Vesna Armstrong Photography

Knaresborough in north Yorkshire is one of my favourite Yorkshire towns. It is the sort of town that sums up why I got to love England so much that I wouldn't live anywhere else: beautiful old architecture, charming courtyards and passages, traditional, olde worlde feel about the way of life, beautiful countryside on the doorstep are some of Knaresborough's features that are right up my street. I don't really go for countryside walks much during the winter months simply because it's very muddy everywhere, which distracts me from enjoying my walks freely. I prefer to visit villages and small towns instead. I hadn't been to Knaresborough for quite a while, and it seemed like a perfect choice for this fine January day. The houses near the station, at the the top of Water Bag Bank Green Dragon Court, a quirky and picturesque corner of the town with an art gallery, vintage tea rooms and a couple of unusual shops Berrys Passage Knaresborough Castle  ...

Despite being a lot different from what it used to be during Anne Brontë's lifetime, Scarborough is still Anne's town. It is still the same place where she visited every summer with the family she worked for as governess; the same place she came to love a great deal and where she spent the last days of her painfully short life; and it is the place where she will stay forever being buried in Scarborough's St Mary's graveyard. Last sunday, for many of her fans, including myself, Scarborough was all about Anne Brontë. Throughout the day Anne's 200th birthday celebration events were taking place, organized by the Brontë Society. I attended the morning forum with Brontë experts and writers at The Grand Hotel and the graveside and church events in the evening. In between I chose to go off to take photos of the town and enjoy the winter sunshine on the seafront, Anne never leaving my mind and spirit.  Much as I enjoyed the celebrations immensely, I don't have a...

This year the Brontë Society are celebrating the fifth and the last of the five consecutive bicentenary birthdays in the literary Brontë family - that of Anne Brontë, who was born on today's date 200 years ago. Anne was the youngest of the four siblings surviving into adulthood. As a writer and artist she was overshadowed by her two more famous sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Despite being just as talented and productive as her sisters Anne ended up being "the other sister", her talent and works  unjustly underrated or undervalued. In her tragically short life (she was just 29 when she died) she wrote two novels, "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" and also some poetry. Like her sisters and brother she was also a visual artist and created a number of drawings, paintings and sketches. I am not going to write much about Anne here, as there are many sites and articles about her elsewhere on the internet. For anyone wishing to learn more about Ann...

January Trees It's the time of year when many of us think about the new year ahead and what we would like to achieve in it. I like to write down my new year resolutions, but not as a list of things that must be completed at any cost, but simply to set myself some goals or to define which direction I want to be going. Typically, I usually succeed in realizing some of the resolutions and failing others, but I don't kick myself for any failures. Instead, I like to think that I did what I could and simply carry over onto the new year any resolutions that I still want to try and accomplish. So I was successful in three out of five of my last year resolutions which means I will carry over onto 2020 two of them. I have mentioned below which two they are. Here are my 2020 photography resolutions: 1. Start using my DSLR camera again It's been a year now since I bought my first iPhone. I fell in love with it so much that I decided to use it as my sole camera equipment for...

I love all my January book cover sales statements from Trevillion Images. There is nothing better or more stimulating for me than start the new year with a new book cover. And it is a very special one as I am on it as well!! My image of still life with self portrait, taken back in 2012, was licensed for a Lithuanian book cover of the novel by the Swedish author Sofia Lundberg, entitled "A Question Mark Is Half a Heart". It is a story of a successful female photographer who sets out on a journey, both physical and mental, to overcome shame and guilt and to find the truth and herself. Original