Golden photography

Sometimes you just snap what you can, following your photography path and documenting each step. On other days you fall into a flow, visualising the image before you even see it, lost in a reverie and yet connected to every fibre of the present. 

You anticipate certain factors that add up to the right conditions. Still air, soft light, fields of golden daisies, drifts of wildflowers. The sun is going down casting long golden beams across the landscape. Even the birds are singing in harmony with a thousand dancing crickets.

One hour, on one evening as the sun slowly deflates into the sea. 

They call it the golden hour and it's one not to miss. Those last rays of the sun, how the light is low across the land casting longer shadows and warming the sky to an intensity. A lesson learned that is never now forgotten.

Dark angels #Pilgrimage ~June

Like my own Grandmother in mourning for her mother since 1953, each one is wearing black. They peer from a chair in their doorways during the day but in the early morning or late at night they come out of their cosy seclusion. While the men are down in the bars drinking coffee, they take a chair out onto the street or work in their gardens. 

The Greek language is impossible to me, so there's no hope of a chat and I have to make do with the spell of their shadowy presence. I catch them watching me out of the corner of my eye and so badly want to photograph their faces. Far too wary of the ethics involved, I would never make it as a candid street photographer, and yet I sneak pictures of them when they I think they don't see me.

In a mountain village I spot one walking towards me and point the camera at her through the windscreen of the car. She catches me at it and let's out a tirade! The rest of the time I just get lucky now and then and they float into the frame like dark angels! 

We have nothing in common and yet we have everything in common. Reading between the lines of our signals and greetings there is a depth of shared experience. We look into each other's eyes, we smile and one even winks at me! Life is short, love is all and don't be deceived by appearances.......

See the Elders Gallery here

The turquoise blue effect #Greece

What is the dominant colour in your life? What is the light like?

In my neck of the woods in rural Ireland, life is lived in green; 40 shades of it. It soothes in summer, bursts forth in Spring and any little shred of it is welcomed during winter. The skies are dramatic and varied. Weather passes at an alarming rate. We get every kind, the works. But for most of the year we lie low in a soft shaded light.

In Greece everything is lit from above in a vast ceiling of blue. The Mediterranean reflects back a turquoisey glow. Any Irish photographer would be confused by the glare and it takes time to get the measure of so much light. But blue, the world's favourite colour, calms the spirit and has refreshed and swept my brain clean.....

While we will soon be turning for home, some of you have been enquiring about the route and the low down on Greece. So next week I will share some tips for those of you wanting to visit the Peleponese, and post photos of my top 10.

Today I was hugged and kissed in a road side cafe!! I think it was because I enjoyed her aubergine and potato pie or maybe it was because I tried to understand the recipe she shared for the marinated lamb's liver dish she served to himself. The dance of sign language and the enthusiasm for connecting made this whole conversation possible. 

The sun set tonight over Greece lit by a burning orange sky. In the balmy air and warm scent of sage I turned to himself and said, we must come back and continue the journey; northwards next time......

When you get to the top #Pilgrimage~ May

When you finally get to the top of the mule trails everything opens up below; the town of Kardamili, the church at the edge of the cliff, the layers of blue mountains behind. 

Land, sea and sky wrap around you. The scent of sage is the memory that will linger. That and the silent Greek wilderness.


See also Wildflower walking in Greece and In the Mountain Village

Wildflower walking in Greece #Pilgrimage ~ May

It's proving a challenge to capture the colours, shapes, and sheer abundance of the wildflower meadows and olive groves here; the scents underfoot, the way the breeze rustles the seeding grasses, the buzzing of bees. The sheer number and variety of flowers and plants self seeding and thriving everywhere. 

At times as the sun heats the land your nose follows a familiar smell....sage, thyme, oregano.......the scent of sweet honeysuckle already in full flower. Or roses pouring out over patio walls in the narrow alleyways and lanes. Heady stuff to properly convey in pictures.......

The Mani Peninsula is famous for it's honey and everyone here seems to have hives. Bees and insects are plentiful and happy here as a result. There is little or no spraying or "weeding" the flowers and herbs cover paths and walls, roads and hillsides. There are few organised "gardens" as such, up here in the Mani Mountains in May the slopes are one continuous garden. 

