Wordless Weekend – The Grandparent Visit One
Posted under Photography
Posts Tagged ‘Photography’
Photo A Day: Memory Lane
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What IS it about the appeal of baby toys to children who should have outgrown them years ago? My Dad produced a box of toys we kept at his house when the boys were much younger and the squeals of delight were quite defeaning. All the small pieces of plastic tat which I’d lugged all the way here for them to play with were immediately shunned in favour of, well, larger pieces of plastic tat. Worse, these pieces of plastic tat require batteries and some of them don’t have an off switch. Withing 30 seconds I’d remembered why these particular toys were labelled ‘special’ and left at the grandparents in the first place. Sometimes it’s good to put a 5 hour drive between you and certain playthings, don’t you think?
But, oh, how did MrSqueezyZebra get in to the box? A tasteful, thoughtful and much much much loved gift from The Wife many moons ago. I was wondering about him the other day and hoping I’d popped him in one of the boy’s memory boxes….but here he is….abandoned in the Box of Hell with only a couple of vintage Fisher Price horrors and a bag of rusty batteries for company.
My baaaaaad.
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The Gallery: A Novel Idea
Posted under Photography
Week 20 of The Gallery and this week’s theme is ‘A Novel Idea’, or images to represent a novel. As usual I can’t limit myself to one, I enjoy poking around my photo archive too much to stop at one. So, above, we have A Horseman Riding By (RF Delderfield)…a novel I read and loved as a teenager. No one seems to read RF Delderfield anymore but his novels were staples of my teenage years….Diana, To Serve Them all my Days, God is an Englishman….all wonderful books.
Next up, The Faraway Tree. Oh how I LOVED Enid Blyton as a child. Much disproved of these days of course, such a pity…I wonder if the boys will ever lose themselves in The Faraway Tree trilogy as I did, again and again as a child. Or is it all too old hat these days?
And finally, the magical world of The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini). Oh, I adored that book….must put it on my ‘to be re-read list’ although I often wonder if life is too short for that when the pile of ‘to be read’ grows bigger and bigger by the day. If only I could invent the 48 hour day so many of my problems would be solved!
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Photo A Day: Cool Blue
Posted under Photography
Out take from a photoshoot I did this week for lifestyle boutique. The brief was for shots of the boutique exterior and interior, but there was a lot of downtime as the window was dressed, the shop rearranged etc. So I got busy with a few product shots while I was waiting…I lingered over these candles because the smell was so divine.
A thing I learnt on this shoot…don’t underestimate the value of a polarising filter for knocking back reflections on glass. I was really having a problem with the exterior shots since the glass plate frontage was reflecting the buildings opposite very heavily. Add a polarising filter and, hey presto, the reflections pretty much disappeared.
Another thing I learnt…always carry a screwdriver in your camera bag, just in case you hit with the stupid stick and attach your tripod shoe plate BACK TO FRONT. Ahem.
Live ‘n’ learn…live ‘n’ learn.
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Photo A Day: Fields of yeah..blah..
Posted under Photography
You know, the sky is very very big round here. How does that work? Someone educate me please. I don’t understand it but the sky just IS very very big in Suffolk. Takes up a lot of room…and today that clouds have been absolutely stunning all day.
If I paid attention when MrSpud and Bertie talk clouds and get that swotty Cloudspotter’s Guidebook out I could tell you about the amazing clouds I’ve seen today. It’s been such a show from first thing this morning. Right now, nearly 8pm, the sky is streaked with long thin lines of clouds. What are they called?
I stopped briefly on my way back from dropping the boys at nursery to take this shot. Yes, my children go to nursery in the middle of throwback land. See that teeeeeny tiny blip on the horizon? That’s the baby room….;-)
Actually, that’s a hut constructed by the locals. Every year, in a long held Suffolk tradition, we kidnap Sting and pop him in the hut during high summer. It’s a kindness to the nation really…but if you listen…very, oh so very carefully…you can hear him singing…come on now…sing along now…”you’ll remember me when the west wind moves…”…tra la la.
We let him out once it’s been harvested. Most years…
Snapped with a lens other than the Lensbaby. Just sayin’.
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Photo A Day: Contrasts
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A little on the funereal side I think…it could be a condolence card don’t you think? And flowers YET AGAIN. I need to give the flower shots a break. But at least this one wasn’t shot with the omnipresent Lensbaby so that’s progress, of sorts…I have a client shoot tomorrow and hopefully they will give me permission to use one of my shots for my Photo A Day. It’s the most, most, most beautiful boutique. I want to live there. Alas, I think the chances of being given permission for that are remote, but a girl’s got to have dreams right?
