frankfurt 21/01

So i admit there are quite a few photos in this post but that's cause i couldn't choose ... so i appologize for my indecision! 

Anyways back to the post ... this past friday, the 21st of january i headed down to Frankfurt with my friend Nelou & a day of shooting with some other photographers including the wonderful Kim Kravitz another military spouse & photographer based down in Heidelberg. We'd met online (as i have discovered so many fabulous photographers) & had been trying to get out shooting together for a while. 

So Frankfurt was chosen because well i wanted somewhere new ... i wanted to experiment & push my boundaries ... instead of history & pretty i wanted modern, metal, glass & everything that goes with. I've never really liked the city so i've never photographed this kind of architecture. & to say i had a wonderful day is putting it mildly!! We wandered aimlessly (my favourite kind of exploration) & i made use of my ultra wide & loved it! 

So sit back ... relax ... maybe grab yourself a cup of something ... & i hope you enjoy the pretty pictures!

feeling the blues ...

So there is all kinds of stuff going on over here ... i've been crazy busy (or at least i feel like it). With work, the growing baby (not that am complaining about that one), the need to clean, de-clutter & organize my house, photo shoots & the horrible nasty weather we've been having i've found myself in a bit of a photographic funk when it comes to my fine art. I'm not sure unmotivated is quite the right work but a combination of things has left me feeling a little uninspired. So i'm throwing it out there for you guys ... what do you do when this happens?

ps. The photos are from our day trip to Strasbourg, France on my birthday. We had a wonderful time with some great friends. 

... & walls & buildings ...

When you walk through a village or a town or a city in France the thing i always notice is the colour of the buildings. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find sky scrapers, & concrete & ugly but i don't look hard enough & i just see those wonderful pale coloured homes, or red & orange & other sun inspired mediterranean houses. Apartments with little balconies or banks with mint coloured shutters. I love the colours of the buildings & every time i see them i wonder if i could build a home like that where ever it is we end up. I love the contrasting colours & the fact that they all look like they've seen a whole host of history. I like the tile roofs, or laundry strung between the buildings. Winding alleyways & the colour everywhere. There's nothing grey & dreary about France it's just, in my eyes, totally perfect! 

... & windows ...

So as well as doors i love windows as well ... & the small details that go with them. Oh & then there's the shutters, i want some of these shutters! I love the colours of the shutters against the pale walls (or not to pale walls in some cases) & the way people turn a boring window into something much more interesting with plants & objects that are personal to them. It gives the windows a life of their own so to speak. I want my windows to be full of colour & interesting enough that some photographer somewhere walking past with their camera wants to take a picture. & France is good at this also! 

leave part six: Edinburgh

So it's been a few days since i posted some photographs from leave ... what with life you know getting in the way of editing & a few other blog posts on such topics as people i love, cupcakes, elle moss, miss match & photo shop actions to keep you interested, not to mention my day job & various photo shoots i've been a little busy. But the break is over & it's time to share more vacation photos & stories with you.

I left you with my first night in Edinburgh & our new hats! Well here i'll start with a photo of the bar of our hotel ... no real reason just that it was all kinds of pretty (& we all know how much i like pretty). We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Place in case you were wondering.

So we spent our day in Edinburgh doing a whole lot of walking ... i really got to know the Royal Mile (all 1.1 miles of it).

& our day started out at the castle. I could spend a whole lot of time talking about the castle being as it has a history going back to the 9th century BC (that's a really really long time in case you were wondering). The short version involves it being in blown up & rebuilt alot!

It was kinda call seeing the piper though!

& here is one of the many many ice creams i ate on vacation. Now for some random facts ... stick a Cadbury's flake in an ice cream & it becomes a '99. What's a '99 i hear you ask ... well one rumor links it to an ice cream shop at 99 High Street, Portobello, Scotland & another to the final wave of Italian conscripts known as the "i Ragazzi del 99" (the boys of 99) who born in 1899 were held with great honor in Italy. I just remember the sound of the ice cream van growing up!

After the castle we headed to the Camera Obscura which was all kinds of fun. Pin hole photos, panoramics, mirrors, lights, illusions & the rest. I would honestly recommend it to everyone as a little "light relief" from Edinburgh's history not to mention a pretty awesome view from the top. It's right by the castle enterence in case you wondered!

Some random Edinburgh ...

& a sea gull sunning himself (we had pretty night weather) ...

Aaaaaaaah yes would trip to Scotland would be complete without a little whiskey drinking!

& here's the statue for Greyfriars Bobby. Now i know you all want to know why this little guy gets a statue (& yeah there's some dude ruining a perfectly good picture) ... Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who in the 19th century reportedly spent 14 years guarding his owners grave. Now i think that's one pretty awesome doggie, & as a result there have been books written about him & even a movie. So naturally we had to check his monument out!

Some pretty Edinburgh ...

The view of the city as i wandered along Princess Street (the other side of the river to the old town & if you were to look right you'd see shops). I know these buildings have names but off the top of my head i can't remember (let me know if you know).

& these were taken in Princess Street gardens which was so very pretty. They were full of people, & in a city like Edinburgh i can imagine spending my summers lying in the grass, watching the world go by ... & of course eating ice cream.

oh i had to snap this in Urban Outfitters ... unfortunately the cameras weren't for sale (i did treat myself to this lil' fella though ...).

So here we are with a final couple of shots of Edinburgh ... i loved the city, & i'm a country girl. I think it's because the moment you end the old town you are greeted by a wonderful history, with not a sky scraper in sight. Yes it's full of tourists but the charm makes up for that, the cobbled streets, the wonderful buildings & a fabulous history. Check out the Real Mary King's Close if you have the chance, a totally different kind of history.

leave part five: first night in edinburgh

So Tuesday lunch time we made the long (ish) drive from Cambridge up to Edinburgh. Now i have been to Edinburgh once before but being as i was knee high to a grass hopper at the time my memory of this is a little cloudy ... ok i have no memory of this. & Edinburgh has been on our list of things to do for a while, although this was Kevin's forth visit. & for a non city loving girl, i loved Edinburgh ... especially the old town where we spent most of our time.

This photo was taken on the "Royal Mile", looking down towards the sea. The Royal Mile is a series of streets that runs from Edinburgh castle down to Holyrood Abbey, it is one "Scot's mile" long which is actually 1.1 (regular) miles long (or 1.8km).

Who can resist such stunning architecture, you don't feel like you're in a city ... no sky scrapers, & whilst it was full of people (oh yeah tourist heaven) it didn't feel dirty & stuffy & leave me running away as cities generally do.

So whilst we were sitting down to dinner outside a restaurant along the Royal Mile (great for people watching) it started to get a little cooler. Now it's June, & admittedly we've had a long cold winter here in Germany but when you vacation in June you don't think you need a wooly hat to keep your ears warm ... well this evening we did. So one moment Kevin disappears off into a souvenir shop across the way & returns we two hats ...

this is his ...

& this is mine (photo courtesy of one Kevin Evans) ...

& whilst we cannot doubt my wonderful husband's photographic skills i couldn't resist taking a couple of myself!