Vesna Armstrong Photography

It's been nearly two weeks since I got back from one of my visits to Zagreb, the beautiful city full of character I was born and raised in. I had a really good time - pleasant, eventful, filled with fun and special moments, but, I must admit, I didn't take very many photos. In fact, it was only on two days, out of two weeks I was there, that I took a considerable amount of pics, and I feel absolutely fine  about it. I'm trying to slow down and be easygoing and spontaneous about everything I do in my private life now, and my photography is no exception. I shall share selected photos from the recent trip to Zagreb in two blog posts; for this first one I have prepared some random images from around the town, most of which were taken in the historic Upper (Old) Town which continues to attract and inspire me by far more than any other part of Zagreb. "Window to Zagreb", part of the Summer Festival installations at Strossmayer Parade in the Upper (Old) Town from wh...

"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.

On my recent brief visit to the beloved Zagreb earlier this month I was asked by my lovely niece Haidi and her boyfriend Bruno to photograph the new lines of their lifestyle fashion brand "Creaturae". As I always say, I don't really take photos of people, but occasionally I like working with people who don't mind being photographed, look good on photographs and know how to pose. Haidi is always a great pleasure to take pics of, and this time I also met and worked with two friends of hers who proved to be very good models too, as well as very nice young people. It was thankfully not too cold a day but it was drizzling steadily, so we had to find a location where we were going to be covered from above. The best choice was the attractive, old bandstand in the popular Zrinjevac park, not far from the city square. Haidi, who is a yoga teacher , was very pretty in the black viscose dress hemmed with a red frill, and as usual, was relaxed and looking very natural in...