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Not a simple photography tip as such, an announcement that I'm off blogging for a month while I head for the hills of northern Spain - taking a photography break in both senses of the word. Taking some images for some commercial friends like Cicerone Press, Aku and Leki

There are moments on a walk when the route ahead seems to disappear. From where we stand, the path is unclear. It bends behind rocks, appears to be swallowed by the landscape. We can see enough to know that there is a way forward, but not enough to understand the whole route. To me that expresses much about life.

The light and the angles and the clarity to the hills of Martin Down in Wiltshire, UK, called for some time spent looking and sharing some thoughts about the composition tips and the effects of foreground on the background.

So this week’s Friday Image with Words is a simple encouragement: do not underestimate the power of letting someone know you care. Because when someone is struggling, knowing you care can change everything. It might even save their life. And maybe one day someone may do the same for you. We all have bad-times.

There was a moment in the cooking where quite a lot of moisture was rising from the mix. It provides a good illustration of one of the hazards of photographing food, but also the same thing can be a benefit.

Here's the challenge - it's time to look afresh, eyes and heart combined. Don't make excuses, it takes two to make relationship, and you can start by making your heart pay attention, and be generous in the doing.

Image One, is the original image I took before I noticed the flower poking out from the cliff. In itself made quite dramatic by the sharp vertical shadow pointing up towards the setting sun, with quite good visual balance overall - the lighter but larger rocks to the left, countering the smaller but darker ones on the right.

Image One is taken looking directly down, but with the shop lighting coming in from the top of image. What I'd point out is, that with translucent items like this worn glass, the light passes through them, so each 'pebble' contains 'inherent' light of it's own which is what gives them the beautiful nature combined with texture.

A fixed wire on a difficult mountain path is a quiet reminder that others have gone before, recognised the challenge, and left something to help. You may be walking the path yourself, but that does not mean you are alone.

What do I mean by wrong direction? Well in your imagination place them in the compositionally comfortable vertical third. If they're on the right third, their movement takes the eye into the picture, which is comfortable, but they will be adding a visual weight on the same side as the visually dense headland, sunlight on water, and the right hand heavy flowering taller gorse. If you place them on the left hand vertical third, their presence adds better balance, but th

a quiet moment to end the week My Friday Image with the words "Hope Means Hoping Even When Things Seem Hopeless' to Encourage Your Weekend Waiting for the mist over lift. I came across these words "Hope Means Hoping Even When Things Seem Hopeless" earlier this week, and thought they matched well with the image near Pugs Hole in Wiltshire, UK. There are times when life feels like this landscape. The way ahead is there, but you cannot properly see it. The wider shape of thing

A few days ago I took a number of photographs of the same small clump of flowers, initially from the same angle, to share with you the effect of choosing the point of focus by selecting a different flower to focus on, and how that alters both the whole image and our mental response to it.

If it's been a good week, great, pleased for you. Have you taken any of your time to drop some encouragement on the lap of those around you who may not be in such a good place? It doesn't take very long, or too much, to change someone's day, and each day changed can lead to a life changed.

Good Friday can very reasonably be described as the saddest and most glorious day of the year. It is the saddest, because it confronts us with the full weight of sin, cruelty, injustice and suffering, all falling upon Christ.

There are times when I have become convinced that certain photographs simply do not wish to be taken.

Let your eyes search the still dark areas to the left middle, the writhing water of the foreground slipping into the fast moving runnel that carries your eye back towards the sun. Within a short while the mist will be gone, and you will see other things - but for now, love the moment

I noticed this piece of broken glass on the beach yesterday morning and was taken with the whole idea that despite being essentially broken and of no value for it's original purpose, it had been smoothed by it's path backwards and forwards across the beach over many tides; and in doing so had developed a beauty of it's own for those who looked and saw, and appreciated the way the light changed it.

Has something happened this week that's left a deep darkness, or hurt. Search as hard as your soul will let you, for something good that happened. If you can't think of anything, than pick up your mobile, or even better a pen and paper, and write a kind note to someone else who's struggling. It will change you, as well as them.