Lea Elm
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leaelm.bsky.social
Lea Elm
@leaelm.bsky.social
600 followers 200 following 1.6K posts
Photographer and writer living by the sea. Always looking for places to photograph and books to read. Won't say no to a hike either.
www.leaelm.com
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leaelm.bsky.social
A very happy afternoon spent printing.
Two black and white prints lying on top of a black inkjet printer, one showing a dark seascape, the other a sign standing in front of a lawn saying "site of lighthouse" with two sculptural looking pinetrees behind it.
November 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Working with printers is a lesson in humility and patience. After several new error messages, I fixed another problem and made a colour test print on my favourite Hahnemühle.
Part of a colour photo print resting on a printers paper tray. The print shows a partial view of a sparkling surface of water with various shades of blues and greens.
November 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Have spent the last 3 days working on printing. Each time I do, I get a little bit closer to the results I'm after.
The print to the left is from February, the one to the right is from today after @danfoto.bsky.social did some software wizardry yesterday.
IKEA Alex drawers with black portfolio boxes and a big Canon printer on top standing in a grey teal coloured room. Two monochrome photo prints lying on a wooden tabletop. Both show the same scene with a window looking into a tatami-covered room of a traditional Japanese building, the glass reflecting a scenery of trees behind the building.
November 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Operation Studio Space is on this weekend.
We have a study full of books, where I write and we both do our photography work but we (meaning me, I'm the guilty party) need some more storage space for notebooks, papers and finished work.
A carpeted floor laid out with various furniture pieces, components and screws, with a folded paper manual saying "Alex" and "IKEA" while showing a line illustration of a tall, slim drawer.
October 18, 2025 at 9:51 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
D found us a new place to walk not too far from where we live and it was gorgeous.
A tree standing on the edge of a canal with the running water reflecting a blue sky above and surrounding trees clad in autumn colours in various shades of green, yellow, red and beige.
October 4, 2025 at 2:27 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Celebrating 12 years with @danfoto.bsky.social today and it's a rainy day, just how we like it.
Digital colour photograph of a rainy street in Japan at dusk with lit up neon signs all around. A man wearing a backpack is standing in the middle of the road under a see-through umbrella, looking up through a camera towards the sky.
September 20, 2025 at 8:54 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
I made something the last two days.

About Darkness.

www.leaelm.com/about-darkness
Black and white digital photograph of turbulent water rushing through a gorge past jagged and heavily textured rocks towards a low waterfall.
September 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Some nice things from yesterday:
- Had a mindful cup of white tea
- Watched "Japan's Master of Restoration" with my breakfast instead of doomscrolling
- Walked down to the beach and along it, then back home past a canal and through a forest. Slowly, enjoying the fresh air and warm wind.
A big view of open blue sky, a block of sea and a small patch of pebble beach. A cluster of boulders hugging a pebble beach, leading out into a rolling grey-green sea with a blue sky above strewn with gauzy clouds. A canal seen from a basin where it ends or begins, the water stretching out and receding into the background. Around the canal is grass and greenery, with an afternon sun half covered by clouds above it. A deep forest path leading into the distance.
August 28, 2025 at 7:17 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
My mum loves white tea! I don't think I've ever had Shou Mei or any aged white tea before, I like the flavour descriptions I can see of it.

