Cambags

Having accidentaly left my small camera bag at son-who-lives-a-long-way-away's house, there were times when I didn't want to carry my big (heavy) bag around. A quick look at commercially made handbag-type bags revealed that they cost about £100+, so I decided to make my own using a bought bag and fitting the 'innards'. The first bag cost about £10 -


- and the second (smaller) one was one I already had in the house. I used about a metre of fabric for each bag, one inch foam (bought at an upholsterers), plus sew-in velcro. The dividers can be repositoned to suit the size of lenses, filters and other bits and pieces. I love using them as they don't look like camera bags and they have room for purses, mobile phones and so on. I can also remove the whole unit and put it into another bag - and you can't have too many bags!

Clinging on

Seems like the last days of summer at the moment, but not giving up hope!

Anglesey honeysuckle

Anglesey

We've just had a very enjoyable holiday on Anglesey, an island off the north coast of Wales - you could clearly see the mountain range, including Snowdon, in the distance. The last two pics were taken in the old copper mine near Amlwch with amazing orange-yellow colours. The mining goes back to Roman times and was once a thriving industry, today you can walk around the site and imagine all the activity that once took place here (and they were my favourite colours!)

Autumn?

I was surprised to find some autumn leaves on the ground - it's still summer! - although it has been cold this week with almost continual rain.
We have all been dismayed and shocked at the violent scenes of disorder and looting we've seen on tv - a lot of prayer has gone up for calm and peace and will continue to do so.

Beautifully small

Thank you for all your kind wishes since my adventure in a helicopter! Feeling almost back to normal now. Good job I didn't have my camera with me - it would have been smashed to pieces.

Ups and downs

A lot has happened since I last blogged! A strenuous (for me!) 3-hour walk up Cheviot ended with a 15 minute ride down in an RAF air-sea rescue helicopter after I tripped and gashed my face on stone. No bones broken - just needed to be glued together. Could have been a lot worse. The crew was marvellous and I am extremely thankful to them and my friends who looked after me until the helicopter arrived.
This was followed by travelling down to Suffolk for my nephew's wedding where a good time was had by all! These shots were taken "down south"!

Still small

I'm still fascinated by the beauty of small details which are easily overlooked. Might be here a while!

Real flowers!

Flower power

Playing with a flower and the magic wand - several layers and effects used. The pattern in the border was sampled from the image. The bugs will heave a sigh of relief ....

Where next?

Enjoy the journey!

Summer

You never know what's round the corner - we came upon this wildflower field as we were driving along. Not many of them about now. We think the farmer left the edge of this field so they could grow undisturbed. It was an unexpected surprise!

Going small

Will you walk into my parlour .....

The well-known words of this poem which was written for children (published 1829) ends with the words -
Unto an evil counsellor
Close heart and ear and eye
And take a lesson from this tale
Of the spider and the fly.

Good advice!

Surprise!

I thought I would take a few pics with the macro lens and chose a small garden flower (no idea of name, but it was about 4 cm in diameter.) Suddenly through the lens I saw this creature! Almost too small to see with the naked eye. What a fantastic world we live in!

..... and some more

This time we travelled 9 hours in the opposite direction for a holiday in NW highlands of Scotland to a small town called Lochinver. Spectacular scenery in all directions and some good places to climb!

Guest flowers

We had to travel for 7 hours for these photos! Not especially, but a visit to one of our sons and family meant I got to see these flowers which will probably never be in my garden! The last one has two of Kim Klassen's textures added. Came home to find the sunflowers struggling in the wind - need to get some bigger canes for them.

Still on course

Many of the houses in the Lake District are made of beautifully coloured slate or stone. As you may imagine, I couldn't resist taking a few (macro) pics of the 'bricks' which are layered horizontally. I'm afraid I got a bit distracted ....

Night life ....

...... in Keswick. Finding out about night light shots on the photography course.

Just back .....

..... from a four day photography course at the Blencathra field studies centre in the Lake District led by Rob Ward.
Learnt a lot of new things, met interesting people and enjoyed great food! Hope to show more images later!