Fifty shades of black
16/08/2026
In the northern hemisphere, Summer 2026 will long be remembered in shades of black, accompanied by the acrid smell of wood smoke. Sometimes our planet as we know it seems such a fragile place.
Through other eyes
Through other eyes... recent posts
Saved by a leaf
09/08/2026
Sometimes a dried-up shrivelled leaf is all it takes to dissipate a bad dose of summer season grumpiness and re-awake creativity.
It rained
08/08/2026
Rain can be both a curse and a blessing… but at this time of year when wildfires threaten on every side, it is definitely the latter.
Hunters of light
06/08/2026
How lucky we “hunters of light” are to appreciate those little things. Just a few seconds, an angle changes by a couple of degrees, a leaf shifts in the breeze, shimmering, shifting… that’s all it takes to remain spellbound.
My heroes
04/08/2026
After the last few few days with the Canadair fire fighting planes passing continuously over my home, it seems right to share these images with you as a tribute to the pilots who are my undisputed heroes.
You’re not my friend any more!
01/08/2026
When the sun glares, blinds and blazes, bleaching the colours and sucking up every drop of moisture from the earth and the skin, it’s time to seek shelter in the shadows.
Previous posts
16/08/2026
Fifty shades of black
This is not the image I’d like to be posting, but for many of us in the northern hemisphere, our memories of Summer 2026 will forever be tinged with the sombre shades of black and accompanied by the acrid smell of wood smoke. It seems right that we don’t forget. A couple of days ago, fire broke out on the outskirts of our village in the foothills of the Italian Apennines. It was no big deal, just a small patch of wasteland, dry vegetation, some dogrose and blackthorn scrub. Given the situation in other parts of the world, I hardly like to mention it. But it makes you think. We were lucky. There was virtually no wind, the fire fighters were notified almost immediately and they managed to put it out before it spread to the adjacent trees, then from there, a small leap to the first houses in the village and some cars parked nearby. As I said, we were lucky. But when I walk past, I can’t ignore that acrid smell and it gives me the shivers. Sometimes our planet as we know it seems such a fragile place.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
09/08/2026
Saved by a leaf
I admit it, it’s a bit of a grumpy time for me right now. Too little sleep perhaps… window open for the heat, neighbour’s dog barking until the small hours, an impromptu get-together on the steps outside my window at two in the morning, you know the thing. Too many people in places I usually go for solitude. Too many cars. Above all too many cars, narrow village streets designed for feet or hooves turned into improvised car parks. Too much, too many, too fast. It’s not my world. Anyway, that’s not why you’re here of course, I just wanted to explain my state of mind when I went on my customary photo-walk yesterday morning. Inspiration nil, creativity nada. So there I was, sitting under a tree having a cantankerous conversation with a dried-up leaf lying there on a stone beside me minding its own business… well actually, it was pretty one-sided. Shrivelled-up leaves aren’t known for being great conversationalists, being dead and all that.
Then suddenly I stopped in mid whinge. Hang on (I thought), the curve of those veins actually looks pretty neat, and what about that hole, and just look at how the light catches those spiky bits, and… Well, before I knew it, there I was totally engrossed in exploring a withered leaf that all of a sudden had become the epicentre of my universe.
The results are certainly not going to win me any of the competitions I wouldn’t enter anyway, but viewing them together they seem to have something to say. If only that you need to let go (by “you”, I obviously mean “I”). You can’t force inspiration, you can’t oblige creativity to just appear as if from a genie’s bottle. Or at least, I can’t. But it never hurts to just get out there and open up to what’s around. So that’s what I’m about to do, while “they” are still yawning and wondering whether to have a second cup of coffee. Over and out. Che la luce sia con voi.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
08/08/2026
It rained
It was not to be. This afternoon I charged up my personal force field and gathered all my available courage with the intention of dabbling with a little “urban” in a nearby town. Evidently it was not my destiny. After weeks without the tiniest drop of rain, five minutes before I reached the car park, the heavens opened and it poured. Not just a quick summer storm, a veritable cloudburst. Now given the wildfire situation hereabouts, I’ve been praying to all the gods of all times for just such rain and I am truly and profoundly grateful that finally they decided to answer my prayers. But right then? Right there? I did venture briefly out of the car and took a couple of hasty snaps from under the umbrella, but it was not at all what I had been hoping for. But on the positive side, the downpour may well have got the wildfires well under control. Time will tell 🤞🤞🤞🤞.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
06/08/2026
Hunters of light
Nothing fancy. A quick walk just after dawn. Isn’t it incredible what a difference light can make to the most ordinary of subjects? Miraculous even.
How lucky we “hunters of light” are to appreciate those little things. Just a few seconds, an angle changes by a couple of degrees, a leaf shifts in the breeze, shimmering, shifting… that’s all it takes to remain spellbound.
