Suburban sundown - Camp Malden Manor! - # 09/07

The 1937 utilitarian, poured-concrete equipment tower of Malden Manor suburban railway station unwittingly looks forward to the unpleasantness of the imminent WW 2. The tower has not aged elegantly, although the station is still rugged, clean, and fit for purpose.

Below it another shock awaits us! The unexpected, and very much enjoyed, echo of Britain's colonial past - the Indian Take-Away: strategically placed to catch home-bound commuters, and all tooled up with a little VHF transceiver antenna to communicate urgently with all patrolling Honda delivery mopeds.

Suburban sundown - sometimes it gets you down. (Lessons in English vernacular cost extra!)

Ah, yes. I remember Menton - # 08/287

http://menton-daily-photo.blogspot.com/2008/12/menton-christmas-sunshine-at-last.html

636 miles away.

Compare the colours, the humidity, the temperature. Mull it over inside your head. Think of place and time and circumstance and how they affect what you do and who you are, and what you become.

.....scene walking beside the Thames approaching Kingston Bridge coming upriver from Richmond.

Richmond Bridge under grey November skies - # 08/261

Well, we go from Birkett-Foster ( http://www.postershop.co.uk/Birkett-Foster-M/Birkett-Foster-M-Richmond-Hill-Surrey-2501391.html ) and my interpretation of his "Richmond Hill" - (thank you Richard of Zurich: I do indeed sometimes kid myself that I am a far better artist - Tee Hee!) - to this view, equally true, but on another day and looking East towards the old bridge (1778) and Richmond Hill instead of West from the top of The Hill.

The spectacular sunset and reflections on the water, yesterday, were indeed real, just as the grey overcast here, today, is real.

The "fault" in yesterday's splendid artefact is a degree of "over-sharpening". I was playing in my trial version of Adobe Lightroom 2.1 - a magnificent archiving and post-processing tool. But in spite of the over sharpening, the rest, colour, sunset, general scene are REAL!!! How lucky I am to live here.

The Ultimate Grey - # 08/60

All right! So you are moaning! You don't like Grey! But I have to make the best of what I've got. Grey is all I have.....this is London in winter, isn't it! The Brentford buildings on the Golden Mile have a remarkable ability to reflect the colour of the day. The GSK Building looks good under any sky.

This is the Ultimate Grey Building: ultimate means last. The Grey Series has finished.

Camera: Olympus E3

Old oak tree - # 337

Playing around, experimenting with shooting into the sun instead of keeping it behind me.

The huge and ancient oak trees make interesting subjects.

I chose this moody, mysterious shot. The trees stand dark, gnarled and mysterious, the path curves to the right taking us into the unknown, but straight ahead there seems to be another path into the darkness of nature, the branches reaching out to entrap us. On the right, the house (but it's only the hint of a house) stands behind an obscuring hedge.

Hmmm........anyone for a walk? (Camera: Olympus C7070 WZ)