love + agony

Wandering down a backstreet in Zagreb, Croatia in October, I couldn’t help but feel the love & sense of togetherness between this family of three.

I never feel comfortable taking photos of folk in the street. The immediate emotion I felt (& the gorgeous afternoon light filling the alley) warranted a “sneaky” shot, so I took this one without permission. Had no time to fiddle with settings or composition so was happy to have got what I got. I did use my stash of coins to leave a thank-you in the hat

f/6.3, 1/125, ISO-100 (Canon RP mirrorless with RF24-105mm lens)

No words can adequately describe the exterior & interior magnificence & scale of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. By far the stand-out of all the amazing architecture I saw in my travels last year.

Photographing it was a huge challenge for me: (a) my lens was nowhere near wide enough given the restrictions on where we could stand to shoot; (b) trying to control the glare from all the brilliant white Italian marble (including floors), pure gold detailing & millions of Swarovski crystals whilst viewing in the middle of a stinking hot cloudless day; (c) being hurried to keep up with the tour group so all photos were just aim & shoot! All very frustrating photographically. Obviously I would’ve preferred the composition to include some of the floral patterned white marble tiled foreground, but I had to sacrifice that to at least get SOME of the 82 domes in shot, so I was happy to have got this with somewhat tamed highlights on my camera. Of course my phone camera coped a lot better with the conditions (sigh)

f/18/, 1/200, ISO-100 (Canon Rp Mirrorless with RF24-105mm lens)

Taken on my phone at Apsley Falls.  While there, the heavens opened and we were saturated

This is the top section of the falls

‘Springs’

ISO 400  35mm  f13  1/160 sec

‘Riding with Dad’

ISO 400  125mm  f4.5  1/1600 sec