Vesna Armstrong Photography

There is one good thing about persistent inclement weather a photographer can take advantage of: they can catch up on editing and sharing any photos that have been sitting in the archives for too long because there never seems to be their turn to be dealt with. One of such sets of pics I have are those I took last year during a usual visit to my home country Croatia. My niece Haidi, her partner Bruno and I took ourselves for a day trip to one of Croatia's fascinating castles, Veliki Tabor . The fortress sits high up on top of a hill, near the town of Desinic in the northwest region of Croatia called Zagorje, not far from the village where my mother was born and raised. Built in the middle ages, the castle is preserved almost in its original form and is one of Croatia's best preserved and most attractive castles. Veliki Tabor is known for a number of legends and stories the most famous one being the story of Veronika of Desinic, who falls in love and has a forbidden affair wit...

This post is not my usual sort of post; even though it is still a photography post, it is not about my photography, but someone else's. It is a post on how I met new photographer friends - Helen Burrow and her husband George Coupe. Back in March last year, being a big Brontë Sisters fan, I went to Halifax to see an exhibition of black and white images by Helen Burrow, entitled "A Brontë Reader". The photographs were of Haworth and some other places with Brontë connections. I was completely bowled over by what I saw and I wrote a blog review of the exhibition here . A friend of Helen's happened to see the blog post and forwarded it to her. Helen then got in touch with me through an email. Her photographer husband George also send me an email regarding my review of Helen's exhibition. Unfortunately, they sent their emails to my gmail address which I don't normally use, and I did not see them for as many as ten months! It is only the other week, when I had had a...

The weather in the last two weeks has been very volatile and severe with gale force winds and driving rain fiercely battering Yorkshire and causing damaging floods. Needless to say, I haven't been out taking photos and am by now longing to do so. However, yesterday afternoon a little chance to do some creative photography indoors presented itself. Virtually out of nowhere a short, but violent hailstorm broke out, and as it stopped the sun came out for a few minutes. I spotted the water droplets glinting on the window pane of my dining room door, the back garden just recognizable beyond. I had just enough time to grab my iPhone and get a couple of shots before the sun disappeared taking away the magic and leaving the scene looking pretty much mundane. "The night is darkening round me The wild winds coldly blow But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot cannot go The giant trees are bending Their bare boughs weighed with snow And the storm is fast descendi...

As I am writing this my beloved Haworth and its inhabitants are coping with the aftermath of the storm Ciara that caused damaging floods to the bottom part of the village. I dearly hope that the consequences are not too painful or costly and that damages are removed and fixed before long. Just two days before the storm I had a most enjoyable time in Haworth. In the morning I wanted to go for a walk to Long Bridge, a gorgeous spot in the Brontë Country I call my haven; a magical little place where I go to now and then for a peaceful, relaxing moment. It was a misty and very cold morning, the sun tentatively waiting to reveal its face from behind the veil of mist. I walked down Lord Lane, climbed over the stile to carry on along the fields by the river Worth, but as I suspected, it was too muddy for my liking. I went back and instead walked along the river the opposite way, along the path to Spring Head Road. View of Worth Valley from Lord Lane A red Wendy house on the river W...

SNOWDROP. "Thou first-born of the year's delight Pride of the dewy glade, In vernal green, and virgin white Thy vestal robes array'd." ~Keble~