The Photo Gallery 231: Landscape

This post is for Wk 231 of Tara's Photo Gallery over at Sticky Fingers (click here to see the other entries).  The prompt this week is 'Landscape'.

At the beginning of last year, we were lucky enough to visit New Zealand; what a magnificent place.

I've been fortunate in my life and have travelled through all sorts of interesting landscapes, but I have to say that New Zealand currently holds top billing for me - and here are a couple of examples why...

Lake Gunn, Fiordland National Park, South Island

Mitre Peak at Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park, South Island

The view from Te Mata Peak, North Island

The mountains behind Kaikoura, South Island

A geyser pool at Rotorua, North Island (and no - those are not my children swimming in it...)

I could go on, but I think you may have got the picture by now...

The Photo Gallery 230: Animals

This post is for Week 230 of The Photo Gallery over at Sticky Fingers blog (click here to see the other photos participating).  This week's theme is Animals...

You might have noticed that we're leaving Russia - for the foreseeable future - in the next few months.  Moscow is, of course, putting on a spectacular show for us now that we've decided to up sticks; the weather is warm, the trees are all in blossom, and we are surrounded in our suburban neighbourhood by the type of greenness that you normally only find when you stick a filter on your camera.  The city is not making it easy to leave it whole-hearted.

However, instead of showing you photos of birds and ducks frolicking in springtime I thought that I would - for once - play to the gallery (ha!  See what I did there?), and have trawled through my files to show you some photos I've taken of animals in the Moscow winter.


This was taken from our dining room window one March.  It's a Waxwing, by the way.  Don't you love his Elvis quiff?




This was taken on the walk to pick the Boys up from school in February - the tuftiest-eared squirrel I ever saw.

And this was also taken in February, on the canal behind the Boy's school.  You can see the hole the fish were caught in, on the bottom right.

Gosh, it's grey in Moscow...

April 25th, 2014.  Anzac Day wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin, Moscow

Silent Sunday

Russia; grey, boring, uninteresting?

I don't think so...

Oh, alright.  It is grey sometimes.  But - thank heavens - not today...

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

So I've committed to showing some of my photos at a very low key art fair in a couple of weeks time.  You know - the type where people might actually pay money to buy pictures that I've taken.  I must be bonkers, putting myself on the line like this but I suppose it's one way of keeping myself entertained...

Interesting how having that kind of deadline can focus the mind on just how few images you actually have in your portfolio - so yesterday I went out and took some more.  I still don't have enough - but it's a start.

The Gallery; Picture Postcard

This post is for Week 100 of Tara's Gallery; click here to see all the other great entries.

The prompt for this week's Gallery was 'Picture Postcard' as in; the photo you have that you would like to see made into a postcard.  What with my self-imposed ban on posting photographs of members of my family online, I'm reduced to choosing my entry this week from more situational shots.  Except, that isn't quite right.  'Reduced' gives the impression I don't have much to choose from, but Moscow is a city full of photo opportunities, from the grandeur of the onion domes on the churches and cathedrals, to the imposing splendour of Stalin's Seven Sisters, and the sheer bustle of living alongside 15 million people.  Frankly, I wasn't sure where to start.

So I went back to my current favourite photographic hunting ground; the Moscow Metro.  I took this one on Monday.  I quite like it; what do you think?  (Click to enlarge)

I'm not a Photo-Blogger, but...

There's something about taking a photograph with a 'proper' camera.  We're lucky enough to have a fairly decent one (although it is now 4 years old and in my more day-dreamy moments I do imagine replacing it with something more up to date), and I use it quite a lot.  I love the experience of using it.  The weight of it, the satisfying feeling as you press the button.  The fiddling with the lens - to zoom in, or not to zoom in?  To use the flash, or not?

But recently I've been experimenting with the Nokia N8-00 which I was sent 18 months back to give me the chance to review an app in Russia which - unfortunately - so far hasn't worked properly here.  What has worked though, is the camera.  It is, quite simply, awesome.  And whilst it isn't a 'proper' camera, having it to hand, seeing a photo-opportunity, pointing, and shooting has changed the way I can take photos when I'm out and about.

I particularly like the way it works for me in the Moscow metro.  There's a grainy, action quality to the pictures that, when I look at them in black and white (and yes - I freely admit it - fiddle with the brightness & contrast a little) gives them a vintage, almost reportage feel that I love.

Like this one, that I took in the rush-hour at Park Kultury, today.

(Click on the photo to enlarge it)

Silent Sunday

The Gallery; Light

This post is for Wk 96 of Tara's Gallery; click here to see all the other entries.

The prompt for this week's Gallery is 'light'. When I saw it I knew straight away which photograph I wanted to use, but couldn't decide whether to use the colour or black & white version, as both seem to work. So I've used both, and I would be interested to hear any thoughts you might have on which works better in the comment box.

I took this photograph a couple of weeks ago in Tblisi, Georgia. At the time, I was trying to capture the colour of the buildings on the right, and didn't even notice the shadows on the wall to the left. It was only when I looked at it again after the holiday, on the full screen, that I noticed them. Now, I think they may even be the point of the photo. What do you reckon?