Wildflowers are considered an integral part of the heritage of this place and I wish we would value and protect our hedgerows and ditches a bit more? Our abundant EU grass, manicured lawns and wire fencing are taking such a toll on our native biodiversity. 

Meanwhile these blogging breakfasts are special stolen moments to chat to with you here, until the day calls and the trekking continues.....

In the mountain village #Pilgrimage~May

As I sit here in the wifi bar I am struggling to settle on a blogpost for ye. Time is short and the charge on this device is poor. Having one foot in the global melting pot of the internet and another in the sleepy seaside village world is something I could live with indefinitely though, wifi or not! I've settled on sharing some of the crumbling beauty of this mountain village. 

After a steep hike on a number of trails and mule paths you reach the first layer of mountain villages.  At first you would assume this is a totally deserted place but these crumbling, shuttered homes are occupied, mainly by older people. Just like in Ireland there is very little to keep a Greek young person here. Just surviving up in the mountains is a daily challenge. 

There was an article in the local tourism magazine about a family from Ireland who moved here last year. Their two younger children allowed the local school of 8 pupils to stay open for another year. Locals came out into the street to greet them when they arrived with all their belongings. This is a rare occurrence as most buyers are looking for holiday retreats.

Through the wonderful silence there is palpable uncertainty. The parallels with Ireland, are never far from our thoughts. How easy it is to stand in awe of the beauty of rotting timber and peeled back layers of history on these walls. I remember a farmer saying to me that the tourists come to Ireland to admire the scenery, but the people who live off that land can't eat the lovely views. It's a complicated business being a tourist isn't it? 

Meanwhile my breakfast here under the shelter of a flowering vine is coming to an end. Tiny star shaped blossoms drop onto the keyboard. Tomorrow we travel even further west and delve deeper into the ancient world. 

If Ireland is green then Greece is blue #Pilgrimage ~ May

If Ireland is green then Greece is blue. All kinds of blue, even kinds I wasn't expecting...........

It starts when you turn south from Corinth. The legs of the layered peninsulas each stretch out into the Mediterranean exactly like the feet of our little bear of an island, around Kerry. The mountains seem bluer and bluer into the distant western skies. In the evenings the clouds come down from the highest snow covered mountains providing a light show until sunset.

This is a Narnia land of mountains and valleys all leading down to the turquoise sea. The villages on the far side of the mountains are isolated and quiet. I swear that when I sneezed on the mountain path, the whole valley said bless you! The harbour in Kardamili has a few small fishing boats that seem to go out to sea after nightfall. The beaches are mainly pebbly and down steep cliff side trails.

I am still so excited about being here. Today I felt the call of wifi and popped into this bar to have a chat with the twinternet. Funny thing is, it's just like parts of Ireland here, but with sun. People tell us that the wildflowers and grasses will have faded to straw in just a few short weeks. In the summer temperatures will soar to 40-45. No one will eat or sleep, but will crawl into their homes and wait until darkness falls. 

All summer tavernas, bars and shops will open 16 hours a day 7 days a week. Come winter the scattering of tourists will be no more and the local families will turn to the hills and pick their olives. Times are very uncertain in Greece and high taxes and poor services haunt the people still. There are no utopias anywhere are there? Life still has to be negotiated and grasped. 

But these blues have an effect. They still the mind and cleanse the eyes. Light warms your skin and makes you forget your creaking bones. Dropping in and out is a luxury and one I remember and honour every moment.........problem now is, how am I ever going to leave?!!

Spring in Ireland #Pilgrimage ~ April

Spring comes early here. Delicate and lemony leaves fill the hedgerows. By the time we return, foxgloves will be flowering again on the lane. Truth be told, it's hard to leave.

The privilege I feel turning into my sixth decade is overwhelming. Early losses meant that I may have lived a little tentatively, now my grip on life has become ferocious. Along the way I may have felt unsure, but now my feet step strongly along the path. Like a suffragette for all the women in my life who have missed the chance to grow old, I am beginning to deeply appreciate my own heart beating like a young thing!  

Bluer skies will fill my eyes with light. My soul mate and I will sit under the stars in Greece (as we did in our twenties) and marvel at the chance. We will both savour every new turn in the road.

I will keep you posted from the Peleponnese as long as I can catch a wave or two of internet somewhere along the way. Thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments, notes and support. As always they are much appreciated and so encouraging. 


Meanwhile there are more photographs of Spring in Ireland here