Shadow and Light

Month 4 of the 30 Days Photo Challenge

Month four of the 30 Days Photo Challenge is in the bag! The Hipstamatic equipment used in this set is quite different again to the previous sets, which is certainly one of my objectives for this challenge. Knowing that I will end up with 12 images on each subject is pushing me to try and be imaginative and to think laterally – not literally – every day. Nevertheless, there are still a few occasions where one of the first (or only!) shots of the day ends up the winner.

… each subject is pushing me to try and be imaginative and to think laterally – not literally – every day.

A case in point is this image of my Venetian blinds and filmy curtain: the subject was ‘shadow’ and I snapped off a few pictures early in the morning of these gorgeous stripes. Then in transpired the rest of the day was completely overcast, and nary a shadow was seen again! Shadows are one of my favourite photographic subjects, and this is a particularly photogenic example.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the subject of the last day: ‘light’. This time I decided to capture an ostrich feather, which happened to have already been a subject of my on-going Lost Things series. I had photographed this on a wet morning commute where it lay soggy on the pavement, and since found objects can have interesting uses for an artist, I decided to keep it.

I was delighted and at the same time terrified that the wind would whisk it off never to be seen again! 

I had decided to photograph it in the air, and it luckily transpired to be a very blustery day. I went out into my driveway and took many, many shots tossing the feather into the air. The final result was caught as the wind took the feather high into the air, past the rooftops. I was delighted and at the same time terrified that the wind would whisk it off never to be seen again! Happily it returned, but not before I got quite a few shots – it was difficult to choose a favourite. The feather is beautifully illuminated in the final, which also gives a sense of height. Considering how quickly I had to shoot, I’m impressed with how well the iPhone 7+ has caught this.

Check out the full gallery here.

A Lino Print Challenge

My May calendar pageHere is an interesting attempt to capture the most ethereal of atmospheric events in the most unsuitable medium imaginable: lino-print! I wonder what were the daunted thoughts running through the artist’s head when he or she received this brief! Or perhaps they relished the challenge.

If not for the title however, one might wonder if this was a bushfire, the ambiguity suggested by the artist choosing to silhouette black trees against a white and orange sky. It made me wonder how it would look inversed – look at the result below: a much more literal impression of the Aurora Borealis. I wonder what the artist would think of this?

One person on Good Reads has awarded five stars to Northern Lights (published in 1909), and describes these inspiring stories as ‘lives and loves of the past’. Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker (1862–1932) was a well-travelled Canadian novelist and British politician, who even made it as far as Australia where for a while he was an associate editor for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. He is best known however for his stories about the history and lives of French Canadians, which are reputed to be ‘fine quality, descriptive and dramatic’.

May you all enjoy a fine quality May.

For the Fallen

In commemoration of Anzac Day, here, by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), is the well-known poem For the Fallen, which was published in The Times newspaper on September 21, 1914.

Binyon wrote the poem in mid-September, 1914, just a few weeks after the outbreak of WW1, after the British had suffered casualties in their first encounter with the German army at the Battle of Mons. He said it was the words of the famous fourth stanza that came to him first.

Between his timeless words are some photographs I took of a field of poppies in the Rif Mountains of Morocco. (It was a very windy day, and it was hard to capture the dancing poppies, so they’re a bit blurry.)

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Reflecting the Female

I only recently discovered the art of Tina Berning, thanks to that magical font of information: Pinterest. I love her technique – the use of mixed media, collage and ephemera as a base, the unfinished look of them  – more than the subject, although ‘reflecting the female role in media is one of the core issues in her artistic work. Her early passion for editorial illustrataion led her to an intensive contemplation on the human figure.’ [Wikipedia]

Berning has been focused on drawing and illustration since 2000; she has been published widely, and has had numerous solo exhibitions. Her website doesn’t seem to hold much information on her, but there is plenty more gorgeous and inspiring work to browse through.

A Sweet Easter

I love a vintage illustration for holidays – how sweet is this little girl and dancing bunny? I’m not well-versed in vintage printing techniques, but I love the grainy texture that is visible, as well as the simple colour palette; both are probably incidental to the printing method, chromolithography, which involves applying oily inks to limestone. 

I hope you have a wonderful Easter, with or without dancing bunnies (chocolate or otherwise)!

(Image from The Graphics Fairy)