#41
Tag Archives: season
9 in 45: 26th December 2020
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I’m well overdue for another photographic wandering, so it’s time for another “9 in 45” shoot. I tied this in with a Boxing Day walk, dodging showers and working off some of those festive calories!
The 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.
So, the nine photos…
I freely admit that these photographs are not my finest work. I put it down to my general excitement of actually being out of the house!
Spring seems to be coming early this season – particularly given that we are only just past the Winter Solstice… Someone has forgotten to tell the daffodils, crocuses (or croci) and this forsythia…
The worst photo of the bunch by far… This was a definite hit-and-run shot, and that shows in its blurriness. There were people walking towards me, and I didn’t want to offend the person whose front door this was!
Ahem… Moving on, then…
I couldn’t take photos during the festive season without a nativity scene of some sort… I am not sure exactly what sort of nativity scene this is, though… Angel Gabriel looks a little misshapen…
A bit further down the road, and the crest above the door to another of the churches in Glastonbury. The insignia is that of Richard Bere, a 16th century abbot from the nearby Abbey.
It has been a particularly damp winter so far, with clear days interspersed with others of consistent rain or torrential downpours. Water, therefore, had to feature!
Picture six, and something a bit more abstract. Walking along, my eye was initially caught by the lettering, but the discarded bottle top added a nice additional dimension to the shot.
Glastonbury is not a large town, and the countryside is never too far away.
Walking along the main road, houses lie to one side, while Wearyall Hill is on the other. (Usually with a lot more sheep on it…)
It was a drab Boxing Day, as I have alluded to, and, on a day when the light didn’t exactly help the photographer, a brown-leafed hedge seemed to sum up the possibilities available..
Last of the nine photos, then, and another expanse of countryside. I am extremely lucky to live where I do, where are amenities are readily to hand, while nature and countryside are just a hop, skip and a jump away…
Click on the links below to see my previous 9-in-45 walks:
My inspiration comes from the amazing Postcard Cafe. Check out his awesome “Take Nine Photos In Forty Five Minutes” collection by clicking the link.
The Memory of Seasons
Summer dawns and fades quickly as time passes by.
Cherish the memories you earned during the warmer months, because they are what will keep you going when winter rears its cold, dark head.
Let your memories be the light that draws you through.
Change
One of the things about the current situation we are all finding ourselves in at the moment are the changes that are happening to the way we do things, the way we work, the way we live.
Shops – the few that remain open – are opting for card payments, rather than cash. Businesses are finding ways to work with staff working from home. Television and radio channels are streamlining their workforce (BBC Radio sharing news reports, rather than having individual ones, for example) and using classic television (repeats) as a focus for their prime time programming.
While we are in an emergency situation, I do wonder if the new normal will be a permanent replacement for the old normal when this is all over. Will these emergency changes become commonplace post-Coronavirus?
To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:
- Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
- Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st 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 5th April!
Calm
Here in the UK, we are in a partial lockdown, and our opportunities to leave our homes are limited. This includes one lot of exercise per day, and this constitutional is something we will be relishing and making the most of while we can.
The bonus for these walks is that the weather has currently taken a big turn towards spring. While I appreciate that this won’t always be the case, it does mean that we have taken a definite move away from the weeks of rain we encountered earlier in the year.
The walk provides us with an opportunity to connect with nature – to reconnect with it. Roads are quieter and the lack or traffic noise means that our ears are more alert to the sounds of nature around us.
Birdsong seems louder than it did before.
The trees rustling in the breeze hits us more than it did before.
The quiet is deafening, but not in a negative way. It is more of a comfort, heightening the connection we have with the world around us, a connection the ‘normal’ world had deprived us of.
To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:
- Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
- Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st 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 5th April!
Blossom
We all need a bit of peace and harmony at the moment. In a world full of crisis, everybody’s lives have been turned on their heads.
The space we have been granted by the enforced isolation (whether working from home or in quarantine) has enabled us to appreciate the space we inhabit.
The lack of physical contact with others outside of our own households – particularly those we care deeply for – helps us realise how much we might have taken them for granted. When this is all over, I think we are all going to be much more appreciative of the relationships we have, the relationships we will have been isolated from for weeks or months.
To take part in the current Mass Observation Project post on ISOLATION:
- Take a photograph based on the theme of ISOLATION, however you want to interpret it.
- Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st 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 5th April!
Glastonbury Spring
As with much of the UK, Somerset has had a pretty damp start to the year (in fact, it’s chucking it down yet again as I type). But, grey clouds notwithstanding, there are signs that spring is on the horizon, and so for my second ode to my new home, I thought I would post some budding new photographs.
(Click on an image to see a larger version and scroll to the bottom for some information about a new post!)
Even on the darkest of days there is a hint of brighter things to come, and he knew this gave him an advantage he would be able to press home. He could show her that things had changed, that he had changed.
He knew that the temptation he had given into has been ill-advised – no, more than that, it had been the stupidest thing he had ever done! – but she had hinted that there was the slightest of opportunities, the tiniest glimmer of hope that he would be able to rectify the damage he had done.
The “slip” – that was what they had taken to calling it – had happened last autumn, and this new spring gave him the hope, the push to start putting things back together again…
It’s time for a new Mass Observation Project post too! With everything going on in the world at the moment, the next theme is going to be ISOLATION.
The idea, as with previous MO posts is to:
- Take a photograph based on the theme, however you want to interpret it.
- Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
- Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image.
- Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Thanks! 🙂
A year in the life of a garden
For the second post on CKPonderingsToo, I am going back in time.
A few years ago, I set myself a project; to take a photo of my back garden every week for a year and see the seasons come and go.
I set myself a couple of aims with the project:
- Take a shot at around the same time every Sunday morning (or as soon after, if I wasn’t around on the Sunday).
- Take the photo from the same place.
- No post-production was allowed – what you see it what you get.
At the time, this was a great project. The only downside was that, after a year of photographing the garden, I was a little fed up with it, so the images never got to see the light of day.
Until now!
We start with a slideshow of the year; below are the 52 clickable images.
4th Janaury 
11th January 
18th January 
25th January 
1st February 
8th February 
15th February 
22nd February 
1st March 
8th March 
15th March 
22nd March 
30th March 
5th April 
12th April 
19th April 
26th April 
5th May 
10th May 
17th May 
24th May 
31st May 
7th June 
14th June 
21st June 
28th June 
6th July 
12th July 
19th July 
26th July 
2nd August 
9th August 
16th August 
23rd August 
30th August 
6th September 
13th September 
19th September 
27th September 
4th October 
11th October 
18th October 
25th October 
31st October 
8th November 
13th November 
22nd November 
29th November 
7th December 
13th December 
20th December 
27th December
4th Janaury 11th January 18th January 25th January 1st February 8th February 15th February 22nd February 1st March 8th March 15th March 22nd March 30th March 5th April 12th April 19th April 26th April 5th May 10th May 17th May 24th May 31st May 7th June 14th June 21st June 28th June 6th July 12th July 19th July 26th July 2nd August 9th August 16th August 23rd August 30th August 6th September 13th September 19th September 27th September 4th October 11th October 18th October 25th October 31st October 8th November 13th November 22nd November 29th November 7th December 13th December 20th December 27th December
The first Mass Observation post got some positive feedback… A new one for February is coming soon, so keep an eye out on CKPonderingsToo to take part!
CKPonderingsToo 