It’s as if for an instant, that was the light we’d been waiting our whole life for. That particular light and no other.
Then it’s gone and we’re left with a vague anxiety, a creeping apprehension, wondering whether we’ve succeeded in “capturing” that energy, transposing those photons into pixels and memories.
There’s the light that pierces and penetrates. Translucency and opacity. Textures revealed.
There’s the light that frames. Shadows and shapes that ripple and stir, refusing to hold still while we fiddle with knobs and dials.
There’s the gentle, compliant light that whispers rather than shouts.
And there’s the light that reflects, whether we want it or not.
And fellow “hunters of light” there I am, reflected in the uncompromisingly shiny surface of these industrious ants, engrossed in their preparations for winter. I could, of course, have eliminated myself with a few clicks, but I rather like being there, or rather, being here with you. Che la luce sia dolce con voi… which roughly translates as: “May the light be kind to you”, but it sounds so much better in Italian.
Adapted from an article first published in The 617 Club.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
04/08/2026
My heroes
Images I’d much rather not have shot, but after the last few few days with the Canadair fire fighting planes passing continuously over my home, it seems right to share them with you, if nothing else as a tribute to the pilots who are my undisputed heroes. Compared with the situation in so many other places throughout the northern hemisphere, we’re the lucky ones, at least for now. Our immediate area is so far unscathed, but there at least four different fires burning at the moment within a 50 km radius from where we live, mostly “just” tinder-dry grassland and juniper scrub, but the damage is extensive. With high temperatures, no sign of rain and a hot, dry wind, the fight is to prevent it from reaching the woods and forests and, of course, people’s homes. What makes me so angry is that the largest and fiercest was certainly started deliberately, the investigators have already found an incendiary device, ignited in the place and at the moment when it was likely to do most damage. Tragically the use of fire as a weapon for extortion, protest or vendetta is not uncommon hereabouts. The fire risk is at its peak for the next ten days, so I live with my fingers crossed. Here’s hoping.
Adapted from an article first published in The 617 Club.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
01/08/2026
You're not my friend anymore!
You’re not my friend anymore. Did I shout it out loud? I can’t be sure, but when I listened there was no echo. Silence. There are just two moments in the year when the silence is so, well, silent, you can hear your own pulse pumping away in your ears. The deepest of deep cold in January through February when the light acquires a crystalline fragility, so brittle you find yourself whispering for fear it might splinter. And midsummer when the temperature creeps into the high thirties and even the air seems to sweat. Like today.
The quietness isn’t the stillness of peace, but rather of an uneasy waiting… for shade, for a breeze, for (dare I say it) a cloud. The crickets and cicadas have fallen silent. Birdsong is a distant memory. A buzzard calls once, twice. The rippling call of a golden oriole out of sight in the branches that stand between me and… you’re not my friend anymore!
That time I did say it out loud, a bit sheepishly I admit, but there’s no-one around to hear. No-one else crazy enough to be out there in my crunchy sun-dried meadows, scorched to a crisp by… it, him, my enemy of today. The sun.
I’ve never got on well with those bossy types, overbearing, so sure of themselves. And that exactly describes the sun yesterday, today, tomorrow, who knows for how long. From the moment the first rays escape from behind the mountain, it’s up there glaring, blazing, blinding, greedily sucking up every last drop of moisture from the ground, bleaching flowers, withering leaves without a care in the world.
My meadows… they’re tired. Dusty. Held together with cobwebs in that silence of waiting; patient as befits a nature accustomed to the never-ending cycle of the seasons.
But all is not over. Far from it. For some, the party’s just begun…
My meadows are tired and truth be told, so am I. This heat is good for drowsiness, not so great for sleep. But we wait patiently (more or less) for the next chapter to unfold, that miraculous second spring that will follow the first late summer rain. It won’t be long now, and I’ll be out there, shaking the dust from my boots, to follow its progress.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
16/07/2026
A question of style
Some like to shout…
Others prefer to whisper…
Whether you’re a shouter or a whisperer, have a great day folks
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
15/07/2026
Chromatic agility
Every morning as I sip my wake-up coffee, I resolve that today will be the day I post some of the images I’m accumulating in this period. Then every morning I pick up my camera (with macro lens permanently mounted), put on my hiking boots and head out into my meadows and woods on a new hunting trip. During these summer months, finding new species, genuses and even families has become a bit of an obsession, not to mention the ever present quest to get better images of the ones I already know. Then as the sun gets uncomfortably hot and it’s time to swop my hiking boots for sandals, I hurry back to download the images, quickly process them and (the really fun part) identify the critters I’ve managed to digitally capture. Time to put together that post, I think… just as my brain starts to fog and my eyes start to close with nothing more creative in mind than a good old afternoon nap while out there beyond the half-closed shutters, the sun does its fiery best. Uhm… that article? Yawn. Tomorrow morning, yes, definitely tomorrow morning. But then, when the time comes, my camera calls me, my hiking boots too and I’m out poking through the long grass and peering under leaves again.
