Final snap

Hard to believe this is the final snap of the year - feels such a short time ago that I was introducing my first one - thank you to all of you who have participated with your own snaps and lovely comments.

For my final set I had been thinking of festive snaps but in the end decided to use a water and sky shot I took this week and match it with others from during the year because this is one of my most recurring themes in my photos and a topic that always has me reaching for my camera - probably helped by the fact that I live near the sea so often come across good water and sky shots.

The top one I took this week - the water is Loch Lomond, where I had a family Christmas in a holiday chalet - wet and windy but managed a walk to see the water and get some photos

2nd down taken in June when we were on holiday in Ullapool

3rd down is from my holiday in Spain in September (I clearly like to holiday by water as well as living by it!)

and finally at the bottom is one taken near home in October - it was interesting looking through my sea and sky photos from the year looking for one that had a similar feel to the other 3.

and for the last time I'm looking forward to seeing what caught your eye this week.

Snap festive red

With only days until Christmas, I wanted to have a festive theme for my snap collection this week and while looking through my festive photos from this month I noticed plenty of red and chose 4 of them

Top left are some baubles on a stall at the Christmas market
Top right is from my festive jumper
Bottom left is a cup of mulled wine I enjoyed with my crochet group (stretching my red theme into very dark red)
Bottom right - I was intrigued by these decorations on the floor of a highstreet shop

Looking forward to seeing what you are all sharing in our penultimate snap collection. 

If any of you are thinking that you might like to host a photo meme next year but are worried about doing link up  - adding a linky is easy and free - I use inlinkz . 

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas, whatever you are doing.

Snap the river

one of the things I love about walking by the river regularly is watching the changes as the volume of water changes and bids move around and the light provides sparkle or reflection.  So I made a point of taking photos while standing in the same spot over several weeks to create a set that show some differences.  And the reflection one was taken in December so another for the winter scavenger hunt

looking forward to what has caught your eye this week

snap frost

we've had some hard frosts over the last week and areas not in direct sunlight stayed frosted all day to then receive a second layer of frost the next night - cold but also resulting in some beautiful detail with frost edged petals and leaves and visible ice crystals - I had to go out with my camera to collect some for a snap set

Only 4 more Wednesdays this year - so only 4 more snap sets.  Hard to believe we have completed almost a year and I'm so pleased that many of you have joined me each week. And many of you also joined me for pairs the year before and even zoom in, zoom out the year before that.

I wont be hosting another theme next year - because I'm taking a trip to NZ early in the year and know that I will not be able to maintain the weekly posting and visiting that I feel is part of hosting a meme.  I'm hoping one of you has an idea for a weekly meme and will launch it upon us -  I do like to have a photographic project to think about each week. 

Looking forward to seeing what you have captured this week

Snap silhouette

the up side of the low light and frequent cloud cover is the chance to capture some good skyline silhouettes

I've been collecting these over the past 10 days as we have had a lot of cloud cover to defuse the light

Looking forward to what has inspired you this week

Snap retro

As I said on Monday, I had fun at an event at the museum celebrating their new fashion and design galleries - and my favourite stall was a '60s / 70s retro photo booth' - clothes and props and a clever camera / printer set up so you got a strip of 4 photos - and just 5 seconds to make any changes between takes.  The camera is cleverly housed in that wooden box on right of top photo. 

There was a queue so I was able to watch several groups before me and get an idea of which props I wanted to use - that camera was a must and all the different glasses were fun.  I rather like having ginger hair!  But that background hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long.

Looking forward to seeing what inspired you this week

snap progress

More festive crochet for you today and a sequence

starting with the picture graph - then work half done and the finished piece - it is about 35 cm square.  This crochet method is called corner to corner (or c2c) and has been popping up on various crochet blogs I follow all year - the appeal is the ease of creating a picture from a square based graph such as you would use for cross stich or beading pictures (the inspiration for this picture was a Perler beading piece) .  It does take concentration to follow the graph because each line of work is a diagonal.  Hard to tell from the pictures but the background is dark blue while the eyes and buttons on the snowman are black.  Various design and technique lessons learnt to apply to future projects  - this is my first complex picture - it is fun (but don't even ask about all the ends to sew in or look at the back!)

looking forward to seeing what has caught your eye this week

Snap in flight

I've been collecting these for several months - I regularly try to capture birds in flight but only occasionally manage a photo that has the birds in the frame and is in focus. 

