Vesna Armstrong Photography

" The blue bell is the sweetest flower That waves in summer air  Its blossoms have the mightiest power To sooth my spirit's care" ~ Emily Brontë ~ Midge, our puppy, had his first walk in Bramley Fall Park, and I had my first walk there at bluebells time. It was truly magical! The display of bluebells was, I dare say, as good as it gets, with vast expanses of the blue flowers covering the woodland ground. In places stretches of white wild garlic blossom touch the purple-blue carpet of bluebells; the mellow spring sun shone in between the trees contributing to the otherworldly look of the place. This is nature at its best! 

It was a glorious Easter Sunday, and G and I took the rare opportunity to go for a walk with our puppy together. We went to the lovely village of Fulneck, Pudsey, one of my favourite local haunts for photography, nature watching and a nice, relaxing drink in a country pub. Below are a some of my favourite shots I took; iPhone images given just a quick and basic edit in Lightroom.

I am finally ready to start my new photo project which was part of my New Year photography resolutions. It is about taking inspired photos with my iPhone while out and about with my new border terrier puppy. The photos will reflect my love, admiration and appreciation of nature, seasons and light, and will be minimally edited or not at all. I shall share them here on my blog under the title "Walks With My Dog" followed by the date they were taken. They may or may not be paired with an inspirational quote; and I intend to include a small pic of my doggy at the end of each/most posts.  Midge, our little pooch, is four months old now. We started taking him out for walks just over a month ago, and it was only last week that I first felt confident enough to take my eyes off him to take a photo or two. Of course, he is still kept on the lead and will be for a long time, which means I have to tie the lead handle around my wrist to free my hands for picture taking. There are tugs a...

Just a few quick iPhone snaps from around my house with best wishes for a Happy Easter to everyone!

"A woman from Zagreb will readily leave her town, but will then become a victim of severe homesickness. When you meet her somewhere far from Zagreb you get to know about the city in a concise and somewhat idealized and sentimental way." ~ Veselko Tenzera (1942-1985, Croatian writer and journalist ) I have decided that each time I visit my beloved native town of Zagreb, I will focus on just one or two of its many beautiful and interesting sites and take a handful of key photos to post here on my blog. To start with, on my brief visit at the beginning of this month I chose one of the most  remarkable and obvious choices - the historic Stone Gate. This fascinating piece of architecture was  first mentioned in the medieval times and used to be one of the entrances into the Zagreb old town, called "Upper Town". North entrance, which is the entrance from the lower town. In 1731 the city was consumed by a huge fire, and according to a legend, in the flat above th...

Each year at this time of year I marvel over and over again at the stunning beauty of blossoming magnolia tree. And each time it fills me with delight as big as when I saw it for a first time. The large creamy goblet-like petals coloured in various shades of pink, from pale baby pink to deep cerise, furled outwards at the top are by far my favourite bloom in springtime. And this year, for a first time in thirty years I watched magnolia trees in my native town of Zagreb. There were lots of them around; huge, old gnarled trees and little, young fragile ones dotted around parks and street corners.There is a massive, biggest one I've ever seen in the park behind Mum's house. I spotted its treetop towering above other trees from the kitchen window and couldn't run out quick enough to admire its beauty. I just caught it in its last days of flowering; its delicious pink petals had already started to fall like faded leaves in early autumn.

Here is the first still life in the series of what I'll be calling "interior still life" images which I plan on creating in my future still life work. I have thought long and hard about what I want to do next in my still life work - how I can make a progress and do something new; and what project would suit best my sensitivity and tendencies. An idea was spontaneously born in my mind to produce moody black and white (or desaturated ) images which contain interior objects in their composition such as table, chair, bed etc. The inclusion of interior would emphasize the atmosphere and add drama to the image. The image below was taken in my home using objects from around the house. It is an iPhone photo edited in the Snapseed app.