Photo Challenge – Page 163

Bench series #31

For the month of August I’m looking for a colourful bench

(This month I want to see photos of a bench that is painted or stained or otherwise coloured in some way. Not the plain wooden variety unless there is some colour detail)

Chinoiserie benches in Hamilton Gardens, New Zealand

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then please take a look at my Bench Series page. No complicated rules, just a bench and a camera required 🙂

Create your own post and title it Bench Series: August
Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
Add the tag ‘bench series’ so everyone can find the benches easily in the WP Reader
Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new bench theme comes out on the first Sunday in September.

My Picks of the Week:

The last unusual benches are from Joan (a newcomer so please make her welcome) with a Gothic bench and Tgeriatrix who ends with something similar to what I started the month with and one in Barcelona.
Sonya shows how skate-boards can be recycled / upcycled. Allotmental joins in with more hands. What is it about hands and benches? Swagata’s benches are not that unusual, but what they are facing certainly is. Debbie has gone reptilian on me and Sylvia takes us back to Costa Rica. Meanwhile Ruth shows us two very different benches, one so unusual I have never seen anything like it and finally Sherri manages to join in with the fun after being computer-less for far too long with a stone sofa – yes you read that correctly – find it at the end of her very funny tale of motherhood.

As always there are so many delightful benches to view, I hope you will check out the rest of the links within the comment section. And I thank everyone for sharing their unusual benches with me during July.

St Just in Penwith

St Just in Penwith, shaped by its industrial mining past, is the most westerly town in England and began as a medieval settlement called Lafrowda. It is surrounded by dramatic landscapes of wild moorland, wind-shaped carns and Bronze Age remains. The town made its fortune from tin and the marks left by the boom of the mid-1800s still dominate. There are two squares – Bank (with its 1931 clock tower) which was the business centre (and where the miners would have collected their wages) and Market where the shops and pubs are located (and where the miners would have spent their wages).

The grass amphitheatre behind the clock tower is Plen-an-Gwary (Old Cornish for ‘playing place’) where Miracle plays would have been performed 500 years ago. In more recent times it has been used to stage the full cycle again in 2004 and also to hold the Gorsedd, an important Cornish festival. Continue reading St Just in Penwith

Bench series #30

For the month of July I’m looking for a bench with ‘Unusual Details’

(This month I want to see photos of a bench which is different to the norm. It may be the shape, style, length, height, colour, material or even location that attracts your attention)

Glendurgan Cornwall

Claremont Surrey

Upturned ‘boat’ benches are so fascinating and so practical as the boat provides shelter from the sun or rain – these are two that I have found in different parts of the country. Have you seen a ‘boat’ bench? If so perhaps you’d like to share it with me.

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then please take a look at my Bench Series page. No complicated rules, just a bench and a camera required 🙂

Create your own post and title it Bench Series: July
Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
Add the tag ‘bench series’ so everyone can find the benches easily in the WP Reader
Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new bench theme comes out on the first Sunday in August.

This is the last week for unusual benches so please get your entries in soon!

My Picks of the Week:

Violetsky has these happy feet and snuggly hands to show us.
Debbbie finds a map in the countryside around St Albans.
Pauline (or PP as I often call her) has two lovely benches this month – one with the lovely Jack attached and another for ‘tiny bottoms‘. Thank you Pauline xx
Dailymusings has a wonderful butterfly bench and darling Gilly is riding with cherubs

As always there are so many delightful benches to view, I hope you will check out the other links within the comment section.

Come a little closer…

The WPC this week is not really a challenge for me as I am always taking photographs close up. Rocks and lichens have been my most recent subjects on here, and there has even been a dragonfly, a bee and a zebra in the past.

Flowers feature frequently over on the Earth Laughs in Flowers blog. Stunning osteospermums and gazanias are enchanting close up, but structural or textural plants such as succulents or grasses can look completely different if you ensure that pattern details fill the frame.

But let’s step away from nature and turn to a man-made object for a change and get a little closer. Would you have noticed that pattern as you walked by?

And the difference between Macro photography and a close-up? Well a close-up image will fill the frame as my lock does above and can generally be done using any type of lens including cameras with a macro setting. Macro photography on the other hand, although a form of close-up, is usually only achieved using a special (and expensive) macro lens. A macro shot, allows for bigger magnification and shows the finest detail in focus. A real macro lens has the capability of achieving in the least a 1:1 magnification. Having just taken delivery of a new camera I am looking forward to buying my first real macro lens and getting even closer.

Painted Ladies of San Francisco

The “Painted Ladies” of San Francisco sounds quite scandalous, but is actually a nickname for the city’s Victorian and Edwardian mansions with their genteel pastel hues and feminine façades, lacy wooden mantles and perfectly pitched roofs.

One of the most photographed vistas is from Alamo Square on the corner of Hays and Steiner where you get a background of the modern city that contrasts with these lovely ladies. It is sometimes known as “Postcard Row.” The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 by developer Matthew Kavanaugh, who lived next door in the 1892 mansion at 722 Steiner Street. The definition of a painted lady is a Victorian with three or more paint colours. So, even though the seven on Steiner Street are the most famous — there are several other painted ladies in the neighbourhood to enjoy.

Explore the streets, parks and vistas around Scott Street, McAllister, Haight Street, Steiner and Pierce that tell the story of a Victorian era and discover more beautiful mansions, but be warned, it is very hilly around here so it can be quite a strenuous walk. Alamo square is a great place to sit and rest and admire the view after your walk around the neighbourhood.

I walked about 10 blocks from the Misión San Francisco de Asís on 16th Street which is some distance away, through Duboce Park. You can of course take public transport to Alamo Square, but then you’d miss an awful lot of this wonderful architecture. And don’t forget to look up!

This monthly challenge is hosted by Dawn from ‘The Day After’ who invites participants to post pictures of any windows that they find curious, inviting, photogenic, or in some way tell a story. Visit her blog to see more windows and/or to join in with the challenge .