Category Archives: work

Animals, Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, People, Photography, Wildlife, work

9-in-45: 4th May 2020

7 May 2020 ckponderings 8 Comments

Another opportunity to photograph my environs, while getting some exercise in at the same time.

As I’ve mentioned before, he idea of the project is to set out on a walk with a phone/stopwatch and your camera. Set your stopwatch for five minutes and start walking. When the five minutes is up, stop walking. You have a minute to compose and take a photograph. Set your stopwatch for another five minutes and start walking. When the time is up, stop and, within a minute take and compose your second photo. Keep going until you have walked for 45 minutes and have nine photos.

A slow and steady start to the walk, and my aim was Cinnamon Lane, a quiet country road within spitting distance of home. As befits the current lockdown, there were few people out and about and, aside from a handful of dog walkers, I saw nobody.

The beauty of this time of year is something we have tended to overlook before – our lives have been so rushed and busy that we don’t usually get the chance to stop and look about us. If there’s one thing good to come out of the pandemic, it is that we have had no choice but to do exactly that.

But some of us have to carry on working, including those farmers who have to keep an eye on their flocks and crops, so it was no surprise to see some people at work.

The positive about the route I took for this 9-in-45 is that on the way out the road is a quiet country lane. The downside is that the way back is the main road between Shepton Mallet and Glastonbury! The A361 has always been a local bone of contention, because of the constant flow of juggernauts it ferries between the two towns and beyond. Having said that, on a Monday afternoon under Covid-19 rules it’s a lot quieter!

Despite the busyness of the road, the view from it are spectacular.

The road is the main thoroughfare in this part of Somerset and, in decades past, was prime for local businessmen to earn a penny or two. (I hasten to add that this is for show, not a true toll!!)

Be kind and keep smiling! You’re nearly there!

Back to nature, then; I’ve photographed numerous full dandelion clocks in the past, so why not a denuded one?

Last of the nine and almost full circle! The Somerset Levels make for some big skies!!

Click on the links below to see my previous 9-in-45 walks:

And Postcard Cafe’s awesome “Take Nine Photos In Forty Five Minutes” collection can be found by clicking the link.

This month’s Mass Observation post was well received, and in these weird and wonderful times, we all need a bit of colour!

Moving forward, the project for June has a new theme…

RANDOM

Who doesn’t like a bit of randomness? Interpret the theme as you will!

To take part, simply take a photo around the theme of random:

Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Sunday 31st May 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 7th June!

Architecture, Colour, Glastonbury, Nature, Photography, Wildlife, work

Mass Observation – Colour

3 May 2020 ckponderings 17 Comments

Something a bit brighter for these crazy times.

Colour seemed to unleash a lot in those who have submitted this time around, so enjoy!

Name: Cooking-Post Nerd

Location: United Kingdom

Note: I managed to escape from my kitchen and made it out into the garden. Nature has moved on while humanity has paused, and the April sunshine has brought the plants and flowers out. I love lilac, and this starburst of a shot, with a really narrow depth of field, is my submission this month!

Name: Killing Time With A Camera … (https://steviegill.wordpress.com/)

Location: Queen Street East, Toronto

Note: A few weeks ago, someone started placing colourful plastic flowers on benches, lampposts, etc in our neighbourhood. I have no idea what the significance of this is, whether it’s related to spring, Easter, or perhaps as a symbol of hope during these trying times. Anyway, this fabulous plastic rose is attached to a community noticeboard that I pass on my way to the Valu-Mart (got to love North America!), and seeing it adds a little splash of colour and also a sense of mystery to my day!

Name: Postcard Cafe https://postcardcafe.wordpress.com

Location: Hunters Bar, Sheffield

Note: This long exposure shot was taken while shooting a night time ‘9 in 45’ (click the link if you wish to know more about 9 in 45). The location of this shot was determined not by me but by the rules of 9 in 45! A long exposure introduced the colour trails of passing cars and a quick edit in Photoshop isolated them and the grass verge from the rest of the shot. Both the presence and absence of colour in the one image. I like the minimal aspect of the composition and the colours between the gate posts on the left hand side, which look like someone has stretched some plastic sheeting across!

Name: Cap Does Craft

Location: Attercliffe, South Yorkshire

Note: This shot is of the Gripple factory in Attercliffe. They are a wonderful, forward thinking, innovative company and the design of their building reflects how they do things differently. This is a small section of one of their buildings. Without the colour and reflective elements to the windows this could just be a grey industrial building which might not be given a second glance. The colour is what lifts this image to something far more interesting.

Name: CKPonderingsToo

Location: Taunton, Somerset

Note: Again, while curating this post, I became very conscious that I had not really connected to what I was going to include. On my one-a-day I have still been taking photos, but nothing really leapt out at me. So, I have dug a bit deeper with this one, looking pre-lockdown, and my first visit to the (now) local town of Taunton. One one street corner, a hoarding hiding a patch of disused land, is this piece of street art. It leapt out at me as a potential photograph, and, with a slight tweak here and there, it soon matched this month’s theme.

