The Number 13, Part II

Like I stated on Flickr, I had some relatively high hopes for The Number 13 during this month. Yet all of the opportunities I took wound up being pretty miserable. No. That’s not completely accurate.

They seemed good at the time they were shot. They seemed okay on the small LCD on the back of my Canon 40D. However, once home and uploaded to the iMac they were awful. I was about to type “..they seemed awful,” but that wouldn’t have been accurate. They were simply awful. Sometimes it was a failure from a technical standpoint, but more often than not it was a creative failure. One of my favs was where I had taken photos of the individual numerals that make up 13: the one and three. I then brought them together in Photoshop as separate frames, which I thought was a clever idea, but the failure always came in how the numbers looked together; next to each other. None of these ever had any uumph to them, if you will. They just laid there being boring (no offence PSB).

I had really pretty much given up on obtaining any other pictures for this month’s theme when suddenly the heavens rained down upon me an opportunity as I discussed on Flickr. I must have been some sight to anyone driving by as I sped along the little road in Moraine, trying to catch up and pass the train car in question. Of course, the situation was made worse by my need to find a suitable place to pull over whereby I could escape my car and snap a picture as the train car moved past. This was no small feat considering the lack of spots to pull off the road.

Once again, Chuff and his trains have had me speeding around some part of Dayton in hopes of getting a good shot!

The number 13

When I hear the number 13, the first thing that comes to mind is luck, bad luck, lord knows I’ve had enough of that this year so that can bugger off.
So I went for something else……ALUMINIUM, the Atomic number being 13.
Tricky bugger to photograph, being shiny and all but am quite pleased with the result.

Number 13. Unlucky for some (if you’re not going to Sandwich).

I tried all sorts of things for the number thirteen theme. Thirteen people in a 1962 holiday photo at Clacton, thirteen mugs, number thirteen sign at station platforms at Waterloo and Clapham Junction. Even the date of death being 1913 on a tombstone in Highgate Cemetery. Nothing worked.

So, with only a day or two left I thought that I would seek out route 13 bus at Canterbury bus station and make the best of it.

mike’s “13″

Well, I’m now thoroughly miffed!

I wasn’t thoroughly miffed mind you… not until a few moments ago. When I came onto the group blog to check the precise wording of the title for this month’s theme.

Y’see, I hadn’t actually found out what the theme was by checking the blog. Oh no. Darren had told me.
But knowing what he’s like I thought I’d best just check before uploading my contribution.

Which is when I became miffed. For the bloody toerag who’d posted the theme on the “this month’s theme” page had added a remark that’s damn well anticipated my pic. Hence the miffedness.

Anyway…

My pic this month is a bit of a crappy shot in terms of… well… pretty much everything really.
However, all its crappiness is well compensated by the fact that its rich in deep significance, symbolism, and… er… meaning! [Heh heh]

It all started with Darren telling me that this month’s theme was “13″.

“Bloody hell”, thinks I, “Chuff’s done it again!” His previous choice (”Street Antiquity”) had me really scratching my head, and this one just about topped that.
So, I simply have to interject a quick “Congratulations” to Chuff for compelling me to think. Something I try to avoid as much as possible but, let’s face it, that’s what the project’s supposed to be all about. So well done Chuff.

Anyway, I quickly rejected all the obvious things like a pic of the actual number etc…

But then I kept coming back to it. The number that is.

So then I began thinking in terms of the number, and pictured in my mind an image of maybe a calendar page of a big 13.
Elaborating on that I thought “Hmm… what about a Friday 13 calendar page?”.

Which led me to think of superstitions. Have that as the background maybe? Slightly out of focus. With, in the foreground, other symbols of superstition… a black cat; a horseshoe; maybe even a cracked mirror.

So I ran with that idea in my mind for a little while, but then rejected it simply on the basis that it would simply be yet another “set piece” made up of props… and I’m now getting bored with doing that type of shot for the project.

“What I need” thinks I, “is something real“.

But I was still stuck on the superstition interpretation, and so began to wonder what I could “say” about that in visual terms.

Well, here’s what my shot “says” about it…

There are “big” superstitions, and “little” superstitions.

Little ones like not stepping on the cracks between paving slabs, or not walking underneath ladders.
And big ones like those promulgated by so many of the formal religions.
And some things that we don’t even think of as superstitions yet which, to all intents and purposes, nevertheless still are.

Yet they all share one thing in common…

They all serve to limit us, to imprison us in a cage of our own making.
Which is a great shame. For beyond the bars of that cage is a great big world just waiting for us to throw off our shackles and go and play in.

So in my pic we have the bars of this cage (13 of course, just to reinforce the theme!) with the great big world beyond depicted, naturally, by a playground. A kids’ one of course… cos we’re all just big kids at heart.

13, Part I

I’m fascinated with time and the devices by which we attempt to measure it. I’ve often wondered who was the first human (or human-like) entity to recognize that the Earth had a cycle, which we currently designate as a year. How long did it take them to recognize the rhythm of the year? Were they able to share this information and was it accepted by others?

Regardless, my fascination with both time and time-measuring devices is well known and documented. Odd though that the idea for this picture did not come to me sooner than it did.

13, Part I

Unlike our European counterparts (and for all I know our counterparts all around the globe) or members of the military, I have no particular excuse or reason for why I elect to tell time in the 24-hour format. I guess it’s because I find it to be more precise: 24-hours in a day, so why not call each one accordingly? This whole a.m. and p.m. thing just seems goofy.

