"There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.

When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh ooh and she's buying a stairway to heaven.

There's a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, makes me wonder.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won't go
In case you don't know,
The piper's calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow,
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering Wind....."

Jimmy Page/ Robert Plant

Here we're in Bangkok standing at the Sky bar on the 64th floor, surrounded by silken clad, demure Thai loveliness.
If you like Cityscapes & being high without popping pills, snorting, smoking or shooting up - this may be just the place for you.
This is the highest open air bar in the world, looking towards The Dome at State Tower as the sun is setting.
Perfect for photographers of course (no glass = no annoying reflections).
Sirocco, to the right of the dome is the highest al fresco restaurant in the world - so "Stairway to Heaven" seemed an appropriate title for this shot with those golden stairs, & the best view over Bangkok.
After all Bangkok is now officially the most popular city in the World.

We were first in the queue to get up here when it opened & that big monsoon sky was dramatic - there were some tropical storms on the horizon but this bit of light got through at sunset briefly giving some colour & reflections.
I'm not really a fan of cocktails - I think of them as girlie, sweety drinks - OK if you’re a girlie, but I prefer something a bit harder. We were here for a while & I couldn't sip slowly enough to make one drink last :-(
Had to do a handheld pano to get those soft curves of the Chao Phraya river in as well as the whole dome on the right.

When our daughter was born my wife gave up her career to care for our children. We'd had a young & beautiful Australian nanny called Aphra who'd looked after our sons for 4 years. She was so good she didn't take a day off sick in all that time.
I took a call one evening from Jimmy Page's wife asking for a reference for her & Aphra went on to be Jimmy Page's childrens' nanny.

I've always liked the morals of this song, long considered to be one of the greatest rock songs - possessions are just mere trinkets aren't they?
It's great to laugh - but where would we be without morals???

I particularly like the way Jimmy planned to string this out using, acoustic, 12 string & electric guitars gradually introducing John Bonham's drums & building to a climax after 8 minutes.

I often find a longer, slower build up usually gives a better more intense climax

Hope everyone has a great week ahead :-)

youtu.be/D9ioyEvdggk

Tags:   Bangkok Sky Bar Sirocco Chao Phraya River The Dome at lebua Monsoon Clouds Swifts Cityscape Panorama Reflections Orange Thailand Scene from the Hangover 6D Canon EF16-35mm f/4L

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One of many from a very early morning shoot as the first light lit up the peaks & gently coloured the clouds - looking down from the bridge at Hamnoy.

Hope Everyone has a great weekend! :-)

Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to view comment or fave :-)

Tags:   Norway Arctic Lofoten Islands Hamnoy Sunrise Clouds Coast Sea Rocks Rorbuer Canon 5Dmk2

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Vingt cinq minutes après la dernière photo d'ici - quelquefois il faut attendre pour toutes les couleurs n'est ce pas?
Mais oui bien sûr!!!

More lavender - It took me a little while to decide which bush to straddle to get the result I wanted.
When I came here the first time, it was so beautiful with the last light on the bushes that I knew I was going to come again after the sun had gone down.
Particularly because cloud is fairly rare in Provence in midsummer, so when I saw these clouds in the dying light I knew there was a great possibility of some twilight colour later once the Sun had set.
Having made the effort to get here this definitely wasn't going to be one of those occasions where you get impatient, pack up, drive off & you then see glorious twilight colour in your rear view mirror!

It didn't disappoint,
Ideally I'd have chosen to go down on the bush a bit more, purely for compositional reasons but I didn't want to leave out that sky.
Because we're looking away from the Sun here, the tones are much softer than the oranges looking into the Sun which complements the lavender better - just luck though - you have to go with the lines don't you?


Happy shooting everyone :-))

Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to view comment or fave :)

Tags:   France Provence Valensole Midi Lavender Twilight Sunset Pink Lone Cottage Cupressus sempervirens Landscape Panorama Canon 5DSR

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Ici à Valensole nous voyons la première lumière du matin

I was the first person in this field of Lavender, I knew exactly which mound of Lavender I wanted to straddle to get this lone tree where I wanted it - although for me this shot is all about those wonderful undulating S shaped curves of Lavender.

By the time I shot this, every single row of lavender had its own photographer with tripod lined up in a row beside me, apart from the one to my right which had a very beautiful blonde girl in a Lavender cocktail dress looking very serious & posing amongst the bushes & an equally beautiful young girl in a cocktail dress at the far end of the field with a selection of balloons & a selfie stick!

there’s just a whisper of cloud to the right - but this is Provence after all - Lavender likes hot sun which is why it grows so well here. The soft morning Sun has just risen enough to cover the little tree & gently colour the lavender on top of the hill.
The long shadow lines are from those Cupressus sempervirens which give that wonderful mediterranean feel to this area & of course Tuscany amongst other places & things.

All the people who’ve been here & most who have seen them on Flickr, will know that there are actually two trees at the end of this field.
Sometimes symmetry works brilliantly - think St Paul’s from the South Bank.
Here not so much, especially since the tree on the
left isn’t such an attractive shape from this spot (not it’s best side) & it certainly isn’t symmetrical with this one. From this angle you wouldn’t know anyway would you???

Besides it gives me a perfect opportunity to play one of U2's greatest tracks :))


youtu.be/ftjEcrrf7r0

Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to view comment or fave :)

Tags:   Landscape Lavender Provence Valensole Lone Tree Morning Light First Light Curves Canon 5DSR

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Things have been getting a bit heated lately so this seemed appropriate - one from the hard drive.
The trouble with heatwaves in the UK is you can’t escape to the air conditioned room can you? as most of us don’t need them at home for 50 weeks of the year.

A rather special Dartmoor sunset from my favourite clump of hawthorns on Combestone Tor.

Couldn't shoot the other way & include the granite tor itself or the sky would have been missing - couldn't turn my back on this!

Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to view comment or fave :)

Tags:   Dartmoor Combestone Tor Devon Landscape Trees Hawthorn Sunset View Canon 5DMK2

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