The birds are - from top down - seagulls, swans, geese, oyster catchers

I'm interested in their different flying formations (or total lack of  in the case of the gulls)

Looking forward to seeing what collections you have to share this week

snap inspired

a final set of photos that I took while on holiday is Spain

at first glance you may be puzzling about the connection between these 4 images.  Well each was inspired by the photographic themes that I see regularly when admiring the images in your blogs and Instagram streams (flowers, through arches, reflections, unexpected faces).  In each of these I was thinking of that inspiration when I stopped to take the photo.  A nice reminder of how being part of a photographing community provides inspiration and different ways to look - thank you.

Interested to see what inspired you all this week

Snap off the wall

My selection this week are things that caught my eye on the walls in Barcelona (and one in Palafrugell)

The wire picture top left was part of a series showing aspects of the towns' history.  I thought the use of a bent wire line was very effective and practical for a city setting

Top right is one of the many graffiti pieces to be found around Barcelona - I liked the image of the girl despite the other graffiti that had been added

bottom left is the side of a pub that was a favourite haunt of Picasso and his friends - the black shapes are because I was sitting under awnings and looking up at the wall and I rather liked the framing it provided to the cat drawings

bottom right intrigued me as it was high up on a wall and I did wonder if it was intentional modern minimalist abstract graffiti or the result of either paintballs or malfunctioning spraycans

looking forward to seeing what caught your eye this week

Snap old Spain

As well as enjoying the water in Spain we had several trips to local historic sites / sights

Top left is from the medieval old town in Pals - the top of the hill is covered in winding streets and lovely old buildings, many of which have rooms dug into the side of the hill

The two top right are at Ruins de Empuries - a fabulous site that is still being excavated - we visited over 20 years ago and really noticed how much more has been uncovered since then.  The site includes a Greek (top) and Roman (bottom) city that was inhabited for 1500 years starting 200BC.  There was an excellent audio guide which had the right balance of archeology and what life would have been like

Bottom is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona - building on the front part started in 1882 and completion of the rest is anticipated in the next decade

I really enjoyed looking at the different architecture and imagining what it would be like to live in these different cities at those times

Lovely to see all your snap sets every week

Snap swimming

Back from 2 weeks in sunny Spain with temperatures around 25C each day - rather a shock back to autumnal Scotland.  So I decided that for my first snap set using my holiday photos I'd remember the heat that allowed us to swim most days - actually snorkel mostly - in gloriously clear water with lots of little fish to watch.

We were staying in one of those white villas. A nice walk through the pine trees and down steep steps led to a series of rocky coves and beaches. All of those rocks were hard on the feet but once we took to wearing dive shoes into the water it was all much easier with less scratches.  The water was cool to get into (as it always is) but comfortable once immersed and the sun dried you off nicely once out. Yes that is me in near silhouette in my snorkel gear, beautifully back lit by the sun.

Looking forward to seeing what has caught your eyes this week

snap my apple tree

(Sorry just realised I  hadn't set up the auto post correctly)

If you are puzzled why I haven't left a comment on your snap from last week - I'm away from cheap wifi - I'll be visiting last week's and this week's snap next week when I'm back to my normal borachband provision.

As part of my packing and preparation process I drew together this snap collection of the apple tree in my garden - when it was first in bloom in 2011 then flowering earlier this year and now the lovely fruit - hope the birds haven't got them all while I've been away.

Snap women statues

Following on from my snap collection last week of women statues in Edinburgh I found another three that are accessible - although I had to research online to discover the stories behind them.

On the left - this is on the highstreet of the town where I go linedancing.  The woman is Jackie Crookston who in 1797 was shot by soldiers in a riot in the town following a protest against military conscription.  I can't find anything about why she out of the 12 was used for the statue or why this historic incident was chosen for a statue

In the middle is a statue to commemorate 'Edinburgh's opposition to apartheid in South Africa' - but there is no explanation of what that opposition was nor who this woman is

On the right is a statue that is outside a local library to commemorate the work of Helen Crummy who in the 1960s established local music and art programmes for local children after the school would not provide music lessons for her son.  The resulting community arts festival is still going strong and is copied worldwide.

I'll keep my eye out for more statues of women.

A heads up - I won't be around to see all your lovely snaps until next month.