Now, of course, I have to work on my next image for this month’s theme. Now where exactly did I leave behind that laser pointer???

13

My favorite thing about this photo is the shadow between the dice.

Dressed in Black

First, let me say how dreadfully sorry I am for not having made a submission to this month’s most excellent theme on a more timely basis. While my life tends to be rather uneventful, the month of May was consumed with a variety of activities, which precluded me from getting on-board in my more usual (i.e. earnest) fashion. In addition to the many impediments placed before me this month (an unexpected funeral, an anticipated wedding and a trip to Chicago) I also found my original plans for the theme did not work as my model was unable to fit their schedule into mine.

Drat, as our friend Mike might write.

Summer is definitely not my favourite season of the year, but I have created distinct musical connections to various artists over the years to summer. One such artist is Depeche Mode and while running through various songs in my mind I found myself quite quickly visiting and re-visiting Dressed in Black from the album/CD Black Celebration; one of my personal Depeche Mode favs. In need of a model for such a shoot I contacted my friend and neighbor Sandi, who was quite willing to assist in this endeavor and I think you can see why I thought of her for this project.

Sandi was a great sport in helping me with this month’s theme. I had actually stopped by her house to drop off a get-well card after she had surgery earlier this month and while there I noticed how nice she looked in the black around-the-house dress she was wearing. Clearly this thought remained in my head long enough to germinate and develop into the idea to ask her to model for me.

I confess I have very mixed feelings regarding the shot. I did get a small handful of good pictures and maybe one or two very good pictures, but the majority were so-so or fairly awful. But I’m not letting this bother me as taking pictures with a model isn’t something with which I have any real experience (other than the pics with the daughter from the Autumn of 2008). Lighting was difficult both indoors and out. Trying to convey my “artistic vision” was difficult as I really didn’t have one. After all, and I’ve stated this before, creativity isn’t exactly one of my strong points in life.

But I’m not walking away from this feeling badly. Nope. I spent a small portion of my afternoon with a great friend and neighbor. I enjoyed (and lamented) trying to think outside of my normal comfort zone (i.e. being creative). And I particularly enjoyed the process of going through the afternoon’s results and selecting what I thought were the best of the day’s work. Oddly, many of the ones I liked best on the small LCD screen of the camera were not one’s I selected for upload to Flickr. Go figure.

Red Right Hand

When I saw the theme for this month I got all excited cos it was a musical one, I love music, all sorts of music so I thought this would be easy as I have lots of songs in my collection, so finding one that would be suitable for the theme should be easy.. yeah right,
the trouble with having a huge music collection is there are so many songs with a colour in the title or in the lyrics that finding one for this theme shot was like finding a needle in a needle stack.

Having finally selected the song from which I could draw inspiration, I then set about thinking how do I portary this song in picture form… mmn thinking, scratch the old noggin,
start talking to the missus about it and she gives me a few ideas which starts the grey matter going, oh I can do this and I can do that, I got so carried away I think it would have taken me many months to get everything down.

Time to stop, sit back and declutter, I start to simplify the idea, honing it get the shot we have here, which is inspired by “Red Right Hand – Nick Cave & the bad seeds”. I went for what the song means to me and the “feel” of the song, it also appears in one of my favourite movies “Scream” which is probably why it has that particular feel to it, in my mind, unforunatly it doesn’t have a Summer link but thats ok.

I did have fun doing this shot, which entailed doing a little research and playing around with the props and lots of test shots to make sure it all looks good, and I must give some credit to the missus, cos without her I don’t think it would have happened. I’m actually quite pleased with the result, although the shot doesn’t reflect the hard work that went into getting it right, often simple shots have the hardest work behind them.

mike’s “A Song for Summer… with a Colour!”

Here we are then folks, my contribution for this month’s theme that, stupidly, I’d chosen.

The song? “Nights in White Satin”, released by The Moody Blues as a single in 1967. And at one stage became one of my all-time favourites for reasons that you’ll have to guess!

And now the connection to Summer…

Nothing obvious, though the song is evocative to me of a particular time, long long ago and far far away.

Picture the scene…

Warm summer evening, light just gone from the sky. Bedroom window, wide open, curtains moving gently in the softest of breezes.

Side-table, bottle of wine, two glasses… one empty, the other almost so.
Incense perfuming the air with lazy drifts of smoke. Tapering black candles flickering. Music playing softly in the background.

Large four-poster bed, covered only with white satin sheets, somewhat creased now…

…and there I shall leave it.

Mustn’t say too much now, must I? Heh heh.

But ah, such memories!

A Song for Summer…

Read here for the reason I chose this song.

Lady In Red
Chris De Burgh

I’ve never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright
I’ve never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance
They’re looking for a little romance
Given half a chance
And I’ve never seen that dress you’re wearing
Or that highlights in your hair
That catch your eyes
I have been blind

Lady in red is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There’s nobody here
It’s just you and me
It’s where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I’ll never forget the way you look tonight

I’ve never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright you were amazing
I’ve never seen so many people want to be there by your side
And when you turned to me and smiled it took my breath away
And I have never had such a feeling such a feeling
Of complete and utter love, as I do tonight

Lady in red is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There’s nobody here
It’s just you and me
It’s where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I’ll never forget the way you look tonight

I never will forget the way you look tonight
The lady in red
lady in red
Lady in red
My lady in red
I love you