Christmas shopping

I've been invited by a friend and former colleague to join and small (very select!) online photography club. The idea is that we have a monthly theme, take photos around the theme during the month, select one to put on the club website at the month end and then each add our comments and constructive criticisms to each other's. The idea appeals as a way of breaking out of the creative box I've lately felt I've put myself in. (It's easy to end up taking photos 'to feed the blog' and nothing more.)

December's theme is 'Intersection' so I have been thinking about and looking for subjects that would interpret that. This is, for me, a new way of approaching photography. Though I can often find photos retrospectively that fit a theme, I rarely go out with a specific theme in mind.

Opportunities for photography being scarce at the moment, I ended up taking my DSLR with me when I went Christmas shopping in Leeds.  That was an 'intersection' in itself!  This photo of the new Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre could be one interpretation of the theme - both in the way the walkways criss-cross and in those complicated spider's web Christmas decorations.

If you're wondering what the horse is about, look here. (And that is another photo that could, I suppose, fit the 'Intersection' theme quite well.)

High Corn Mill, Skipton

Apologies for my absence from blogging. I seem to be very busy with necessary things that have prevented me from going out and about with my camera. It's always harder to find time in the winter. It's still dark when I leave home in the mornings and dark again by the time I come home from work. Weekends in the run-up to Christmas seem to be full this year. I haven't even been out to look at Saltaire's Advent windows yet!

I did take my camera when I went to meet a friend in Skipton recently. We spent so much time chatting over coffee(s) - and cake of course - that I left myself no time for taking photos. We rather lost track of time. (Isn't it delightful when a conversation is so engaging?) Then I suddenly remembered my parking ticket had run out and I had to dash back to the car before a traffic warden got there first! I took this quick snap of the old corn mill beside the canal. It has a water-wheel at the far side but it's not in a spot where you can really get a decent photo.