Snap regal statues

Recently I overheard a walking tour guide say 'Edinburgh has more statues of named animals than of named women'.  I was intrigued so checked on line and indeed while there are 3 named animals - 2 dogs and a bear (all male) the only named women are two Queens.  Having collected and shared lots of animal statues for snap sets I thought this was a good challenge to get out and about to find the statues and look for other representations of women.

After much walking and looking I realised that female figures do feature on several fountains and other decorative pieces - I managed to find one where they are wearing clothes - but not as single figure statues.  Even the two statues of Queens are rather hard to find and identify

Queen Mary (of Scots) is one of several figures on the side of the National Portrait Gallery - up at first floor level so I'd never noticed her until I went looking

Queen Victoria is on top of the National Gallery - again not a statue you tend to notice when walking past - I could only manage a silhouette.

Now my interest is roused so after some internet research I've found mention of a few more statues of women that I'll share next week.

Are there statues on women where you are?  Queen Victoria?  Anyone else?

Snap under the bridge

I was inspired by Maggie's snap set of images under bridges and thought I should make use of the 3 bridges that I pass on my regular walk along the river

The first two are through different arches on the road bridge (also know as the 'new bridge' built in 1806)
in the top one you can see the 'Roman Bridge' which is on the site of the original river crossing built by the Romans - rebuilt in 1597

the second looks along the path - that little gate leads to a community vegetable garden created on a triangle of unused land

the third is under the pedestrian only bridge and mostly shows the reflection of the bridge rather than its arch

the fourth is under the 'electric bridge' so called because it was built int eh 1960s to allow access for the large vehicles used to build the electric power station along the coast (there is a tight bend after the road bridge) - pictures of a river in town seem incomplete without an abandoned shopping trolley!

Looking forward to seeing what inspired you all this week

Snap happy

a collection of things that made me smile recently

- the fabulous firework concert that ends the festival month in Edinburgh
- amazing giant bubbles in the middle of town - fun street performance to happen across on a foggy day
- sweetpeas from my sister / Dad 's garden
- the fancy hightops I'd been eyeing up were half price

and always happy to see the snaps you share

Snap fringe fun

A collection of people doing their thing and having fun at the Fringe this week

what surprises to do you have for me this week with your snap collections - always fun to visit you all

Snap the apes

Last week I had another TV related adventure - you may remember that last year I was in the audience for the live recording of a favourite TV show.  Well this year I visited the site of a long running documentary that I discovered this year and have been avidly watching - Monkey World - the monkey and ape rescue centre.  Monkey World provides a haven for apes and monkeys that have been rescued from illegal smuggling, use as photographers' props and research labs.  They keep their apes in really big family groups in big enclosures.  All of the animals have names and through the TV series you learn about the back story of many and get to know their different personalities.  One of the TV channels in the UK has been showing all of the old series and after I stumbled upon them I was hooked.

This summer my sister was down in Dorset, near Monkey World so I flew down for 2 days so that we could spend a day at the park.  It was fabulous - the enclosures really are big and full of enrichment.  The apes and monkeys are free to move between their indoor spaces and outside and so can choose to be off in a corner away from the people or come up to the glass and interact.  We spotted many of the characters who we have come to know from the TV show and got to know other newer characters.  If you are a fan of the show I'd highly recommend a visit to the park - allow the whole day.

Here are just 4 of the photos I took - I only took pictures through glass or when the animals were high up so my sight line was over the fence.

If you follow the show - the top chimp is Carli, who used to be in a Turkish TV show - he was interacting with us - later someone showed him photos of other chimps on his phone and he was looking and shaking his head at some.  The top orang is Gordon.  The bottom chimp is in Butch's troupe but I don't know who he is and the bottom orang is in the nursery group.

Looking forward to seeing what caught your eye for a snap collection this week

Snap up in the air

I like to wander around the entertainers and crowds that are part of the Fringe festival but the crowds are often so big that seeing what is happening can be hard - except when the action is up above the crowds.  So here is a collection of fun things up in the air

the balloon creations seem to get more intricate each year - those octopus look scary

these living statues continue to entertain and there are several this year which look as if they are levitating

I was walking up some stairs and saw red legs in the air - it was an acrobat balancing on her hands on a table

I like to watch jugglers and this one was throwing his balls particularly high

Looking forward to seeing what caught your eye this week