yellow (Sao Tiago Fort, Funchal)

For my own personal sense of structure, I'm going to attempt to give each post a one word (or short phrase) summation. Having a consistent mood, theme or idea will be good for me, at least to start off with. When I first got into photography I started doing the weekly assignments in the Digital Photography School forums, and that was great except that everyone else was so far above me it made the whole thing feel a bit futile. So these are my own themes, born out of whatever happened when I was shooting. Sometimes it might be deep, or abstract, or thought-provoking. Today it is not. Today it is "Look, I saw a pretty colour."

The São Tiago Fort in Funchal was built in the 17th century to protect Madeira from pirates, and these days it's a museum and art gallery. And a restaurant, because everything is a restaurant. When we visited it was fairly empty, and I was enthused to take photos in a way I haven't been for some time. Mostly it was the combination of yellow and blue and the stark shapes, but I'd be lying if I said the lack of people walking into my shot didn't have something to do with it. (I am not good at street photography. I don't like it enough to get better at it.)

I don't even know why I like this particular photo, but as soon as I took it I thought "yay, that one's cool." It's possibly the large amount of space and pattern in the foreground fading into crowded and haphazard houses on the hills. And also yellow. 

This one I like because of the large, simple shapes, and the human I ordered into the doorway for scale. He's a very lovely human. 

I really like the sense of distance here. It's something I was trying to capture in a lot of my photos over the course of the week, and this picture is one of the best at expressing it. The views from the top of the fort were spectacular in almost all directions, except the one where the view was of someone's laundry.

This one is my favourite expression of yellow and blue. The fort is oddly cartoonish and doesn't fit in with anything else around it, which I think adds to its beauty. Also it coordinates with my boyfriend's sunglasses, and you can't beat that.

Next up: Views from cable cars