MARI'S TRAVELS WITH HER CAMERA

Category: Weekly Photo Challenge

A photo challenge sometimes entered weekly, sometimes monthly, it depends on what photos I have available. It also means thinking outside the box sometimes and I confess I’m not great at doing that.

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O

    No rain promised in my area for a while so I’ve looked through my photos to see what I could come up with and here are two.  Both of these were taken in Thailand, one in Koh Samui, the other in Hua Hin on the Gulf of Siam just a couple of hours drive from Bangkok.

    you-can-have-fun-with-a-polystyrene-box-lid-even-without-an-x-box
    Having fun at Hua Hin, Thailand

    This little boy was having the time of his life on his polystyrene box lid which served as a raft from which he was trying to catch fish.  I don’t think it mattered whether he caught any or not, the fun was in trying, and in having such a marvellous float to carry him along the seashore.  Don’t worry, Dad was trawling the near water keeping an eye out so that he didn’t drift off.  They had little money, it was obvious.  Mum was digging in the sand for tiny little sandfish and crabs for supper and his sisters were gathering leaves from the hedges around.  Tech toys were unknown to him and even though I am sure he hankered after them, I confess I hoped he could continue to enjoy the childlike life he was having at the moment I took this photograph.

    koh-samuii-in-rainstorm
    Torrential rain in Koh Samui, Thailand

    Oh dear, it wasn’t supposed to rain in Koh Samui, but it did, and heavily.  Two days of torrential rain rendered the hotel’s umbrellas unusable, the decking awash, and the grey sea a hazard if one wanted to swim.   Day and night it pounded the beach, the noise like thunder at night.  Room service was needed but by the time food got to the rooms it was cold – and sometimes very wet – so everyone waded through the water to the restaurant where the staff did their best to serve us with hot food.

    Two days later it was all over.  We woke up to sunshine, dry decking, dry beaches and a placid blue sea.  Had it really been as bad as I remember?   As the locals say, “TIT” – This is Thailand”.

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgia

    The  last days of summer, the last two deckchairs on the beach, coats on because the weather has turned really cold on this early Autumn day.   Maybe it was just the contrast with the former sunny days that made this party don what looks like winter gear?  Who knows, but the scene struck me as somewhat forlorn.

    last-days-of-summer

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgia

    I hate to think how many years ago this was.   Rubbing down, preparing, under-coating, top-coating an entire broken-down house.  I look back in wonder at the energy and enthusiasm we had then, but I also look back with gratitude at the fun we had in doing up an old house and then standing back and saying, this is all our work.

    firgrove-kitchen-1965

     

  • Weekly Photo Challenge – Mirror

    My photograph this week pretty basically depicts the challenge word, Mirror, and shows just a reflection.  It is, however, one of my favourite photographs from a fondly remembered day spent recently in lovely St. Albans in the UK, formerly the ancient Roman city of Verulanium.

    The picture was taken in the grounds of a hotel in the town where I was attending a wedding.  I’d escaped for a few moments to wander through the 20-acres of beautfully landscaped gardens and as I came upon the quiet waters of this lovely lake the symmetry of the trees reflections had me reaching for my camera.

    Reflections-in-the-Lake,-St

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: RARE

    Elephants Hauling Teak, Chiang Mai Thailand copy

    This is an old photograph from my collection, one I took way back in 1972 when the elephant was still known as “the tractor of Thailand”.  Sadly, the lovely big animals no longer haul teak and this sort of thing is a rare occurrence now as they no longer live a happy life with their mahouts in the forests in the north of the country.  Their habitat has been destroyed by logging, legal and illegal, and most of them have had to journey south with their mahouts, to the coastal areas where they are reduced to giving rides to tourists.  In many cases they fall ill from diseases to which they have no resistance; the grasses along the sides of the road are sprayed with pesticides which harm them, and their young ones are often taken away from them and chained up outside a bar for the amusement of tourists.

    If you see such a thing, tell the owner you don’t approve.

