These flowers are for Becky, indefatigable host of Square Perspectives. She has encouraged us to look for an astonishing range of perspectives over the last month, and to share our findings with contributors in every continent. Thank you, Becky.
Normal service will be resumed in August. Whatever ‘normal’ means these days. The flowers will bash on regardless.
.. when you cut it, when you split it, and when you burn it.
So goes the old saying. Well, wood warms us thrice too. We don’t fell trees and we don’t split logs. But we do burn wood, in our wood-burning stove. And before that, we forage in the woods nearby to supplement the wood we buy for the winter months.
This was the week when we bought, sorted and stacked the trailer load we’d ordered. It burns calories alright. From our point of view, it’s worth more than any gym membership. And eeh by gum we feel right proud when all is safely gathered in.
And thank you, Becky, for the idea, when I was running out of Squares Steam. Can’t stop now …
This week, Jude’s Photo Challenge invites us to use empty – negative – space as part of a photo.
I thought that Becky’s Perspective Squares Challenge provided a perfect tool to consider the value of this space. Is it empty – as in vacant? Or does it tell us more about what’s going on?
So I’m going to show you each shot twice. Once with the negative space I originally included, and then again, cropped to a square illustrating only the subject. Which do you prefer, in each case?
This is a whistlestop tour to the bird reserve at Slimbridge, to the Farne Islands, and for the last two sets of shots, to Dallowgill, a lonely, beautiful moor in Nidderdale, only a few miles from home. Click on the images to bring them up full size
Back in the Former Normal, and as it turned out, not long before Lockdown, I was in London. Cherry blossom season is long gone, but not my memory of this car, offering a fresh perspective on customising your vehicle.
And here are the answers to yesterday’s photo quiz. How did you get on? When I first prepared this post, I put the answers under each photo. And WordPress uploaded them into the quiz post …. so I had to think again.
We’re half way though the month, so let’s see if you’re all still paying attention.
These are all household objects, taken from a fresh perspective.
Have a go at guessing what they are.
Answers tomorrow – no prizes, not even a booby prize.
I normally eye up cows somewhat warily when out on country walks. This lot seem to be keeping out of my way. This perspective is just how I prefer it.
I often pass this window on my walk. It’s in a farmyard outbuilding, and the detritus on the other side of the panes never changes. Neither do the spiders’ webs. They neither grow nor disappear. Time for a spring clean and change of perspective?
Back in the Good Old Days, did you have a Box Brownie? Do you remember hiding yourself in a darkened room to fiddle with the film, threading the spool into your camera and winding it on, only to do the whole thing in reverse twelve shots later when you had to get the thing out to be developed at the chemist’s shop? Do you remember spending your pocket money to have two whole films – that’s twenty four shots – to last you the whole holiday, and the frustrating wait of a week or so before your photos were developed?
Jude has asked us to remind ourselves of those days in this week’s Photo Challenge, by asking us to limit ourselves to twelve shots. Jude however is profligate. She’s allowing us to use all twelve shots in a single outing. How improvident! Even so, even with this quite generous allowance, I remembered the old anxieties. Should I take this? Would I regret it because there was something better round the corner? What if I ran out of shots?
Here’s my offering. A friend and I walked on Tuesday (socially distanced, of course) from Ripon to Bishop Monkton by the Ripon Canal, along some country lanes, then back to Ripon alongside the Rivers Ure and Skell. We enjoyed many quiet moments appreciating the waterscapes, the landscapes reached on foot from our starting point in the city centre. Nine miles under our belts, renewed and refreshed.
As a homage to my Box Brownie Days, I’ll show you the photos first in monochrome, then in Glorious Technicolor. It didn’t feel right to edit them in any way (apart from translating them into monochrome).
Most look neither better nor worse in my eyes in the two different formats – just different. A couple don’t seem to work, and back in black-and-white days I probably wouldn’t have taken them. Just one works better I think. This journey into the past, thinking more carefully before pointing-and-clicking has been an illuminating and surprising pleasure which I’m sharing with Leya’s Lens Artists Challenge. Click on any image to view full size.
This new perspective on photography would have been perfect for Becky’s Square Perspectives: but my pictures aren’t square. I’ll choose one and square it up. Maybe …. this one.
2020 Photo Challenge #26
Square Perspectives
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #103
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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