Lens Artists Challenge – Shoot From Above

This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Shoot From Above’ and has been set by Ritva. As a Hillwalker I normally find myself looking up rather than down although I suppose every summit picture is technically a ‘shot from above’.

I’ll spare you the summit pictures however as you can find an abundance of those elsewhere on my blog. Instead I’ll post some that don’t normally find a place.

To be honest, if I shoot something directly from above it’s generally because I see a good screensaver for my phone. Here’s one of pebbles in the sand from Talacre beach that acted as my screensaver for a while.

Take a look at your watch, what time is it? Wherever you are in the world and whatever time you are reading this right now, your time is governed by this imaginary line that runs through the Royal Borough of Greenwich in Greater London. And no matter where you are, Sydney or Delhi, Cairo or Los Angeles your time is dictated by this line, the Greenwich Meridian. Stand astride it and you have one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western.

I was in Seattle on my birthday some years ago and celebrated with a meal and 360° views in Sky City, the revolving restaurant (now a cocktail bar apparently) at the top of The Space Needle. Here’s Seattle by night in black and white.

They give you two options if you decide to go up the Eiffel Tower, half way (the second level to be precise) or the top. Who wants to do things by half’s? Here’s the Seine from 906ft above the streets of Paris.

The Special Air Service are based in Hereford and at Hereford Cathedral you will find ‘Ascension’, a sculpture dedicated to the regiment. The line ‘Always a Little Further’ is from the SAS’s poem ‘The Golden Journey to Samarkand’ and it has always resonated with me as a reminder to keep moving forward, keep planning, keep walking and keep living.

“You can drink the water straight from Lake Te Anau” said the boat captain on our way to Glade Wharf and the start of the Milford Track. This was somewhat contradicted by the fact that we had to walk through a chemical solution as soon as we landed in order to stop the spread of Didymo on the track. I would however have been happy to drink the crystal clear, clean waters at Giant Gate Falls, tumbling straight down from the rain forested southern alps of New Zealand. You can see the waterfall and read the post here if this has ‘whetted’ your appetite.

For many years my wife and I (and my son and daughter) looked after vulnerable children who, through no fault of their own found themselves in care. Here’s a picture of the last child we fostered on the day he went off to be with his forever family.