VFML

Capturing the world one frame at a time — landscapes, lakes, city streets, and countryside paths. Aerial views, DSLR magic, and candid moments, all with a nod to timeless beauty. Late bloomer in photography, but making up for lost time with heart, soul, and a steady hand. Featuring travel tales, behind-the-scenes gear talk, and the occasional photobomb by Monty, my loyal Shih Tzu sidekick. Classic. Vibrant. Unfiltered (except for ND filters). Let’s show the world the places worth wandering.

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Winter descends like a whispered secret across the valley. The morning mist clings to the mountains as if reluctant to reveal what lies beyond, whilst frost-kissed slopes stretch endlessly beneath a sky caught between dawn and day.

There's something peculiarly haunting about winter light—the way it renders everything both familiar and strange. Those scattered chalets make one wonder about the lives unfolding within them, what dreams stir behind those windows as the world outside holds its breath.

This is winter in its most enigmatic form, as though the snow has buried more than just the summer grass.

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Sailboats, still waters, and the peaceful rhythm of village life.

Captured this tranquil scene at a quiet Polish marina—where time slows down and every detail invites you to pause and breathe. I love how the boats gently sway, trees cradle the docks, and clouds become storytellers overhead.

There’s something magical about these hidden corners where nature meets everyday adventure. It’s not just a place—it’s a feeling.

Where do you go when you want to get away from it all?

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Grey November skies, pure gold for photographers

Mist, rain & frost are your best filters. Full guide to turning rubbish British weather into magic ↓ Visit Blog

Drop your moody shots below! 📸🌧

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Coastal Cycling Adventures

The best days are made for riding along sunlit shores, with the ocean breeze in your hair and the sand beneath your wheels. This bike path at the beach invites exploration and moments of relaxation, perfect for adventurers who love blending cycling with seaside serenity. Whether it's a short ride or a long journey, every pedal stroke brings a sense of freedom and connection to the natural world.

Where's your favourite spot to cycle and unwind?

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Immerse yourself in the serene beauty surrounding Dorota as she connects with nature beside the peaceful pond. This video captures quiet reflections and simple joys that make this spot so special. Perfect for lovers of nature, calm vibes, and heartfelt stories.

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Drawn To Water

There’s something about water that always pulls us back.

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Two Paths, One Question

What does it mean to choose your way forward?

Here are two photographs. Both show paths. Both invite movement. Yet they whisper entirely different stories to the soul.

The first: a manicured town square where civilisation has tamed the wild into neat hedgerows and proper pavements. People stroll leisurely between shops and cafés, their paths predetermined by urban planners and centuries of social convention. Safety lies in the familiar rhythm of commerce and community.

The second: an untamed forest track where pine sentinels stand guard over mysteries we've forgotten how to name. Here, the path curves beyond sight, offering no promises save the ancient one that all journeys begin with a single step into the unknown.

Which path calls to you?

Perhaps the real question isn't which to choose, but why we feel compelled to choose at all. Maybe we carry both within us—the part that craves the warmth of belonging and the part that hungers for the wild spaces where we might discover who we truly are when no one is watching.

Notice how your heart responds to each image. Notice what it tells you about the life you're living... and the one you dream of in the quiet hours before dawn.

Sometimes the most profound journeys happen not with our feet, but with our willingness to see.

What path are you walking today?

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Some paths are older than the trees that guard them.

Walking through this Polish coastal forest with Dorota Raczynska Trott and Monty The Shih-Tzu , I found myself drawn to a trail that seemed to whisper stories from centuries past. The worn stones beneath our feet held the weight of countless footsteps - pilgrims, merchants, lovers meeting in secret, children chasing shadows that no longer exist.

What compels us to follow these ancient routes? Perhaps we're not choosing the path at all... perhaps it's choosing us, calling us back to complete journeys we started in lives we can't quite remember.

The forest knows. It's been waiting.

Where do your feet take you when your mind isn't watching?

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Sometimes the most profound moments arrive unannounced during an ordinary evening stroll.

Walking along the water's edge at Ruciane Nida with Dorota and our faithful Monty The Shih-Tzu , we stumbled upon this curious scene - a houseboat adorned with a painted heron, its image perfectly mirrored in the dark water below.

What struck me wasn't just the symmetry, but the question it posed: which is the real heron? The one painted on the vessel above, or its ghostly twin shimmering beneath the surface? Perhaps both exist in their own right - one crafted by human hands, the other conjured by nature's quiet magic.

In that still moment at 19:00, as twilight settled around us, I wondered if we too cast reflections we rarely notice. The lives we live above the waterline, and the deeper truths that ripple beneath, waiting to be discovered by those who pause long enough to look.

