Silhouette’s are a favourite subject of mine. I like the strong lines and how well black and white suits them (although, ironically, this is a colour one). This was taken on a street photography night out with the Meetup photography group I am a member of. There’s more photos here.
We savoured Scottish summers – both because they were so short, but are also a magical time when you live so far north. The scenery is bursting with life – the grass lush and thick, the trees hanging with fruit and the flowers in bloom. The nights can stay light past 10pm, and occasionally we would catch sight of the northern lights.
What better way to enjoy a Sunday than to pack a picnic and seek out and architectural gem – the Pineapple. The Pineapple is a wonderful testament to British eccentricity. A summer house that has beautiful sloping lawns and fruit trees surrounded by a huge walled garden, it originally looked quite unassuming when first built in 1761 by the 4th Earl of Dunmore. When he was forcibly brought back from serving as the Governor of Virginia in 1771, it was common practice for returning sailors there to put a pineapple on the gatepost to let everyone know they had returned home. A bit of a wag, the 4th Earl built a huge stone pineapple on the roof of the house!
Now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, the Pineapple is a secret gem – we would often be the only ones there, and spread out our refreshments beneath the trees, running and throwing a ball to each other on the well-kept lawns, returning for fresh strawberries, Scottish smoked salmon and iced water. If you ever fancy visiting, you can even stay in the house as a guest. Good times!
This is my submission for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer Lovin’.
It was hot. 36 Celsius and no breeze. The summer was coming to an end, and making one last attempt to zap anyone foolish enough to go outside with UV. But my five year-old son needed to let off steam and do something physical, so we headed up the mountain to Katoomba, and took his favourite train ride (the world’s steepest!) down from Scenic World, to the rainforest below.
It’s beautiful down here. We hike and have a picnic together. It’s green and lush and cool beneath the canopy.
The Blue Mountains Winter Magic Festival is held each year around the winter solstice, and is a community event that brings artists, musicians, drummers, dancers and the wider community together.
The sense of fun amongst people who were gathering for the parade was fantastic, with singers, drummers and a samba group all creating as much noise as possible. The effort people had put into their costumes was tremendous, and I was particularly struck by the drum corp, who managed to keep in character and drum out the beat for everyone to march to.
The Apple store on George street is always interesting from a people-watching point-of-view.
The glass walls and free wifi means there are always groups of people concentrating on their devices to photograph.
It makes me think of the store as a combination of temple and social meeting place.
Autumn has slowly pushed aside summer. The temperatures are dropping, along with the leaves.
We took a trip up to the Blue Mountains National Gardens at Mount Tomah, which along with the native trees, hosts pockets of European and North American flora. There is something reassuringly familiar about seeing conkers on the ground, and I have flashbacks to my childhood.
When I was a little older than my son, my brother and I would collect conkers, pierce them with a skewer, and thread a length of string through their core, creating an instrument of playground competition. These were great battles when you were seven years of age, which would be settled with one competitor’s dreams ending shattered on the floor, along with his weapon. Your status was entwined with the fate of your conker. Did you have a lowly ‘oner’, or had you vanquished your classmates and reached the heady heights of a ‘fiver’, or more?
These delights await my son, but for now he is content to climb trees.
Mike Baker | Photography 