You reminded me that I fell in love with a supermarket quality tea this summer and haven't had a cup for weeks, so I made myself one. Instant joy, thank you 🙏
A cup of amber coloured tea in a mug that is white on the inside and green on the outside is resting on a wooden coaster on top of a wooden coffee table. Behind the mug stands cardboard packaging for "Clipper - Organic White Tea with Raspberry".
August 27, 2025 at 9:19 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
Since it's @danfoto.bsky.social's birthday, we've had 3 days in London of good food, bookshopping, cake and the Hiroshige exhibition at BM. I even got to see the reading room at BM and went to Shepherd's aka bookbinding heaven for paper lovers, both of which have been on my wish list for years.
August 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
I've been taking extra care to rest this weekend, so I've had two slow mornings with tea and breakfast in bed, reading 'Moving Mountains', edited by @louisekenward.bsky.social . I love looking at the cover and the writing inside is just what I needed right now.
A hand holding up a paperback copy of a book titled 'Moving Mountains'. The cover background is navy blue and have green, blue, red and orange illustrations of leaves, snowflakes, a feather, a pebble, berries, raindrops and seaweed. A tagline writes "Writing Nature through illness and Disability".
August 10, 2025 at 11:26 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
Going to have a chill, gentle day after a weekend at a festival. A little sad I'm not waking up in a tent to a breakfast of pancakes but it was also nice not having to fall asleep to beats from the big techno tent up the hill.
Bedding seen from inside a tent, with a triangle shaped opening letting in gauzy light from a campsite outside. A wooden picnic table with a takeaway cup and a paper bowl with a wooden fork sticking up from a small stack of pancakes with strawberries and blueberries. A tent-like screen between the side of a stage and large speakers is showing a silhouetted crowd of partying people back-lit by a sunset on a summer evening.
August 4, 2025 at 8:11 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
Today marks exactly two years since we bought our first home and moved to the coast. We love it here so much.
A paved promenade path next to a pebble beach leading towards a horizon, with houses on the left side and a sliver of sea on the right. The sky is big and open and there are several shades of blue.
June 29, 2025 at 12:28 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
One more from the woods.
A digital colour photograph of a forest floor covered in bluebells. The bluebells are stretching from the foreground towards the back, where both thin and thicker tree trunks rise up and with daylight coming through their new bright-green leaves.
May 12, 2025 at 1:56 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
The Woods, April 2025.
Digital colour photograph of a forest floor covered by moss, bluebells and tufts of grass. Trees and bushes are trying to squeeze in from the sides and the long stems of one tree in the back is leaving a sculptural shadow on the ground.
May 12, 2025 at 1:47 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Waterfall, Bannau Brycheiniog, 2023.
Black and white digital photograph of water cascading forcefully off the edge of a large rocky outcrop, with trees in full leaf in the background.
April 23, 2025 at 12:42 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Made it outside for Hanami 花見 thanks to @danfoto.bsky.social going for a gentle walk with me. I was worried I'd missed them this year but here by the coast the cherry trees only started blooming a few days ago 🌸
A cherry blossom tree with branches full of thick clusters of pink petals. In the background is another tree with green leaves and a bright blue sky.
April 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
For anyone interested, I've been wanting a Lucille Clerc piece for a decade and now this one lives in my living room:
A black and white screenprint of a design with intricate leaves, flowers and glasshouse-like structures, with organic and circular shapes repeating within the design. The screenprint is hanging on a white wall in a black frame.
April 16, 2025 at 9:31 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
Hello from a sunny South coast. It's the first warm Spring day and also the first day of a quasi-holiday. I've already been out for a walk and lunch at a local café near the beach, so now my hair smells like sun and the sea.
A bright blue sky with swirling clouds, a band of sunlit sea and a small stretch of pebble beach below.
April 4, 2025 at 1:40 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
Hiroshima,
November 2024.

#日本 #Japan #RicohGRIIIx
A steep escalator inside a glass-roofed tube leading downwards, with green foliage pressing in, blurring the boundary between in- and outside.
March 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM
leaelm.bsky.social
'Before the Storm' by Zao Wou-ki.

Currently displayed in Tate Modern in a room titled 'In the Studio: The Disappearing Figure: Art after Catastrophe'.

www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...
A dark painting in various tones of brown, black, yellowish-beige and white. The painting is mostly dark but towards the top and bottom there are indistinguishable formations like clouds, with scratched dark marks and significantly, lighter areas trying to come through behind them.
March 10, 2025 at 10:06 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
I love these small poetry pamphlets that can be sent in the post as a card, published by @candlestickpress.bsky.social and always beautifully designed and printed with lots of different themes.

www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten...

#Poetry
Cover of a poetry pamphlet with the title 'Ten Poems of Light' showing an illustration of a landscape of a valley with trees and mountains, with various shades of strong yellows, green and purple.
March 8, 2025 at 8:43 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
This book by Tate shows artworks from their collection where light is a main feature.

#Tate #Light
Cover of the book 'Light' published by Tate, showing part of a seascape painting with pockets of sunlight falling down onto the water from a sky dappled with clouds.
March 8, 2025 at 8:35 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
Poem by Izumi Shikibu

#和泉式部
The page of a book, almost blank, showing a poem by Izumi Shikibu with the following text: Although the wind blows terribly here, the moonlight also leaks between the roof planks of this ruined house.
March 8, 2025 at 8:17 AM
leaelm.bsky.social
For the last two years I have been working quietly on a photo series that I'm working towards making into a photo book. It's about the places and moments that have brought light into my life.

Like this one from our last day in Japan, the sun unexpectedly warm on a mid-November day in Kyoto.
Digital colour photograph of a three-storey building with a large tree and other green plants off to the left side. A lowering sun can just be seen behind the top left corner of the house, the light shining from behind and through the tree, creating a lace of shadows on a lawn and the pavement in front of it.
March 8, 2025 at 7:58 AM