Back to death….I was pondering about the permanency of death a bit today. I realise that’s a ridiculous statement but that’s how my mind works. When my mother died I found it very hard to accept that she wasn’t ever coming back, that I would ever hear her laugh or her voice again…and that I’d never get the chance to talk to her again. In the depths of my grief I’d idly fantasise that I could bring her back to life again so I could tell her that I was OK, I was making a decent shot at making a happy and fulfilled life for myself, and that I loved her so, so much and was profoundly grateful for all the sacrifices she made for me.
I was reminded of that today when I was suddenly filled with the urge to talk to my friend R who died last year. When I was heavily pregnant with Bertie R told me to enjoy the last few Sunday mornings lying around reading the paper because it wouldn’t happen again for many, many years. Of course I didn’t listen and thought he was exaggerating (despite him having 4 children and me having none, I was sure I knew better). Naturally, he was right. I don’t think I’ve read a Sunday paper beyond flapping through the pages in a frenetic fashion since having children. But I did today, because MrSpud has taken the boys to visit his mother for the weekend.
So I sat in a cafe and read the WHOLE paper whilst having breakfast. Suddenly I could see R sitting in front of me telling me to make the most of my Sunday paper reading and I wanted to tell him he was right. Oh, he’d have enjoyed that so much since the words, ‘You were right’ don’t come out of my mouth very often…and he and I had a very healthy love of fierce debate. And there it was, that smack round the face that I won’t ever see R again and won’t ever get to share industry gossip or tell him he was right. It’s so painful. I think the physical pain of grief is rarely talked about, but whenever the gloom of grief hits me the whole inside of my chest hurts. It gets tight and feels like there’s a huge lump in there trying to break out.
I sat in the cafe with big fat tears plopping down and smudging the newsprint, whilst sipping at my bucket of latte and hoping no one would notice.
Anyway, to R: should you be reading this in the afterlife. YOU WERE RIGHT. And you have it in writing now too. I can hear your booming laughter, which was always sonorous enough to stop an army in its tracks, all the way from here…where there is a big, fat (literally unless you’ve lost of a pounds) R shaped hole in the the world. Get back here would you?
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Photo A Day: You can’t touch this
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I’m trying to challenge myself my Photo A Day project, trying different subjects, different compositions and different styles of processing than ‘my usual’. What I can’t seem to change is the ongoing Lensbaby addiction. It’s not an easy lens to work with and the results are unpredictable to an extent, but I love its quirkiness and the sharp contrast of focused/unfocused, it has a really ‘creamy’ feel to it that is so appealing.
The thistles are blooming. Last year I couldn’t stop taking photos of them since we had a field’s worth in front of our office which attracted bees, wasps, butterflies and goldfinches. I have made a promise to limit myself to one shot this year, and here is is. A different perspective than usual, from underneath and the back of the flower. I kind of like it, bit sombre perhaps, but certainly a contrast from last year’s shots. I love how you can see the fine spiderweb bound around the prickles. PSA: those prickles? They are really, really prickly. Ouch.
Last year’s ouchy prickles:
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Photo A Day: All together now
Posted under parenting, Photography
Oh, that old classic ‘pen’ shot. I don’t think I’ve done one of these before. It’s quite annoying that my children didn’t think to arrange them in so that similar shades/tones weren’t adjacent. Must get them in to Colour Appreciation Boot Camp to avoid this in the future. Taken with the Lensbaby of course. What else? Can’t…get…it…off…my…camera…send…help.
Random selection of the World According to Diggy (3) today:
Me: Look! Look over there, can you see that animal that looks like a really big rabbit? That’s a hare…look how fast he can run!
Diggy: [disappointed voice] oh. I thought it was a reindeer
Later…
Me: Who did you play with at nursery today?
Diggy: Just my own self. Who did you play with?
Me: No one. I was working.
Diggy: And did you do tidy up time afterwards?
Me: No. I didn’t need to
Diggy: [stern voice] Well, that was very naughty behaviour.
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The Gallery: Can you see what it’s going to be yet?
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Week 19 of Tara’s Gallery….this week ‘can you see what it’s going to be yet?’. I couldn’t limit myself to one, always the way…so I made a medley.
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Photo A Day: After the rain
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Poppies…a weed of such contrasts….from blousy splendour to architectural in a few short weeks. It’s hard not to be wowed by the sea of red when they’re in full bloom, but I have a secret passion for them when they’re like this. Taken with the Lensbaby Composer at f4. Love the creamy bokeh of the Lensbaby. Love the Lensbaby fullstop.
All red hat and no knickers poppies, taken 3 weeks ago. Such a change!