     

     

     

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: FUN

    Ain’t nothin’ more fun than Second Lining in New Orleans behind some of the best jazz bands in the world. They usually happen on a Sunday morning, just for fun, or maybe to honour someone who has just died, to raise money for a family in need, or “to let the man know we here”!

    Mardi-Gras-Queen-joins-procession

  • Photography Challenge – MORNING

    A few of my favourite images from over the years seem to fit the Morning Challenge so here they are.  It’s amazing how some places never change, and how they still attract customers to these old-fashioned deck-chairs.

    Mornings in Thailand

    It’s a grey morning and the catch doesnt appear too good
    It’s 6.30 a.m. and the cafe owner is setting out the deck-chairs for the day ahead. An old-fashioned beach in Hua Hin. Thailand
    Making Merit at Dawn in Chiang Rai, Thailand – Mari Nicholson
    Hua Hin Beach at Dawn., Thailand – Mari Nicholson
    Cows are permitted to access the beach before 8 a.m. in Pranburi Province, Thailand – Mari Nicholson

      Morning

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: ABSTRACT

    Truly abstract I think.  Love the subtle muddy colours and the starkness of the image.

    This is a piece of graffiti on a wall in London’s East End (Brick Lane area).  It’s a wonderful place in which to make artistic discoveries.  This one comes from the camera of London photographer Steve Moore who has given me permission to use it.

    Abstract

     

     

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Future

    Weekly Photo Challenge: Future

    I’ve recently moved house and am still coming to grips with making a new garden.  This year I’m trying to grow roses in pots but if this doesn’t work I shall replant them next year in a new rose bed I hope to make.  I had a large rose garden in my former home which I can’t hope to replace as I’ve downsized drastically.

    However,  roses are my favourite flowers, and I’ve bought ten super plants, all highly perfumed Old English species, mostly repeat flowering and with their heady scents they shall have pride of place on my bedroom balcony.

    This is my future.  Whether they will bloom as the labels show is a moot point, but ……………. we live in hope.  Wish me well.

    My favourite rose (for its appearance and sunny look from early June until nearly December where I live) is Tequila Sunrise.  I thought I had an image of this from my old garden but it seems to have disappeared from the folder.  But here is another of my favourites, Gertrude Jekyll, which I’ve bought again and if it shows blooms like this one, my future will indeed be bright.

    Some of the other roses I’ve bought are Thomas a Beckett, Grace, James Galway, the Alnwick Rose, Iceberg.   Rose aficionados will recognise some of them.

    Rose 2

  • Photography Challenge 101: Landscape

    Took me a while to think about some landscapes, and unfortunately, I was unable to get out and about to photograph some, so here is a selection of some of my favourites.

     

    Chicago from Sears' Toweer
    Chicago, from Sears’ Tower – Photo Mari Nicholson

    This was taken on a fairly good day in Chicago from the top of the famous landmark, the Sears’ Tower.  The skyline is probably more impressive from ground level, but I found the view from above quite exciting.   See another Chicago photo, bottom.

     

    Citiva 6
    Citava, Italy – Photo Mari Nicholson

    Citiva is in Lazio Province, within driving distance of Siena, Rome. and Orvieto.  Inside the mountain fastness is a quaint old town of cobbled stoned streets, a couple of good restaurants serving rustic food, and a Bodega where the wine flows very liberally.

    Walking trails to Stanserhorn
    Walking trails to Stanserhorn in Switzerland

    This was taken from a cable car as we floated over the mountains in Switzerland.  I seem to remember that it was quite a long cable-car trip, longer than most I remember.  It was a magical journey over the mountains and villages below, the brown and white cows hardly visible and their cowbells muffled by the distance.

    Village in the Madonie National Park, Sicily
    Village in Madonie National Park, Sicily – Photo Mari Nicholson

    One of my favourite places in Sicily, the National Park of Madonie, where wild figs grow along the roadside and just a few locals are left in near-deserted villages to sit outside their doors and chat to whoever passes by.  Now and again one sees a thriving village like this one, which is being slowly restored to its former glory by returning families who have made some money working elsewhere and now are coming home to reclaim their birthright.

    Skyline with clouds - Chicago
    Chicago skyline peeking from out the clouds