It is unfrequent to be so pleasantly surprised. On a weekend drive out of Paris I stumbled almost by accident on the hamlet of Lavacourt on the River Seine and its small Restaurant-Bar-Tabac “Chez Charlot”. Immediately opposite lay the village of Vetheuil - a village made timeless by Monet who lived there in the 1880s.
No better invitation could there have been to settle down to a simple lunch of “poulet frites” and a “pichet” of red wine. What else could one ask for?
The village of Vetheuil as seen from the hamlet of Lavacourt (captured by mobile phone).
And the same scene rendered timeless by Claude Monet some 120 years earlier (painted in oils!).
Here is another of Vetheuil in the Winter. Je pense q’une autre visite s’impose!
The hundreds of thousands of reinforced concrete bunkers that dot the Albanian landscape are a sinister reminder of the paranoia of Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship. They will no doubt remain a scare on the landscape for hundreds of years to come.
Ernst Haeckel was a reknown 19th century biologist, naturalist, philosopher, and last but not least, artist. His extraordinary work “Kunstformen der Natur” (Art Forms in Nature) includes a hundred beautiful illustrations of animals and plants. This exceptional work had a important influence on the Art Nouveau movement of his time.
The small bay of “Les Figuières” on the Côte Bleue (just west of Marseilles) is a delightfully calm spot to enjoy the sun and the sea.
An afternoon’s snorkling reveals underwater meadows of sea grass (Posidonia oceanica), sea cucumbers, sea urchins, starfish (Echinaster sepositus) and schools of sea bream (Sarpa salpa). The rocks at the ends of the bay were covered in small banks of mussels at or near the sea surface, and isolated oysters at 2 or 3 metres depth.
Philip Henry Gosse was a talented 19th century English naturalist who carried-out detailed marine biology studies and wonderfully described his observations of the natural world. He was also a talented artist and many of his books contain his own drawings. The photograph above was taken in a rock pool in Cornwall 120 years after Philip Gosse had painted from life the very same subject!
The prawns are almost transparent and dart in and out of the recesses of the rock pools and are almost impossible to photograph. I plunged my hand into a rock pool and as by magic not one prawn, but many prawns, swam towards my hand. Were they attracted by the paleness of my skin or the warmth on my hand?
Why "New" Naturalist - well the advent of digital photography has made it possible for anyone to enjoy nature photography and get great results. Today's naturalist can record observations easily and results are obtained instantly. He can afford to practise his art.
All this sounds good but if you want to get really good shots you'll have to work hard - it's like anything in life - if you want to be good at something you'll need to practise, practise, practise!
