I had a wonderful weekend and will be sharing some of it with you, probably tomorrow if work cooperates, and I have time, but first, I wanted to join in with Hanna’s monthly photo spotted theme. For January, the theme is shadows and I had a fun time trawling through my photo archive.

This was a sea urchin I found while walking along the beach at Lord Howe Island in 2007. I love how the side with shadows shows so much more of the texture of the shell. G and I went to Lord Howe Island for our 10th wedding anniversary. It’s so beautiful there, and provides a very nature centric holiday. Its not the easiest place to get to—flights can be delayed or cancelled because the runway is short so needs good conditions, but if you can swing it, it really is worthwhile.

This is another photo from 2007 of the kids on the pier at Point Lonsdale. The shadows from the handrail provides another set of leading lines.

This is the kids on the beach at San Diego in 2009. We spent a month driving from San Francisco-Yosemite-Death Valley-Las Vegas-Zion NP-Bryce Canyon-Monument Valley-Grand Canyon-San Diego-Disneyland-LA. It was such a wonderful trip. We had one day for the whole trip when it rained, but only while we were driving. The kids loved getting their Ranger Badges in all the National Parks and they all walked down into Bryce Canyon and back up again which surprised even me. As long as there were rocks to jump on and cliffs to hang off they were happy. I love how even in silhouette the kids personalities shine through.

The Roman Theater in Orange France. I took this on our trip to France with G and S in 2018. It’s one of several Roman ruins in the area that we visited. Roman Arches provide some wonderful plays on light for photographing.

I our previous house we had venetian blinds in our upstairs north facing windows. They used to throw the most amazing shadows on the wall on our stairs. I took this in 2020. Our house had it’s long side with lots of windows facing north which was one of my favourite things about that house. Sometimes in winter the house would be 25C inside on sunny days without any heating required.

My final photo was taken in the Castle at Brescia in 2023. I like the way the shadows are interrupted by light from the holes above. You can see and read a bit more about my time in Brescia here.