So the images I long to share are piling up and… well… just to say, sorry folks. I will get round to it, I promise. But perhaps not today. In the meantime though, on my way home yesterday I came across this beautifully coloured crab spider (Thomisus onustus), perfectly tone-in-tone with the equally beautiful sweet scabious (Sixalix atropurpurea) flower, one of the commonest blooming in this period. Now on with those boots, up with the camera… who knows what I’ll find today!
Adapted from an article first published in The 617 Club.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
22/04/2026
It's a small world
Browsing through my website, it’s pretty obvious that macro photography of both flora and fauna makes up about 90% of the images I take, at least when conditions are right. Actually, this has much more to do with my love and fascination for the natural world than it does for my passion for photography, but that’s a story for another time. What does, however, make me just a little bit different from the vast majority of macro photographers is that I usually work exclusively with natural light. This has its benefits, but I admit it also its disadvantages, so last year I made up my mind to finally get to grips with using a flash. I took the plunge and bought a flash and diffuser right at the end of last arthropod season with the idea of getting some practice in before the return of my beloved critters, but after enthusiastically charging the flash battery, it remained on the shelf until… yesterday.
Of course the wisdom of advancing (advanced?) years should have suggested that I studied manuals and settings before going out, but I am still young in my ability to err, so I inevitably found myself caught up in heated disputes between my camera and my flash, while the few arthropod subjects I came across laughed so much they fell off their respective petals and leaves. It’s clear I still have a great deal to learn, but that doesn’t trouble me unduly, a little bit of study should sort things out. No, it’s not the technical side that bothers me.
My problem comes with the sheer “ingombro” of the thing. Now in Italian, “ingrombro” means more or less the space something takes up, and that diffuser… well, I just don’t seem to be able to cope with the sheer size of the thing! I’m used to being able to slip in and out of bramble and hawthorn patches more or less unscathed, or slide my lens easily through a jungle of stalks and leaves. But heaven help me if try the same thing with the diffuser mounted! The disturbance I create must be the equivalent of a hurricane and earthquake combined for all the small inhabitants of the undergrowth who rightly flee or drop to the ground and disappear.
So after I finish disentangling bits of plastic and cord from miscellaneous thorns and other protuberances, all I’m left with is an arthropod desert. And if I do manage to get near enough, the sight of all that towering shiny whiteness is enough to send any remaining arthropods into a blind panic. You can just see the terror in their little eyes… and who can blame them! In short, yesterday the addition of flash and diffuser undoubtedly made me lose more shots then it helped me take. On the other hand, a couple of the images I did manage to get were only possible thanks to the flash, and that’s enough to convince me to persevere.
My initial conclusion is that it’s a completely different ball game and precisely because of that, with practice, I can imagine it becoming complementary to, rather than a substitute for, the natural light macro photography I will probably always prefer. I will stick at it and endure the derision of my arthropod subjects, until the use of flash or natural light becomes a conscious decision, rather than the inevitable consequence of my lack of technical expertise. Will I succeed? Only time will tell.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
30/03/2026
A funny thing happened to me...
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the shops today. As I walked out the door, I made the rash decision to take my camera with me and try and get some images of my nearby village. There was a brisk north-easterly blowing down from the mountains and the light was grim and flat, nothing to attract my photographic attention, so why not, I thought. Of course, the reason why not is obvious to anyone who knows me… because the last location I feel comfortable photographing in is our village, where I always feel that every eye is on me if I so much as walk down the street with a camera. But undeterred, I bravely shouldered my gear and off I went.
I did manage to get a few shots, even though they were pretty much grabbed in passing, any thought on technicalities and composition pushed well to the back of my mind by my anxiety at being spotted… an absurdity, I know, but there it is!
Then when I started processing them, I had another radical (for me) idea. I’d stepped out of one comfort zone that morning, so why not step out of another. You see I tend to be a perfectionist. I’m compelled to get every line straight, every tone just right, everything neat and tidy. But those aren’t necessarily the images I feel most drawn to when I look through the work of other photographers… so I stopped tidying up.
Here goes then, here are some II (Intentionally Imperfect), rough round the edges, images of my nearby village, not the romantic picturesque side of the tourist brochures, that does exist, but it doesn’t really interest me that much. I’m drawn to the other side, the one that’s usually missing to tell the whole story. Because as we all know, maybe the camera doesn’t actually lie, but it can be amazingly selective in telling the truth.
Now that I’ve broken the ice as it were, I’m sort of thinking this might become a passion project and maybe if I brave my anxiety often enough, who knows, it may start to feel, well, normal. Here’s hoping!
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.