Tag Archives: travel theme

Bamboo orchid, Singapore

Coneflowers, St. Albans, England

Pink-hued cobblestones, Brugge, Belgium

Faint blush of dawn, New York Harbor, NY

Kawazu zakura, near Mabori kaigan, Japan

Delicate pink face of a Japanese macaque, Nagano, Japan

Umm, yeah. Pink.

Water lily, Hakone, Japan

For some awesome shades of pink you’ve never seen in your box of crayons, visit Ailsa at Where’s my backpack?

As we dig out from yet another snowstorm here in Virginia, it’s a little hard to believe that we’ll ever see our gardens again, much less have weather nice enough to work in them. Looking through my archives for material for Ailsa’s garden-themed photo challenge at Where’s my backpack? has brought a nice respite from the cold, bleak winter weather, and planted seeds of hope for the coming garden season.

Vertical garden, Living Wall at the Atheneum Hotel, London, England

Garden crasher, Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Photo op in the rose garden, Yokohama, Japan

Floating back porch garden along a canal, Bangkok, Thailand

Stone walkway, Kiyosumi Garden, Tokyo, Japan

Bellying up to the bar, Butterfly Garden at Sentosa, Singapore

Classically manicured English Garden, Broughton Castle, near Banbury, England

As I mentioned before, I’m not all that comfortable photographing people…I feel like I’m invading their privacy… so the pictures I’ve gathered for Ailsa‘s chosen theme of work were taken rather surreptitiously. Because I try to snap the shutter before I’m noticed, my people shots usually lack composition, don’t take advantage of available lighting, and often show blurry evidence of my rush to lower the lens. You’ll be able to find more professional-looking work photos by heading over to Where’s my backpack?

Stringing a shell necklace, Honolulu, Hawaii

Behind the scenes delivery at Tsukiji Fish Market, Japan

Okonomiyaki chef in Hiroshima, Japan

Decorating chocolate lollies, Cadbury Factory, Birmingham, England

Covering 1st round women’s soccer at the 2012 London Olympics, Hampden Park, Glasgow Scotland

Manicuring the lawn at Keukenhof Gardens, Lisse, Netherlands

Handpainting authentic Delft pottery, Delft, Netherlands

Humans aren’t the only ones working in Brugge, Belgium

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Really, the most fitting photo I could have posted for Ailsa‘s dry challenge would have been a close-up of my winter-weary hands, but I decided that would just be too gross. Instead, I sifted through the archives, wading through thousands of drizzly, soggy, drippy, sodden, drenched, and saturated shots for these few arid offerings.

Visit Where’s my backpack? for more desiccated images.

Ailsa’s wood theme this week was a tough one for me…not because I never photograph wood, but because I do it so often. I had hundreds of pictures to sift through because I have a love affair with wood, from tree stumps to shipwrecks to antique furniture to hand-carved architectural details.

Is it still considered wood? Remnants of 200 million year old trees lie scattered around the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Cross section of a 200-year old California cedar in the pencil museum in Keswick, England. A tree this size can make 150,000 pencils!

Detail of a wooden shipwreck washed up on the shore in Nags Head, NC.

Thai carvers recreate intricate battle scenes in wood.

My own wood-carving project–from log to spoon in one day!

Elaborately carved paneling in the 14th century Oak Room of Broughton Castle, Banbury, England.

A collection of wooden handled bread knives…the wear on the handles tells just how much they were used.

These stairs, also in Broughton Castle, are solid and cupped from thousands upon thousands of footfalls.

You can travel over to Ailsa’s blog Where’s My Backpack? to check out some other wood-themed photos.

Falling snowflakes illuminated by my camera’s flash.

A stalactite illuminated by floodlights in Luray Caverns.

Dancers illuminated by flaming batons at a Hawaiian luau.

A bust illuminated by the sun’s rays.

I have a lot to learn about nighttime photography, so I don’t have a lot of great photos for Ailsa’s challenge this week. I decided that illuminated didn’t necessarily have to mean nighttime, so I threw in one shot with the sun streaming through the window for good measure. 🙂

Check out others’ interpretations of Illuminated at Where’s my backpack?