Flora

Not the butter! Flora as in... Natural wonders... Flowers... Leaves...

Magical mirror

Studying

Beautiful Bath?

Or, as we say, every silver lining has a cloud!

"They" are destroying the Southgate area of Bath to rebuild it. Creative destruction.




Problem is, not everyone agrees with the new plan:


One of the signs reads "Council + Corporate vandals". I think they have a point there...

And another learning from the day: taking pictures with "ISO" on 400 when it is sunny is indeed a stupid thing to do. Forgot to change the settings after my night photography session...Woops.

Dartmoor and Exeter

Dartmoor National Park is a huge, lovely and rather empty piece of land in Devon (not Cornwall as someone might say). One striking feature is the local sheep's carelessness when crossing the roads that go through the park. You'd think they look right, then left, then right again, on the zebra crossing (no no, zebras are not crossing the roads... Read the paragraph again if you're lost), but no, they don't care.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the little woolen devils but believe me, they're actually something of a wolf in sheep's clothing when they make sheep's eyes at you before engaging on the tarmac.

Enough of sheep-y idioms. Now's time to see those long awaited pictures. Ladies and Gentleman, Devon it is.

It's a rock and hard place. All-in-one. And it's huge.


Devon landscapes. Hills, fog and, if you look close enough, a little ant telling its kids off for not making their bed.


Solid as a...rock. Well obviously, he's made of rock.


St Peter's Cathedral, Exeter. For the culture-savvy people that you are, you'll be happy to hear (or read, actually) that this piece of architecture has the longest unbroken Gothic ceiling in the world. What is a church with a broken ceiling anyway? A broken church?


River Exe and swans doing their "how-about-some-river-love, babe" dance.



I even filmed them. It's like a live ballet without people dancing and with water. OK, it's nothing like a real ballet. Whatever. Just click on "play".



That's a LOT of swans. Oh, and a bridge and the cathedral, of course.


I think one of the houses is the "Quay House".



Exeter's marina.


Sunset on the river Exe.

Various night pics

Finally, here's the third selection of night pictures, including Great Pulteney Street, ducks and more...



15-second aperture... Maybe a bit too much.



Mister duck, posing in front of the Abbey. It doesn't often happen.


And then trying to get away from paparazzi with his secret girlfriend.

Bath Abbey by night

Second in our "night pictures" series is Bath Abbey. It's quite incredible what you can do with a tripod and a camera. I could take hundreds of pictures of the abbey, it's such an incredible architectural wonder, by day and by night. OK, enough of the blah blah, here are the pictures.



Completely over-exposed...but it gives the abbey a "surreal" look...



Ze abbey and ze moon.

Pulteney Bridge by night

It was freezing cold outside. But Jai was brave enough to come with me, although he didn't have his camera. After swallowing 2 hamburgers without much trouble, I went to Pulteney Bridge, armed with my dearly beloved Panasonic Lumix FX-3 and my Joby tripod. This time, I was determined to explore the full potential of the "night landscape" and "moonlit sky" modes...Even if it would involve giving up the use of my fingers at a later stage (due to the cold temperature, for those of you who still don't get my, dare I say "British", humour).

With just a pinch of pride, I have to admit I'm very happy with these pictures. However, to keep the suspense going, I will publish them in 3 parts, over 3 days.

I hope you will enjoy seeing these photos as much as I did when taking them.




My favourite photo:



Thanks to a slow shutter speed, the mini waterfalls turned into a white blanket...