Seeing through photographs

I took the camera with me when I popped out to the shop in the late afternoon and quickly snapped this scene, just because of the light on the tree. It ended up being the only one of a dozen photos that I thought was acceptable. See extra for a mono version done for the Year with my Camera course -- I was surprised how good it looked in mono and spent ages dithering over which one to use for my blip. Spot the inevitable power cables sparkling in the sun!

Speaking of courses, someone in the Facebook group for the course mentioned a new free Coursera course run by MOMA in New York, Seeing through Photographs. The blurb reminded me strongly of Kendall's recent question, "Why do we take photos?" and it took only moments for me to decide to sign up. So far all I've done is watch the two introductory videos, about three minutes each, and already my head is buzzing with questions and ideas. Worth a look if you are hungry for education!

This evening we went to the cine club to see TerraFerma. The good thing about joining is that we now go to nearly all the films they show, and see films we might not have done otherwise. This one was set on an island off Sicily, where the fishing industry is dying and people are turning to tourism; conflicts arise within one fishing family when drowning migrants start washing up on the beaches. The plot strains credibility at times as the director tries to address all of the complications and moral dilemmas of the situation, and the acting is a bit uneven, but the original, striking ways the images were composed had me spellbound throughout.