“Chess isn’t always competitive. Chess can also be beautiful. It was the board I noticed first. It’s an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it. I can dominate it. And it’s predictable, so if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.”
Elizabeth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) in the superlative drama series The Queen’s Gambit (2019), which tells of an orphan’s rise through the ranks of the male-dominated world of chess in the 1950s and 60s.
These are my favourite six from the vote for the 2020 BBC Countryfile front cover calendar competition. Going left to right from the top the photographs are: Autumn Rays by Richard Hooper, Call of the Wild by Mervyn Chilton, Sunset Glow by Rachel Baker, Wilderness Wanderer by Harry Feather, Nectar Inspector by Steve McHale and I Walk the Line by Tom Broxup. You can see the others and vote here.
Despite everything, it’s been such gorgeous weather so wanted to share some of my favourite sunsets from my time doing the blog. You’ll find another example of my sunset montages here.
I was at Winter Wonderland before it closed and wanted to share some of the delightful animals they had at the ice statues section.
A montage of some of the incredible photographs I’ve shared with you recently, when highlighting the sensational talents of photographers around the world. Have a wonderful 2020 everyone. Thanks to everyone who has continued to follow the blog. Peace and love to you all. As an added bonus for those curious, below are my five most popular posts from this year.
Gr8at: Hilarious Lines by Roz Doyle
Announcement: Exciting News
Gr8at: British Wildlife Photography Awards
Announcement: An Update on my Second Post
Photography: Cherry Blossom Montage
I’ve been seeing so many wonderful sunsets recently, I decided to do a montage of some of my favourites from times gone by. Do you have a favourite? Do you get good ones where you are?
A collection of cherry blossom photos connected together from walks around London.
A montage that captures the different ways you can decorate at Christmas when I was out and about in London.
I usually do a Gr8at when it comes to photography awards, especially when they are as exceptional as these. But it just worked so well as a montage I had to display them in this format. So congratulations to Pedro Jarque Krebs, Petr Bambousek, Saverio Gatto, David Easton, Richard Shucksmith, Rostislav Ageev, Sienna Anderson and Martin Grace who all saw their work acclaimed in the latest Bird Photographer of the Year Awards. Can you guess which photograph won the overall prize?
These are a collection of my favourite photographs from an exhibition of the World Photography Awards in Somerset House, London. This is the tenth edition of the highly acclaimed competition, which includes categories like Natural World, Landscape, Still Life, Sport and Conceptual. There was also a section including the work of photographer and photojournalist Martin Parr.
Alex Raphael 