Name: Doctor Ken, Gin Sop

Location: Somerset

Note: A sign of our times that caught my eye. Still, it’s a splash of colour in a seemingly endless grey…

Architecture, Photography, Religion, work

Stairway To Heaven

27 April 2020 ckponderings 2 Comments

We are fortunate to have a lot of historic places in Somerset. From castles to churches, manor houses to pubs, cottages to monuments, there is always something to see, to view, to wander around.

Wells Cathedral has one on the more awe-inspiring religious frontages in the UK, but inside has lots of other things to love.

This staircase leads from the nave to the Chapter House and on, across St Andrew Street to the ancient Vicars’ Close. It is a haven of quiet, in an already quiet structure.

He moved silently upwards, and even though his footsteps were quiet, he felt they echoed deafeningly in the stairwell. Behind him the choir’s voices, chanting something by Telemann or von Bingen, calmed him, urging him on, hiding his presence.

The candlelight flickered expectantly across the walls, shadow leaping out at him as the flame rose and fell with his steps. Ahead of him, in the room above him, he heard the first whispers of voices, the first hint that he was going the right way, that his ascension was surely guaranteed…

Animals, Architecture, Colour, Monochrome, Photography, Wildlife, work

No Dogs

26 April 2020 ckponderings 3 Comments

Some called it discrimination, others called it right and proper. But whatever the sense, dogs were definitely not going to be allowed here.

There’s a voice that keeps on calling me.
Down the road, that’s where I’ll always be.
Every stop I make, I make a new friend.
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down.
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Terry Bush

Architecture, Monochrome, People, Photography, Religion, work

Discussion

25 April 2020 ckponderings 2 Comments

Something a bit simpler and less deep than yesterday’s post…

Before the lockdown, and after numerous attempts over the years, I finally made it inside Wells Cathedral.

It’s interesting to see the humdrum, day-to-day workings of something as substantial and revered as this, including a short break in vacuuming to discuss matters of the day.

Come on, Henry needs to get back to work!!

Architecture, cinema, Colour, Glastonbury, Music, People, Photography, Wildlife, work

Cover Version

23 April 2020 ckponderings 2 Comments

No, I’ve never seen the film (I know this will be a shock to a lot of cinema aficionados, but I cannot help that!). But I am familiar with the iconography, and this LP cover raised a Glastonbury smile!

‘Someday this lockdown’s gonna end’.

That’d be just fine with the boys in the flat. They weren’t looking for anything more than a way outside.

Trouble is, I’d been out there, and I knew that it just didn’t appeal anymore.

Bored of me nagging, yet?

May’s Mass Observation Project is coming up, so take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.

Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 3rd May!

Monochrome, Photography, work

Still Lives

21 April 2020 ckponderings 3 Comments

With the current set of circumstances limiting the amount of time we can spend outdoors, I have been conscious of making the most of that time and taking my camera wherever I go.

However, I know a lot of fellow photographers have been more limited, and, like them, I wanted to focus some attention on using my camera indoors.

I’m not a massive fan of still life photography, it seems too staged for me; I prefer a candid, off-the-cuff style (I guess as much as anything it is what I am more comfortable with).

But in for a penny, in for a pound, and I thought I would give it a go!

I’ve limited the amount of colour I have used (in fact, only one of the shots included any semblance of colour at all) to add an extra limitation to what I was shooting.

(The reality was that I couldn’t find my white backdrop, so was stuck with my black one; this drove me more towards monochrome that I would have originally gone for.)

May’s Mass Observation Project is coming up, so take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.

Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 3rd May!

Monochrome, People, Photography, work

Billy Warren

20 April 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

She’d pressured him into it, but he was helpless and he knew it.

The way she moved. The way she smiled at him. The way she brushed against him when nobody was around. The way her breath had tickled his neck as she had leaned in to whisper in his ear…

Focus. He had to focus.

He had to complete the task she had set him, otherwise she would be upset and he wouldn’t get his reward. She’d been dangling that carrot for weeks now. The present she had promised was the one thing Billy Warren had been wanting, been longing for.

He straightened his tie, licked his lips and knocked on the door.

(This is a story based on an anonymous photo found in a junk shop, and should not be seen as a true reflection of this person’s life.)

May’s Mass Observation Project is coming up, so take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.

Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 3rd May!

Architecture, Monochrome, People, Photography, Wildlife, work

Mr Green

19 April 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

Mr Green had worked hard all his life, patiently listening to others and following their orders to the letter, often against his beliefs.

But if his employers had known what he truly believed, what his heart told him, they would have let him go in an instant.

His conscience told him that he was doing what he had to, and, despite the uncomfortable marriage between the two lives he led – his work and private ones – he kept himself to himself, his head down and his employers happy.

The sadness in his eyes sometimes leaked through, though, and his colleagues occasionally noticed But when they mentioned anything he smiled his smile and brushed aside their concerns.

He was happy, and as long as he could keep convincing himself of that, then his life would be peaceful.

(This is a story based on an anonymous photo found in a junk shop, and should not be seen as a true reflection of this person’s life.)

Another quick reminder about the May’s Mass Observation Project!

Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.

Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 3rd May!

A journey in photography.