Day 14 in black and white

I was very inspired today by a post on Vision and Verb, in which Sue describes an assignment in her photography class.  The task was to use the digital camera in b & w mode instead of processing the shots into b & w from the original colour.

It's a post that's well worth reading, because it describes what it's like to be taken out of your comfort zone and to try something different.  I decided that I'd try that today and took a series of shots in b & w, which involved looking at subjects and lighting very differently and being really surprised at the range of subjects that work very well.  I crave colour in my own photographs and yet love looking at other people's b & w shots, so this was a bit of a challenge, but for me the idea of the 365 project is to be able to look back and see where I've tried different things and been inspired to try something new.  

So there are two shots today.

# 14a/365 Acoustic - This is a detail of the battered and much loved acoustic guitar belonging to a friend of my son

# 14b/365 - Pipecleaner hands.  The photograph is of a doll made from a bobbin, and I think was a reproduction of the type of doll that a mill-worker's children might have played with, in the absence of other toys.  

One extreme to the other - Days 12 & 13

Yesterday (Thursday 15/7) turned out to be a bit of a washout due to a migraine (see my other blog for gory details).  I finally got up in the evening and staggered round making a cup of tea, until I felt a bit more like myself.  Taking photographs of any quality was out of the question, the best I could do was photograph a nectarine that had a bite taken out of it and looking at it today, it was so uninteresting that I had to turn to picnik to do something with it.  I tried to reflect the inside and outside of my skull  when suffering a migraine!

Day 12/365 - OUCH

Today was a complete contrast - came home feeling fine and did chores, including hanging out washing and then took some pictures.  I have to confess that I have a thing about hanging out washing.  Similar items have to be hung together, socks are hung in pairs, and I like decent clothespegs.  Seeing a line full of washing (that I've done)  on a bright afternoon makes me VERY happy - sad but true.

Day 13/365  NOT an advert...

Days 6 - 11

Having spent the weekend plus a day or two relaxing and doing very little other than reading, sleeping and taking pictures, it's now - as we say here in NI - back to porridge!  So with my first day back at work behind me, I'm spending a little time sorting out photographs and here are my shots for the last few days.

# 6/365 - Sweet pea.  A small bunch of beautiful, fragrant flowers from my in-laws' garden.

# 7/365 Bog meadow - part of a bog habitat in Carnfunnock Country Park.

# 8/365 - I give you summer hours - the beautiful, weathered face of a sundial in Carnfunnock Time Garden.

# 9/365  - the picnics are over, at least for this rather sad, abandoned table.

# 10/365 the sun peeping over the old wall in Carnfunnock's walled garden, casting the shadows of the plants and highlighting the remains of the metalwork embedded in the bricks.

# 11/365 - Spice

The subject for today's shot came to me while I was thinking about making our evening meal, and the ingredients I needed for it.  The spices here include cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a mixture called Ras El Hanout, a North African spice rub which has various ingredients including rose petals.  I wish that I could have captured the scent as well as the colours.

Day 5 - Soundtrack to summer

#5/365 - ear defense

 

One of the things that I am very grateful for is that our teenager has many things to occupy him throughout the summer.  None of them involve a summer job, mind you.  He's very musical, however, playing both guitar and drums, so rehearsing as well as building a recording studio with his friends (ie repairing the garden shed that they're going to use) is taking up most of his time.  Given the choice of that or having him aimlessly hanging around - well there's no contest.  

Mind you (and this is where the photograph comes in) there are SOME drawbacks.  I've never understood why it's the person PLAYING the drums who gets to wear the ear defenders.  The photograph above is taken after he finished a practice.

Day 4

I had a choice of photographs to post for Day 4.  The reflections in the image from yesterday made me want to experiment a little with them, and I came up with something that's kind of abstract.

Then I spotted something in the garden, in a patch of grass that my husband had to replace because we had building materials stored there.  I'm not sure what he patched it with, but we now have a lovely little bit of wildflower garden, with forget-me-nots and a beautiful pink flower that I think may be a poppy.  So I took a picture of that!  

I have decided to post them both, and if I had tried I couldn't have come up with two more contrasting images, but if 365 is a record of where you are on a particular day, then ok - this is where I've been!

#4a/365 in the air

#4b a small surprise

 

Day 3

I had some time alone in the house this evening,  so took advantage of the lack of nosy parkers and teenage eye rolling to do something that I haven't done for a long time....I painted a picture!!  

I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - (that's the one with Gene Wilder, the man born to play Willy Wonka!) for the umpteenth time on Sunday, and so produced something with colours and swirls and lollipop shapes.  It was brilliant (the activity, definitely NOT the finished painting)!!  Maybe someday I'll have enough confidence in THAT nonsense to post it, but for the moment here's a photograph I took of the used brushes and water.  I had set them at the window in the kitchen and noticed the reflections.

# 3/365  Finished

 

Day 2

#2/365 A gift returned

This is a photograph of a ceramic dish that I bought as a gift for my mum many years ago, while I was in my teens or early 20's.  After mum died last year, it came back to me; I'm glad to give it a home.