Category: Photography

January Squares: Mixed Lights

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Atmospheric lighting and a modern stained glass window

Liverpool pizzeria’s mood lighting

I’m sharing a few days’ January Squares, with twin themes: places where we can eat and/or drink; each picture to represent a word ending in light.

The first could be daylight or windowlight (apparently that’s a word). I was interested in the colours – how the light seems to leach them out from the modern stained glass and paint them on the sills and surfaces, and the way the barstools carry them through into the room. The hanging lights have coloured wires too or appear to have through a trick of the light.   Continue reading →

So Many Challenges, So Little Time!

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Faded advert on a garage wall

Faded advert on a garage wall

…and that’s excluding real world challenges, as this post is about blogging ones. These pictures were inspired by Nancy Merrill’s challenge: Textures.

Nancy is one of several community-spirited WordPress bloggers who fill the breach left by the late (still lamented) Daily Post Photo Challenge. I met many blogging buddies through the Daily Post and loved seeing their sometimes wildly individual takes on each subject. The official WordPress format made it a cinch to navigate. When the challenge ended I felt dispirited, not foreseeing that the mantle would pass to so many other hosts.

Cee Neuner maintains a useful list of WordPress challenges in the For The Love Of Challenges section of her blog. My hat’s off to Cee – her list is more inclusive and up to date than the Daily Post’s list ever was. She lists photography and writing challenges and I’ve just noticed a couple of musical ones are listed too, although I know from experience not to inflict my musical taste on anyone not similarly afflicted. 🙂

Shell house grotto at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden
The grotto celebrates The Queen Mother and features her initials

Continue reading →

Sometimes I Like Things I’m Not Supposed To Like

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Power lines with tree branches silhouetted against the sky

When my sweetheart saw this, he tried to explain how I could remove the power lines with an app. Remove the lines? I like the lines. I like the way the vegetation moves with so much verve around them.

Indulge me. Anthropomorphise the seed heads for a moment and see how they seem to be lifting thin arms in mockery or emulation. Watch the boundaries between natural and man-made fade.

I didn’t get any pleasure from the power lines for a long time. We don’t dangle our lines in the sky for all to see where I’m from, we secretively stash them away. I’d venture to think we don’t need as many lines where I’m from, but then what do I know?  Continue reading →

Tuesday Ragtag Prompt: Energy

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Margaret has set an interesting RagTag challenge, asking us to convey energy through a still picture. Here are my offerings:

Elvis, dancing alone, with one hand held high

Elvis, faded into a wall in Clarksdale, MS, in a pose that delights in the energy he had in his prime: energy the established order saw as a threat. Layers of lines and textures interested me almost as much as the subject.

Female hood ornament with graceful posture

Curves rule in this hood ornament that has the energy of a skater, seemingly in motion, even when fixed to a parked car. Flowing lines and an energetic posture reflect the smooth power of the machine, although on a yazoo clay road in Jackson, MS, perhaps not!  Continue reading →