(Click on the photos to bring up a larger version)

The Greatest Photo I Never Took, #1079

I bet this happens to everyone. You see something, for just a moment, and then a few seconds later - when it's gone - think "Damn! I should have got my camera out! WHY didn't I get my camera out?" Assuming you're not engaged in an activity that would make it dangerous for you to stop and make it happen, there's no excuse really; it's not as if most of us don't have the ability, what with mobile phones now doubling up as cameras.

I'm not sure there are really 1,079 shots that I've missed. I suspect it's far more, if I'm honest, but only a couple spring to mind right now. The first was of the top of one of Moscow's Seven Sisters buildings rising through the clouds on a particularly beautiful morning. I knew I should take that photo, but I was driving at 60km an hour on a 3 lane highway with no hard shoulder at the busiest time of day, so have had to make do with keeping that one as a mental snapshot. But oh, what a beautiful photograph it would have made.

The second - the one that prompted this post - was something I saw on Saturday. It was cold, about minus 18degC, and we were sitting in heavy traffic (yes, I know, cold and traffic; recurrent themes on this blog), driving along Leningradskoe Shosse. I glanced out of the car and saw 2 workmen taking 5 minutes by the side of the road. One of them was holding a pipe upright at right angles to the ground; it ended in a jet of flame at about shoulder level. The other was passing his bare hands through the flame, to warm them up. I reached for my handbag to pull out my phone, but the traffic had started to move again, and they were gone.

So desperately crazy. So bloody cold. So extremely Moscow.

Definitely one of the greatest photos I never took. What was yours?

The Gallery; My Photography Resolution

This post is for Week 88 of Tara's Gallery. Click here to see all the other great entries...

When I saw the prompt for this week's Gallery, I have to admit that I struggled a little. Of course I have 'photography resolutions' (that's the prompt, by the way). Getting better at it, would be a good start, as would actually attending a proper course (not without it's logistical issues, that one; living in Russia and not speaking 'technical Russian' would make it a little tricky to do in Moscow). But thinking about it more deeply, there is one resolution that, on reflection, wins out for 2012.

Print. It. Out.

After all, what's the point of taking photo's you love, if all they do is sit in a file somewhere and you never see them?

The Gallery: Week 82

This post is for Week 82 of Tara's Gallery: click here to see all the other entries...

The prompt for this week's Gallery is 'Something I am Proud Of'. Wow. Like everybody I'm sure, there are things in my life that I'm not proud of (the unpacked boxes from our move nearly one month ago, the fact that after nearly two years in Moscow my Russian is still - to use a technical term - 'crap', my procrastination when it comes to any and all things financial, etc etc), but over all, there's a lot in my life that I AM proud of. So, where to start?

It's lucky, in a way, that I don't post photographs of my family, because I am inordinately proud of my children. Not just of their amazing characters, their achievements, and their resilience but - if I'm honest - how goddam beautiful they are, too. They may be boys, but that doesn't stop complete strangers stopping me and telling me what good-looking sons I have. (It's all from my side of the family, obviously.) However, as I have frequently said, I don't post photos of The Boys here, so you're saved from those...

Instead, then, I'm going to show you some photos I've taken since I've been in Moscow. Not only am I proud of them simply as images, but I am proud of them for what they represent to me: living here, making it work, and not just making it work, but - if you'll pardon the expression - taking this experience and making it my bitch...

We also clean windows...

Walking my sons to school this morning, I heard the first nightingale of the summer. It's unmistakeable, the song of a nightingale; once heard, never forgotten (and as soon as I work out how to put a sound clip onto Blogger - all hints much appreciated, by the way - I'll let you hear it too), and it suddenly struck me; who knew I would have to move all the way to Moscow to experience it?

I certainly never heard one in London. And I never would have expected to hear one here either, if I'm honest. But that's what being an expat can be like; realising that there is alway so much more to - well, practically anywhere - than your preconceptions.

So for those who might imagine Moscow as snowy, grey, dirty and full of brutal modernist architecture (and I'm not going to tell you that it isn't all of those things at least some of the time, it is), here's a glimpse of another side to city living here. All of these photos were taken within 5 metres of my front door...

(And yes - that is a Potski Front FlowerBed Springwatch shot I snuck in at the end...)

If you've enjoyed this post, might I ask that you click on this link to take you over to 'Circle of Moms' where they are currently voting for their top 25 Expat Mom Blogs? You don't have to vote for me (although of course that would be very much appreciated), but there are plenty of other interesting blogs on there to look at, some of which you might recognise...

The Gallery: My Blog

This post is for week 55 of The Gallery: click here to see all the other fabulous entries...

Tara's prompt this week was - after last week's humdinger of 'Tomorrow' - billed by her as going to be easy. Tara, you fibbed; this week's prompt was 'My Blog'. How on earth to post a photograph that represents my blog? How on earth to show you in one or two pictures a representation of what my blog means to me?

