oh dear. I suspect there is no hope for me.

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  3. I've got lots of bees on my lavender (English not French), but find they fly away before I can take photo... I'm wondering if the ?infra red auto-focus is annoying them. Maybe I'm just too slow with the shutter (my Canon is fairly notorious for lag time)? Glad to see you having some fun with your camera. :)

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    1. Hello Maggie. I haven't tried photographing the bees. I don't have a DSLR, but my camera is still smarter than I am!

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  4. We have never been a family who took photographs and this is something that I regret. It means that I have very few photos of my parents and none of my life after babyhood. Every time I read a post like this I vow that I will do something about it but I suppose because it isn't something I've always done I never get around to it. Perhaps this time.

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    1. Although the act of photographing sometimes seems to get in the way of savouring the moment, I think it is worth it to have a permanent record.

      I think you're right Alex, it's a question of habit as much as anything.

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