Always Favourites

Lens-Artists Challenge #268 – Tell Me Why

This week I’m trying to pick out some of my all-time favourites in response to Tina’s Lens-Artists Challenge. And I should tell you why the are favourites.

I think in all of them I’ve felt I’ve managed to create something I was really pleased with. A number of them were surprises where a little drop of magic seemed to be caught. Like the bee on the globe flowers above, which I’d taken in quite low light and didn’t expect to draw anything out of the setting. And now it’s even the source material for the jazziBee logo.

Next I have a landscape of Dunure Castle taken a good number of years ago on a evening when conditions were perfect. I had the tripod set up on a rock with my back to a roiling sea with the setting sun spilling light over the scene. So marvellous to record the feelings generated by the wonders of history and nature together.

Over ten years ago, we were leaving the Isle of Skye (we had just came over the Skye Bridge) and looking back saw mist across the water. My wife said you’ve got to stop and take a photograph. I was keen to get home but she talked me into it and when I saw the houses across the strait peering through the mist, it just made the scene for me. She was definitely right.

And then, closer to home, I’d taken my camera to the local park, when a pair of swans started preening right next to the water’s edge, and they seemed unconcerned by my presence. From many images of these swans, this next one appealed as their heads aren’t visible, and it turned into some form of abstract.

I had to include at least one sports image in my list of favourites. The one above is a racing quad bike caught mid-race. It’s just come over the hill with all four wheels of the ground. I felt I’d caught a moment.

And then at the other end of the spectrum a studio shot of my wife’s favourite flower – aquilegia – taken indoors with a macro lens plus photo-stacking. I think if I had to pick two lenses they would be a standard zoom and my macro. I am in awe of the detail that this lens provides.

And with the same lens, I pick a favourite butterfly image. This is a Small Heath Butterfly which is just over half an inch in size in reality. Again, I just love the detail.

The next photograph was taken of the marvellous harbour of Whitby in Yorkshire. A place with a great sense of history and drama. This was taken with my very first DSLR, a Nikon D3100. I always felt this was a timeless image capturing the boat and the people walking on the piers. It made me realise what you could do with a camera. (though I see I might have been a bit heavy with the vignette)

It’s always good to bring a little fun into my photography, and I loved this image taken at a festival in Glasgow. I felt the ‘drab’ woman on the right has just finished a long work shift – and the lady with the blue hair is saying -“Would you look at the state of her!”

I hope you can see why these are favourites. I could easily have picked a different 10 images. But that was the challenge set by Tina on “Travels and Trifles”. She has chosen some fantastic images on her own post and if you’d like to see them (and maybe join in with the challenge) you can access them by clicking HERE.

25 thoughts on “Always Favourites”

  1. Can’t choose, which I’m sure I’ll be saying a lot during this challenge. Sorry for the late response, but I just posted today because it was so hard to choose. 🙂 I think all of these are grand but the swans are the most unusual and intriguing. But I also love the bee and the first two shots in the main post.

    janet

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  2. A varied and beautiful set – I can absolutely see why they are favourites! The Whitby image is great, I loved Whitby and its history. And I too, must agree about the boat in the mist – the mood is wonderful, and the colours too.

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  3. Excellent choices, you featured your ability as well as flexibility in the craft of photography. Macros, landscapes, people, action shots, and serendipity. Nicely done! PS – it’s also so cool that your wife encourages you to snap photos too. 😍🥰

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  4. hahaha, here I am wooing over your photos and that last one made me laugh. It’s fun, tells a story and creates conversation. Yes…it IS nice when a little drop of magic creeps in, but honestly you bring magic to us, every week. Fantastic photos, James. I loved the quad off the ground, and of course the favorite has to be the boat during your return from the Isle of Skye.

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      1. There will never be anything in this world that pleases everyone! It’s your blog – so your choice to share what you want 🙂. I like that shot and your commentary about it. Nothing more nothing less 🙂.

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    1. Thanks IJ! The day of the quad bikes was a great day for photography. I’ll always remember that hill and the various shots of bikes coming over it – but to my mind this was the best one..

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  11. These are all marvelous James, and I loved the variety you went with! I especially like that you took your wife’s advice for the beautiful boat image with the houses in the fog – that one is an amazing capture. I was glad I visited your site because the reader cut the bee out of your opener 😩. The swans look like something from another planet – what an amazing image that is! And your butterfly is incredibly sharp – really beautiful work, all 10!

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