Some evenings, a simple walk with your loved ones reveals the poetry hidden in plain sight.

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April in Poland. A lake, Dorota, and Monty the Shih-Tzu. I was lost in centuries of reflection on the water. Monty was lost in the possibility of ducks. Dorota was lost in wondering why I’d stopped walking again. Maybe that’s the secret: dogs don’t overthink, they just live. The present is enough. And maybe, so is simply having someone beside you while you wonder.

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The Whispering Waters

Beneath emerald canopies, time pools and eddies in waters that speak only in riddles. Here, the river transforms—from restless stone-chatter to profound, mirror-still contemplation.

What alchemy stills these waters so completely they become vessels for sky's fleeting thoughts? Golden reeds stand sentinel, guarding memories or prophecies in their whispered conversations.

The bridge spans this liquid meditation, its modern arch defying ancient rhythms below. Are the figures wading these amber depths pilgrims or archaeologists, disturbing sediments of possibility with each step?

Notice how the forest presses close, harbouring secrets too delicate for open air. Trees lean inward, forming conspiracies of shade and light, whilst water below holds revelations close—neither fully revealing nor entirely concealing.

What draws us to places where the world pauses to catch its breath? Perhaps some mysteries are meant to be felt rather than solved, witnessed rather than explained.

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​Lost at Sea, Found on the Lake

​The silent bobbing of the boats, their masts reaching for a sky that offers no answers. Each one a vessel of dreams and departures, tethered to a dock that feels more like a whisper than a hold. You can leave the shore, but can you ever truly leave yourself behind?

​We spend our lives seeking distant horizons, convinced the other side holds the key. But what if the journey is merely a reflection of where we started? The still water holds a mirror to the world above, an inverted forest, an upside-down sky. It’s a beautiful lie, a perfect copy of a flawed reality.

​Perhaps the greatest adventure isn’t sailing away, but finding a quiet anchor in the here and now. What if being lost at sea is just a different kind of finding?

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Sometimes the most profound conversations happen in complete silence.

Perched between the solid certainty of earth and the endless questions of water, we find ourselves in that liminal space where thoughts settle like sediment. What draws us to these edges—these boundaries between one world and another? Perhaps it's the way water holds secrets whilst simultaneously reflecting truth back at us.

Notice how the ripples seem to carry away whatever we've brought to this moment, yet somehow leave us more complete than when we arrived. There's something deeply mysterious about the way solitude by water doesn't feel lonely—it feels like coming home to a conversation we've been having with ourselves our entire lives.

The bench knows. The trees remember. The water keeps flowing, indifferent to our human need for answers, yet somehow providing them through its very indifference.

What would you tell the water if you knew it was listening? What would it tell you if you were brave enough to hear?

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There's something rather enigmatic about empty chairs, isn't there? They hold space for conversations that might have been, or perhaps for the kind of solitary reflection that speaks louder than words ever could. The way the light catches the water suggests stories waiting to unfold, or memories that have already settled into the landscape like sediment beneath the surface.

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What curious alchemy transforms water into mirror, reflecting not merely what stands above, but what lies beneath the surface of our understanding? Here, where land surrenders to liquid embrace, we witness the ancient dialogue between permanence and impermanence—trees that have watched centuries unfold, their reflections dancing with lily pads that bloom and perish with each season's turning.

Notice how the eye seeks the distant shore, that industrial sentinel standing guard over this pastoral scene. Progress and preservation locked in their eternal waltz, each defining the other's meaning. The water holds both truths simultaneously: the wild green chaos of nature's design and humanity's geometric ambitions, neither quite conquering the space between.

Perhaps this is where wisdom dwells—not in the choosing of sides, but in the recognition that every landscape is a palimpsest, each layer of meaning written over the last, yet somehow all remaining visible to those who know how to look. The question isn't what this place was or what it might become, but what it reveals about our restless need to name the unnamed spaces of our longing.

In stillness, everything moves. In reflection, everything transforms. What do you see when you stop trying to see anything at all?

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sometimes the most profound conversations happen without words

you know that feeling when you're walking down a quiet path, just you and your dog, and suddenly everything makes sense? not because you figured out the answer to some big question, but because you remembered that some things don't need answers.

the trees don't ask why they grow toward the light. your dog doesn't question whether this walk has meaning. they just are. they just do.

we spend so much time building elaborate philosophies about purpose and direction, but maybe the secret is simpler: keep walking. the path knows where it's going, even when we don't.

there's something revolutionary about choosing the slow lane in a world obsessed with speed. about finding your rhythm instead of matching everyone else's pace. about remembering that the journey doesn't have to be optimized to be beautiful.

What if getting lost is just another way of being exactly where you need to be?