time flieth

I have been very absent, but very present at the same time. 

Since the last post (Vancouver, last summer), I have travelled to Nice, and Ventimiglia (I have a decades-old soft spot for Ventimiglia)...

and we spent several weeks in Thailand...

one week of which with twelve of the loveliest, HAPPIEST elephants ever... 

and then: Laos, which I will never forget...

and, last week, Andalucía. It was a short, spur-of-the-moment visit. And wondrous.

Which all goes to say: I am here, but happily scarce. There is such a world out there.

lovely treachery

After 6+ years of shooting only film, I succumbed.

I travel too much - and too light - to weigh myself down with one or more of my analog cameras; my favourite "proper" cameras are always the heavy ones. And I always fret about the film in tropical climates. And my scanners are ailing.

I asked a few of my treasured contacts for their opinions. I wandered through my Flickr favourites. (I have avoided Flickr otherwise, but that's another story altogether.) And this OM-D E-M5 was the conclusion I arrived at.

I wanted true colours and I wanted as sublime a DOF rendition as I could get. I got both, and was lucky to find one second-hand. With the 45mm lens: a jewel.

I feel like a traitor, but a happy traitor despite.

when the saints

Spring is in the air.
Hallelujah.

a tenth of a century

A year ago today, my husband and I were battling jet-lag after a joyous month rambling around beautiful Cambodia.

Ten years ago today, I posted my first pictures and words here, in this place that has been so important to me.

{A decade: imagine.}

I appreciate you times ten.

in with the new

I could not leave 2012 without giving that solitary post a bit of companionship, and without wishing the few people who have not given up on me a very very happy 2013!

same old rice

"The colour of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams."
- Claude Debussy (French composer, 1862-1918)

Well. Not quite. But getting used to the grey, the chill, the detached quiet is taking me longer than it usually does.
I miss Cambodia.

and nothing there but delights

we were very taken with the formal gardens at wolterton hall; they had a quiet, unassuming grandness, a shy splendour, a joyous symmetry. passing through the
outer doorway and catching a first glimpse of their fineness felt rather like discovering hidden treasure.

and the hall itself? well, we got stuck in the compulsory tour, and photography wasn't exactly encouraged, but there was beauty within the walls, too.

best foot forward

were i to take myself a bit too seriously, i might refer to this serendipitous pink as a decisive moment, but really, it was simply very good luck.

triple dip

there is a bicycle at the top of the dune: smile number one.
the bicycle is red: smile number two. because red rocks.
the tide, on the other side of the dune, is high and rising: smile number three.

a hat trick. my day is made.

at long last

it has taken me a few years - the havoc wreaked by the hack and the lack of backup
seemed insurmountable - but i have spent the last three days giving here some first aid and some much-needed tlc.
some happened-upon old back-ups turned out to contain many of the first photographs,
so i finally reinstated almost all of the early pictures (save a dozen that are probably
lost forever). the anxiety that overcame me at the mere thought of all the empty
images has lifted.
this feels like home again.
and i tackled the spam comments (that's 778 on one entry) that had me so frustrated that i couldn't even face moderating any more.
*
thank you for sticking with me.
i am grateful. and happy.