Photography – Sally Wakelin – Studies in Creativity

Japan – more things I loved

Architecture, Japan, People, Photography, Travel

An ancient tree within a shrine garden bandaged and propped up.

Traditional fabric strips over the entry to a building.

A metal drain cover.

An enormous carved wood block, part of a door hinge in a temple.

Rows of hedges defining slopes within the Imperial Palace Gardens in Tokyo.

Elaborate arrangement of glazed shapes.

A face full of character

Sitting watching the Sunday visitors to a shrine.

A storefront in Tokyo.

JAPAN – Details I loved

Architecture, Design, Japan, Photography, Shrines, Travel

Granite blocks at the Imperial Palace

Bamboo screen inside a window

Ceiling of a department store

Handmade brushes

A drain cover in Kyoto

Marking out new road signs in Tokyo

A concrete waste bin

Screen over a restaurant window

Manhole cover

Wedding photography

Ancient weathered wood

A chalked-up recipe for Sake in a brewery

A copper bollard in a Shinto temple

Copper door

Street drainage cover

Plastic chain link washing line

Netting around a children’s playground

The full moon over Kyoto

Somewhere in the Tokyo underground

An internal bamboo screen

Bamboo fencing

Bamboo forest

Moss with tiny fungi

Split bamboo partition

A drawing of a shrine gateway

Pine forest

Flamed wood as weather protection, traditional technique.

Split bamboo screen

Worn wooden handrail in a temple

I am always nervous of photographing people, it seems so intrusive. I do sometimes ask and I’m happy to not take their photo if they say no – of course. But actually asking can be awkward, embarrassing and often just too late, the moment has gone.

This little girl was part of a wedding – she wanted to be in the bridal procession but was not allowed to be. Her mother and grandmother spent quite a few minutes trying to restrain her, but she eventually escaped. There was a big crowd watching!

Here are the bride and groom with their families having formal photos taken.

She looked so sad but such an enigmatic face and expression, i daren’t ask, I knew she would say no. I tried to look as though I was photographing the shrine buildings but I think she saw me, I feel sorry for that.

What a distinguished looking gentleman, i think he might have wanted to be photographed, he wandered around in the temple grounds, adopting rather posed stances. i was too slow for tis one, its slightly out of focus.

Peaceful moments in the grounds of Odawara fort in the late afternoon sun.

These two spent quite a long time trying out different poses with their stuffed rabbit, trying to get just the right selfie. I deliberately caught them between poses.

A school group were practising and then performing a song with actions, to make a video at Odawarra fort, – they were accompanied by 4 volunteers dressed in traditional costume. The teachers welcomed us to take photos. The children were thrilled and wanted to see the images we took.

In the street where people go to parade in costumes (Cosplay)I saw her and I asked if i could take her picture, she was terribly shy but her friends encouraged her, then she broke into this gorgeous smile, and performed the ubiquitous hand gesture.

This lady seemed reluctant to believe she was no longer 20 but kudos for the style!

The Beatles got everywhere didn’t they?! Loving the matched colours though.

Shibuya station, one of the busiest in Tokyo, there’s a bus station right outside where guys in uniform with LED lighting tracks in their jackets and red sabres, orchestrate the passengers into queues and then usher them onto the buses, finishing with a bow to the bus driver!

I came across this man in a side street in Yanaka, Tokyo, he seemed to be making a plan of street services, he spoke no English but I managed to ask Shashin? which is Japanese for photo! He happily agreed, whilst fighting the wind from whipping away his drawing.

This girl was absorbed by her mum’s phone, she had just a minute before, been taking a selfie, big grin on her face. Sadly I was too slow and also a bit reticent to photograph a child.

I asked her just as she moved the poster from in front of her face, held up my camera and pointed, she nodded, I clicked!

I took this in Odawara at the fort. He had dip-died his dogs ears! One pink one orange, he turned away and took up the exact same pose as the dog – irresistible.

