The broken frame,
Beyond this life,
A silent prayer,
The bridge to beyond.
Along the frame,
The timber strong,
A peaceful moment,
Despair begone.
A reflection deep,
Echoed within,
Worshipped silence,
A moment gone
Poetry © Mira Sophia Chrysostomou
They say everyone is born a hero.
From;
The little boy
with crimson cheeks,
To;
The little girl
with her tiny button nose.
Everyone starts the same.
A blank slate
filled with chivalrous intentions.
A clean page
meant for courageous acts of bravery.
But take heed
my darling little angel.
For the world is a cruel place.
The trials of youth are endless,
The challenge of life all encompassing.
They will try to break you,
to tame you,
to change you.
But you must hold on.
The darkness of the world
will engulf each little boy,
turn each little girl to shadow.
For everyone is born a hero
But,
Life will force you to survive;
it will strive to make you a villain.
Poetry: © Mira Sophia Chrysostomou
Photography: © Antonio Chrysostomou
(click on images in grids for larger versions)
Is Bakewell a town or a village? Nestled in the heart of the Peak District it is certainly a very idyllic and picturesque place. We visited during the busy summer season because, well, Bakewell is a very idyllic and pictureque village nestled in the heart of the Peak District.
Whenever I go into towns with the intention of doing some street photography, I always look at the people around, the situations they find themselves in and the interactions between them. That’s what gets me into the right frame of mind for street photography, which is different to the landscape photography frame of mind I need to be in when we are hiking the hills and valleys.
Luckily, there were many characters on the streets of Bakewell that day.
Continue reading “One town, One mile, One camera – Bakewell”
(click on images within grids for a bigger image)
We had a flying visit to the SKA offices in Cape Town, South Africa for a meeting. Despite the distance, this a necessary part of the job, especially when you’re working on a globally distributed project such as the SKA. For me, this was also my first opportunity to visit the site where the South African telescope of the SKA is to be built, out in the Karoo desert. Having seen the site in Australia recently, I was excited to see the same in South Africa.
The day starts with an early morning flight from Cape Town in an executive jet, and seeing the sunrise from the air.
There is a direct flight to the observatory site, but we wanted to see the support facility in Klarefontaine, where the Engineering Operations Centre would be located. So this meant stopping in the small, nearby town of Carnarvon. Despite its remoteness and the dusty and makeshift runway, this part of the world is aware of the SKA and is preparing itself.
This was our first adventure into the Yorkshire Dales. On this hike we would see sculpture, lunch by a waterfall, follow rivers, walk past barns in fields and, of course, be studied by sheep.
The GPS track of our (almost) 6.5 mile walk can be found on my ViewRanger account. We were meeting up with Mike and Karen just south of Outhgill to start our walk along a section of Lady Anne’s Way, following the Penine Bridleway.
We start on a gentle incline. The weather was wet – not because it was raining, no – I insisted, it’s just that the clouds happened to be laying quite low on this day.
At the top we reach the Water Cut sculpture, by Mary Bourne, one of the 10 Eden Benchmarks located along the length of the River Eden. Mike and I try to take pictures while keeping our camera equipment dry.
You can’t cheat death,
But that doesn’t mean
death can’t cheat you.
No matter what you do,
What details you alter,
What sacrifices you make,
You will always end up there.
Pain is what unites us,
Suffering is our burden.
There’s nothing you can do to change it.
You must accept the inevitable,
accept your fate
For in the end,
All you can hope for;
Is a simple tranquility,
A peaceful bliss.
An end to the strife.
Just like,
a sweet shot of whisky
At the end of a shit-smeared life.
© Mira Sophia Chrysostomou
I’m taking some time off this summer, along with the rest of you, but unlike some I will not be going too far away. Last week, for instance, it was a day trip into Chester to look around the historic town, do some light shopping and take my camera out for some street photography.
Chester still has the old walls along which the Romans used to patrol, and you are still able to do the same or take a tour with a group. With Chester being quite close to us, we decided to have a quick look from the high vantage point, but to leave wall-walking to our next visit.
Sometimes you just take a really bad picture. You review your images and you wonder how that happened. You wonder how you could have got the exposure wrong, how the focus can be so far out – in fact, what exactly are you focussed on? Certainly not the subject of your photograph! So press the ‘X’ key on your keyboard, forget about it – you’ll delete it later, if you ever remember to.
Then one day, maybe weeks later, maybe even years, you do stumble across that thing in your catalogue that disappointed you so. It’s still there, festering in your catalogue. Right, time to take action. Select it and press the delete key. It makes no difference whether you press the delete key hard or soft, but there is something cathartic about giving it a good, firm ‘tap’. Begone!
The silver surface,
The ripples in the tide,
A pool of thoughts,
A well of dreams.
We stand here together,
Our life reflects,
In the mirror we see,
Our lives seen,
Our lives told.
As nature deems.
© Mira Sophia Chrysostomou
The silent sound,
The inaudible creak,
They dance silently by,
Disturbing not my sleep.
© Mira Sophia Chrysostomou
adventures in a lightroom 