Well, I couldn't do it. So I decided instead to focus on one aspect of what my blog means. Right now, the fact that I'm living in Russia experiencing things that I never thought I would, and being exposed to things that were so far from my previous central London reality, is a lot of what I write about. So I'm going to show you two things that I would not - as a matter of course - come across in South Kensington, and both of which were photographed here.

This first shot was taken last week and shows the latest in fashionable attire. Not for you and I, oh no. For dogs.

And the second is quite simply a beautiful photograph that I took on a walk through Izmailova last Autumn. I love the colours. And since this is My Blog, I feel at liberty to post whatever I want, just because...

Shape: The Gallery

I love the summer. Contrary to my expectations, Moscow in the summer is a very green city. Sure, it has it's dustbowls and waste-lands of unfortunate soviet-style architecture, but there are also plenty of parks, and in between the buildings, shaded playgrounds and walks for the locals to make the most of when the weather is warm enough.

However, it's in the winter, when the leaves have been stripped from the trees that you can see their true shape. (See what I did there?) And this photo was taken in the woods near our home where I will shortly be slipping and sliding along on my cross country skis, trying to get into shape...

OK -I know it's a tenuous link for this week's theme of 'Shape' at Tara's Gallery, but I like the photo. Live with it...

Apologies for the break in transmission...

So. Two things have happened. Firstly, I seem to have lost my blogging mojo a little. Well - a lot, actually. You might have noticed. And secondly, even if my blog-Mo-Jo were up and about rather than languishing on a beach sipping mojito's somewhere, it also appears that Real Life is starting to get in the way of blogging. What the hell? I thought that when both Boys started school there would be acres of empty space in my day, that I would find myself tapping away at the keyboard for long tranches of time, and that I would become ever more productive on the writing front.

HA!

And again, HA!

It hasn't worked out that way. This is partly due to having got myself involved in a couple of things at the Boys' school which seem to be taking up rather more of my days than I envisaged, but if I'm honest that's not all there is to it.

I've long promised myself, you see, that when Boy #2 started school properly (as in, full days, which finally happened last week), I would at last begin to properly experience Moscow. We've been here 9 months now and due to the fact that up until now I've mostly had my younger son in tow, I still feel a little as if I could be anywhere. But now that's changed I want to make better use of the limited time we have here to get out and about, and get under the skin of this city. I don't want to waste the chance to experience something so completely 'other' to my beloved London; just imagine if, in 10 years time, I mentioned in passing to a friend that I lived in Russia for a while, and on being pressed on what I did there I could only answer 'much the same as in London, really; a bit of work, looked after the kids, went for coffee with my mates, helped out at the school, shopping, laundry, housework...' I'm not slagging any of these pursuits off, you understand. But you can do them anywhere.

So I have set myself a task to get out of my normal routine whilst I'm here. That could mean having a cup of tea with Russian rather than English people, visiting a gallery or museum off the beaten track, cross country skiing in the forests outside town (once the snow comes, obviously - which I'm assured will be in 4 - 6 weeks, hurrah...), taking a Russian language exercise class, or simply walking through the city and finding the opportunities to take photographs like this one...

So don't hold me to it, but I guess what I'm saying is that posts might be a bit thin on the ground for a while. I'll still be here, you understand. But living life, rather than just writing about it. And who knows? Maybe my errant Blog MoJo might look up from her magazine on the beach in Mauritius, glance in my direction, and decide it's actually worth coming back over here for a look-see at what I'm up to...

What's wrong with this picture...

...metaphorically speaking, that is?

Sometimes it's painfully clear to me why our economy is in the mess it is...

Boy #2 recently dropped our 7 year old digital camera. Thankfully, it wasn't the really expensive one (the one that never gets used and which was bought more recently in a moment of unsupervised madness by Husband, which I am too scared to ever to take out of the house - for good reason, it turns out), and it still takes a decent shot, but the lens cover no longer closes when it's not in use. There's also a little teeny dent in it, but I've carried on using it and the picture quality seems fine.

Since we're staying at my parents for a week or more, however, I thought that it might be a good opportunity to get the lens cover fixed. I took it into the local camera repair shop, and after showing it them the damage, had the following conversation.

Me: "....so, can you fix it?"

Shop assistant (sucks in air through his teeth and looks doubtful): "Well, we can. But honestly, you might just as well buy a new one. Once things start to go on these cameras, you just need to do one repair after another."

Me: "Oh. Right. But it hasn't 'started to go', it's been dropped. And it still works. I just want to the lens cover to close when it's not in use."

Him: "Still..."

Me: "Well, how much would it cost to repair it?"

Him (more sucking of teeth): "Oh. Probably £60, £70?"

Me: "Right. And how much to buy a new one?"

Him: "Well, we sell the latest version of these for around £250."

Me (doing some teeth-sucking of my own): "Well, £60 to repair it does sound a little cheaper than £250..."

Him: "Yes, I suppose it does, really..."

As it happens, I didn't get it repaired; the time it would have taken was longer than we had (More tooth sucking "You've chosen the busiest time of year to bring it in, you know..."). But neither did I buy a new one. Instead I bought some cleaning papers to keep with the camera so I can make sure there's no dust on the lens when I use it. The price? £1.50.