Where The Magic Happens ...

One version of B.jpg

The magic happens, sometimes, in that space where you break all the rules ... or accidentally bump the Mode setting onto another, entirely inappropriate, setting.

I love this photograph, taken with my Canon 5D MkII.  It seems like a water colour and is, perhaps, the only way my daughter would allow me to publish a photograph of her.

She's crouching, photographing her exquisite Romanian rescue dog.  Sahara and Sander are there too.  As is the snow.  

I'm up in Scotland today.  -6 celsius this morning, and frozen feet.

In huge news, for me, I managed to light the fire but while applauding my own cleverness, the vent knob fell off.  I went from feeling like Pioneer Woman to Ms Bean - Mr Bean's twin sister, in a heartbeat.

I opted to leave my slippers out of my packing and so,  feet masquerading as blocks of ice, are my new normal here in the north of Scotland.  I'm also missing my external harddrive, my hiking boots ... and my flatmates loved the Italian Christmas cake I left behind. 

I have never forgotten having to throw away quite a bit of my stuff, at the airport, for the flight between the UK and Italy.

Photographically, I am loving Scotland.  But in other ways struggling with the cold.  It seems I have softened in Italy.  That long hot Spring, Summer and Autumn in no way prepared me for this but but but ... it is so good to see family, to catch up on their news, to eat English food :-)

All of that.

 

I Have A Plan For My Book ...

I have finally begun work on that Genova book I've been working on for years ...  but with a plan.  And with deadlines.

I am a photographer and a writer but I am not gifted in the area of organising something as complex as this book I've been circling. 

A good friend of mine came to stay at the weekend ... Sunday morning, Leah sat me down, and made me stay there.  She questioned me, regarding my idea of the book, and then guided me through the next few weeks.  When she left, I had a folder containing a schedule and a plan for the book.

Of course ... being me I have already side-tracked a little, as I search through the thousands of photographs I have taken of Genova, I'm realising just how many images I haven't quite taken through the digital equivalent of the darkroom process.

I don't do much to them, most of the time, but I do like to go over each image.

And so I am discovering that, back in September last year, I went wandering after the rain and found the image there at the top of this post.

And there was this .. just patiently waiting from that time I was down in Porto Antico and the light was exquisite.

3 beautiful things i found today ... day 1

There was this image ... captured while wandering Istanbul streets.  I need to go through the 8,000 photographs I took there on that visit with my beloved Canon 5D MkII

The quote from Lisa St Aubin ... I'm still considering whether I agree with these words or not.  I think I'm an odd traveler sometimes.  I love to return to those few places I love and I dream of being there when I'm away from them.  New Zealand, Genova ... wondering where I would most like to live.

And this song, from the band Sleeping at LastI love their name, as I've been an insomniac for days now The song ... I'll Keep You Safe, or perhaps All Through the Night.