Four Landscapes and Four Seasons

Thanks to all those who voted on my four Western Australian sunset photos. Here are the final standings;

1) Yallingup Beach
2) Bathurst Lighthouse, Rottnest Island
3) Government Lake, Rottnest Island
4) Redgate Beach

Second and Third was a close race but Yallingup Beach was the clear winner. This will be the first of my photos to be enlarged and if I'm happy with how it looks it'll be listed on Etsy. I'll keep you informed.

Here are four more photos to vote on, one for each season.

First is Winter - a shot of Big Ben and (just slightly) the English Parliament behind the snow-covered, leafless trees of Embankment. This was "the day that London stopped", being completely unprepared for the volume of snow the night before. The next winter ('11) I actually left London the day before even worse snow storms came through. I was glad I missed it to be honest. But I was really glad that I got this unique shot. I actually like the icicles on the old street lamp (right of photo) the best.




Second is Spring - well, I'm going to confess, this wasn't taken in Spring. It's Australia, which doesn't really get four seasons. So I'm calling it Spring. I don't think you could say it doesn't look like it. I was very happy to get a lucky opportunity with this angle so I could get the Habour Bridge, Opera House, Fort Denison, a little of the CBD, and a fortuitously placed yacht.




Third is Summer - (well, the end of Spring in truth...) I call these "The Windmills of Don Quixote" because it's said to be windmills in this area that are referred to in Miguel de Cervantes legendary novel "Don Quixote". They're in the Spanish region of La Mancha, which falls between Madrid and Valencia. I encourage you to read the book - although, like me, you may not get through it. It is often considered one of the earliest examples of fiction prose (depending on what books in history you refer to as fiction), particularly due to its appeal to the common man. But when you consider what the common man's reading skills would've been like in Spain in the early 1600's I can only imagine how long it took to read!




Fourth is Autumn (and it really is!) - And what a place to be in Autumn, or any time of year for that matter. The Lake District in the UK is without question one of the most beautiful places on earth. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that, despite not wanting to originally move there, my ancestor Robert Southey lived the latter half of his life there. This photo is taken with my back to Derwent Water, facing Keswick (said Kez-ick) with the mountain ("fell" locals would call it) Skiddaw, tallest in the region, in the background. I think that the man-applied red spots on the sheep add a certain something. Something unique. It takes away a little of the stereotypicalness of the scene and makes it different, albeit it in a "tainted by man" sort of way.



So place your votes using the poll in the right column! Thanks!!