I love the new series of posts devoted to photography as visual storytelling.  For me, that is what my camera has been for many years.  As a child I wrote a diary, but i would have phases of intense writing, followed by periods where the days all seemed to merge and either far too much stuff was happening to possibly have time to write it down, or else nothing of note happened.

I always meant to write a travel diary and started taking photos when on holidays top compliment the diary.  Many many years after my first grown up holiday (America 1989) the diary remains unwritten, but I have a treasure trove of photographs from that holiday, and many many more, just waiting for me to add the words

Some of those photos have already surfaced in response to some photo challenges, or triggered by another trip.  My most recent trip to Egypt triggered a series of posts about my first trip (most of them still in draft form) Via the world of blogging I feel that these photos (well some of them) will finally get some words, or at least get looked at once in a while.

My camera now though, has taken on a new form.  My camera now IS my diary.  I don’t need to write the words, the picture remembers them for me.  I no longer have the yearning to write down what i see and experience, once I have some good photos I am happy to enjoy the place where I am, and allow the camera to write my diary for me.

As a result I have started getting a bit more adventurous with my photography and so the series of posts entitled ‘Photography 101‘ have come at just the right time for me.

I have red hair, and noticed from a very young age that it takes on new life if photographed in the early evening sun, sometimes it burns crimson, other times golden.  As a child I used to run into the beams of evening sunlight and ask everyone what colour my hair was!

As a photography enthusiast I saw how the light enhanced the richness of colour in everything around us, and started trying to capture it.  I am rarely seen without my camera near sunset 🙂

I took these photos on the western tip of Hayling Island last week as the sun was setting.  I think the images are surreal, as if they were painted.