Slapdash Photography

We had as chilled a holiday in Madeira as we could manage, which meant very little hillwalking even though our apartment was on a hill (taxis are excellent things). But since Madeira is volcanic there's a lot of mountain to be seen, and in Funchal there's a cable car to take you 500 or so metres up to Monte and see things from a different perspective. Lower down the mountain at the beginning of the ride, the houses look very similar to each other. There's very little variation in colour and shape, though the placement of the buildings themselves isn't uniform, and from this perspective it looks as though it remains that way however high up and far away they go. But from further up, and tucked into the hidden valleys, it's a different story. There are fewer houses, but they're bright pink and light blue and perched right on the edge of a cliff and full of people hanging out their washing, completely unbothered by the hundred or so cars flying over the...

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 ...