On holidays and weekends lots of young people wear full kimono clothes and visit their local temple.

Our group waiting for the tutors to arrive with the hire cars. Shades of the “Usual Suspects” A bit of attitude going on as well though.

Architecture of Toulouse and Castres

Architecture, Photography, Travel

Toulouse Blagnac airport, new terminal. Ingenious wood slats behind the glazing panels filters the sun but lets in plenty of

light.

IMG_2609-1 — The approach from the plane into the terminal, none of that grey bland utilitarian style here, it is perfectly functional and the yellow is joyous.

IMG_2607-1 — From the outside you see the slatted wood but not the coloured glass dots that are placed at crossing points.

Architecture, France, Airport — Simple glass barriers along the walkways are half-painted in a delightful maritime blue, a sort of abstract beach scene perhaps!

IMG_3172-1 — None of those hideous hard plastic chairs here, just soft red comfort.

IMG_3163-1 — Even on the sunniest of days the light inside is soft with no glare – a calm space, just right when waiting to board a plane.

IMG_3162-1 — Vertical tube lights hanging over the stairwell

IMG_3175-17 — Wooden slats punctuated by circles of coloured glass at the crossing points. A subtle reference to stained glass windows maybe?

corten — An unusual gateway to a school, water-jet cut out lettering in Corten steel.

Castres

IMG_2924-15 — The weir in the river, looking like an abstract oil painting

IMG_2875-11 — River-side living – cantilevered balconies at every level

IMG_2927-16 IMG_2896-14

IMG_2895-13 — Classical references in this old chapel.

corten steel — Some more Corten steel cut-out lettering, this time the letters have been fixed on supports in front of their corresponding gaps.

Ripe for an abstract linocut print maybe? The formal gardens at the Bishop’s Palace by the river

Pembrokeshire

Architecture, Photography, Travel

Recently I spent a week in South Wales, St David’s Cathedral is a very special place, I last visited more than 30 years ago in the pouring rain, it looks gorgeous in sunlight, though the deep purple of the stone stands out so much better in rain.

St David’s Cathedral

The Sun at last

Landscape, Photography, Travel

Our boat trip lasted about 12 hours and during that time the sky was pretty much clouded over but during our trip back to Longyearbyen harbour the sun finally appeared. The sky turned blue and so of course did the water. The ocean was calm and smooth as silk, I’ve heard that expression before but this time it really moved like silk and was very reflective. I tried to focus on the birds following above us but it seemed impossible, as an amateur, to get the focus right as the birds flew unexpectedly close.

I’m pretty sure the generous shots of whisky provided by our delightful guide Stein only helped my technique. He was kind enough to say that our trip was the most convivial he had guided this year.

Stein from the MS Langǿysund, watching out for Polar bears, sadly we didn’t get to see one.

A bright blue line appeared along the coast, I caught it on camera so it can’t have just been an affect of the whisky.

A Minke whale flashed its white back at us a we sailed past

Pyramiden

Architecture, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Pyramiden is one of several abandoned Russian coal-mining towns, there is also Barentsburg which seems to have been larger and more complex. We chose to go to Pyramiden because the boat sails past the Nordensköld glacier.
A busy and fully equipped mining town, it was abruptly abandoned at the demise of USSR in 1998. Here is an excellent site giving full details of its history but these photos demonstrate how it looks right now.
Some of these images were taken with a phone camera but most were taken with a borrowed camera. The charming and kind Lisa lent me her camera to use, with my SD card, because my lovely camera had a hissy fit and decided it couldn’t bear the cold wind, the shutter refused to shut or open unless I removed the lens and kept the body of the camera warm for 10 minutes.

Lisa and Severin are half way through a 6 month tour of Scandinavian countries driving and living in an adapted Mercedes van. What a fabulous trip, I would love to do that. Such interesting people doing such a great thing, and so generous with their camera. (thanks )