zoom in one last time

my 53rd zoom pairing - because 2014 started and ends on a Wednesday.  I've enjoyed this meme, both the finding of something to share and seeing what others are sharing - thank you to everyone who participated during the year.

I went into the centre of Edinburgh on Monday to enjoy the bustle of the season and was on the look out for a suitable photo pairing.  I was looking at all the work being done in preparation for the massive street party / music concert that Edinburgh hosts for hogmanay (Scottish for New Year celebration) when I noticed a star attached to the railings and stopped to read it - and I had my zoom in pair.  I was touched that someone had left a message for the homeless and reminded of those in need at a time when so many are celebrating and spending. It felt like a good subject for the end of the year.

And looking forward to 2015 and the PAIRS meme.  What I was thinking was that each week we share a linked pair of photos, such as
- look up, look down
- zoom in, zoom out
- look left, look right
- before and after
- then and now
- his and hers (hers and hers / his and his etc)

I'm sure we will collectively come up with many more over the year.  I've created a page for idea and I'll add to it during the year.

I created 2 versions of the button - au natural and with pixel magic and you should be able to paste in the code below the button on the left for it to show on your blog (I used this code creator)

If you want to start PAIRS this week that's fine, the linky on this post is for both and I look forward to seeing what people are focusing on this week

Hope you have a fun hogmanay and best wishes for a creative 2015

zoom in on the seasonal

my photos over the past few days (for this meme and more generally) have been seasonal rather than festive, recording first spotting of some of the birds that come to the river over winter, a moon seen clearly at 7.50am and bare trees.


I enjoy watching the seasonal cycle of nature - my garden has signs of crocus and snowdrop leaves with a promise of blooms in January.  But when I was looking over my garden for signs of new growth I noticed that one of the summer flowers was blooming and there was a bud too - it is unusually mild at the moment but I'm sure that is unseasonal blooming

I suspect this interest in the seasonal is related to winter solstice this week and being glad that the daylight will be getting longer - I looked up the sunrise and sunset times and discovered that we gained 8 seconds today and the increase is gradual to start but by summer solstice we will have 10 more hours of daylight than we do now!

Thinking ahead to the pair meme next year (I discussed it here if you missed it) and one of the ideas of  'then and now' I've been making a list of 6 or so photos to take in my garden and on my walk soon because I know they will look very different in spring or summer  and that will make a nice pairing then if I do my preparation now.

Next Wednesday is the last day of 2014 so I realise some of you will link your first pair for 2015 and some will be posting your last zoom in zoom out for 2014 - all fine with me.

I know that blog reading patterns change over the festive season so to cover all bases please choose whichever is applicable - have a great Christmas / hope you are having a great Christmas / trust you had a great Christmas

winter scavenger hunt finds

I’m joining in with Joy’s winter photo scavenger hunt, keeping a particular eye out for items that are time bound such as

a nativity (number 20) – I found several examples, in different styles at the European market in town

and festive lights (number 9) – my local high street has decorative lights and round the corner the trees along the river are festooned with lights

I’ve also managed two that are not festivity related

a silhouette (number 12) with the low light behind one of the hills in town

and breakfast (number 4) as we enjoyed a big breakfast when we went to the garden centre / shopping outing for poinsettia and hyacinth bulbs

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a letter shape in nature (10) and street musicians (19) who are not surrounded by a crowd but haven’t seen one yet

I’m enjoying this list, plenty of time to join in as we have until March 21st to complete the hunt, you can find the list on Joy’s or Eileen’s blog.

zoom in after dark

I appreciate all the twinkling lights at this time of year when it is dark by 4pm - roll on 21st when the days start to lengthen again.

many of my neighbours have a lit tree in their bay window adding lots of sparkle to the street and the chance at catching some bokeh - in this case my camera just did it

If you are wondering why there are trees in upstairs windows - those 'houses' are actually two layers of flats so the trees are in the upstairs flats' living rooms.

hope you are all finding some sparkle in your run up to Christmas and looking forward to see what you are all zooming on this week