There are a lot of ways to treat the blues, but it will still be the blues - Count Basie

There are a lot of ways to treat the blues, but it will still be the blues - Count Basie, originally uploaded by Jahina.

I wonder if you can guess what this is? It is something in my kitchen. Something I use every day, something you all might use everyday...IF you don't have a dish washer.

Yep, it is a part of a bottle of washing up liquid. Loved how the daylight was shining through it so took some photos. Added a frame and Bob's yer uncle.

So there you go. I take photos of mundane things and make them interesting...well, to me, at least!

Rusty, Crusty, decay and abandonment

As I have probably already stated a lot of times on this blog, and will probably state again a few more times, photography has opened my eyes to see so many things that I had never noticed before. Mundane things like forks, buttons on machinery, light bulbs, mud and stones. These things have become suddenly incredibly interesting and strangely very very beautiful.



One of the most gorgeous things that I would previously have thought of as ugly and not worth a second glance, is rust, crumbly flaky paint and abandoned items.



The many shadows and light play about them, the added colours that are created by long-term exposure to all sorts, the oddness of where they lie moldering....all make for fantastic photography opportunities!



Nature taking back what belongs to her - changing things slowly but surely back to organic parts of herself. Shows natures patient ways, doesn't it?



One of my favourite areas for finding rust, decay and abandonment is on the beach of the Thames Southbank in London. I will do a seperate post for Southbank beach, because it is a subject all of its own.



For this post, please do enjoy some shots I have taken over the last year of things that are rusty and crusty and crumbly and flaky.

Albany Park in Enfield

I have to walk about 15 minutes to my local train station (Enfield Lock) each morning. I have photographed that walk completely out, or so I thought.

I got to the park part of the walk (Albany Park) and usually I just cut across it and get back on the road and march the rest of the way to the station.

But last week, one morning, I got to the park and it was all covered in a lovely mist. I could just about see some school kids walking through it and a man walking his dog.

So I decided to go the long way round and walk up the park and see if I could capture some of the mist before it went.

I am really very pleased with these shots.

Town and Country

I am incredibly lucky. Well, I think so, anyway. I live in Enfield which is on the outskirts of London. Just within the M25, so definitely London, but drive a few minutes further North and you are already away from concrete, buildings and even better...people!

Fields, fields and more fields. Take a road or two off the main one leading from London and you can find yourself driving through bendy curvey pretty lanes.

So, I live in the best of both worlds. I can go out and live it up in Central London with its lights, dancing, pubs n clubs, museums, art galleries, the Thames, Big Ben, shopping and having fun. Or I can go out into the country side and lap up some silence, slow my pace down to chillax, sit in a field of rustling corn and pretend that work and noise and stress don't exist or walk about beautiful country lanes with my dogs.

Enfield itself is less bustley, obviously, thank Central London, it is quite quiet and I do live in a Cul de Sac so it is even quieter than other through roads. A large park sits just at the back of my house too, so again. I am lucky.

These pictures are some I took of some fields very near to me during this summer, just before they chopped the corn, or wheat or what ever the crops are, down. I will return in Winter time particular if we have snow this year. I reckon this area will look amazing covered in white!

Photos that others find interesting!

I have a Flickr account and I upload photos there all the time. I use it too for storage but also to get feedback. To be honest, the majority of the feedback is not of any great quality, I submit my photos to various groups and I receive awards from other Flickr users and I give out group awards too.

However, there are a few photographers there that do give their honest opinions and I do get some lovely personal messages from people who compliment my shots in more than just a 'Great Shot!' kind of way. I appreciate that immensely.

However, some of my shots really do get a lot of views and not simply because I have submitted them to groups. I submit most of them to groups and so theoretically they should all receive the same amount of awards/views. But they don't. Some get more than others and to be honest I think it is because they are my better shots overall.

So, these here in this blog entry are five of THE most viewed and commented on shots that I currently have on Flickr.

Red Bubble

Red Bubble is a website where I can upload my photos to and make them available to buy. My artwork can be bought in varying different formats, prints, canvass, calendars and t-shirts. I will be uploading a lot more to it than I so far have, but here is a taster of what I have there so far:

Josiah's Confirmation

I am not a Church goer at all. I find it very hard to engage myself into the whole Church thing at all. However, interestingly, my youngest son really loves it. He goes with his Nana most Sundays and enjoys it a lot.

Who am I to stop him!

I ensure that he gets my mix of thoughts regarding religion and spirituality too, and he has an interest in all sorts of other religions. His best mates at school are all Muslim, his Dad Rastafarian tendencies and he has an open mind...for a 10 year old!

Anyway, he and his cousin were both confirmed at his Nana's Church of England last Sunday - St Bartholomew's near Stamford Hill. They looked so beautiful, she in a white lacy dress down to her toes and he in a full on suit and tie. They looked grown up and yet young and innocent.

The Bishop of Fulham confirmed them and he was really great. He spoke about growth, spiritual growing, and it was a positive and warm talk.

The rest was pretty formal, standing up and sitting down every couple of minutes, singing and looking pious and angelic!

Lots of food after and I think it all went very well. I was incredibly proud of my son. Well done, Josiah and good for you!

Experiments

I often look at photos and think 'I WISH I had thought of that one!'. Some photographers just seem so OUT there. They have such imagination and creativity.

Well, I am nurturing myself to see as they do too. Or less as they do, but more as I do...but futuristacally. What I mean is, I think, I am nurturing my eyes to not only see things around me in more detail, to really see the things that are around me - that really I had missed most of my life even though everything is under my nose - but to take things that are around me and do things with them to change them a bit and then take a photo of them.

These photos are of some drinking glasses, food colouring mixed with water, and shot at angles that frankly made my neck ache! I had a very pretty cut glass perfume bottle (empty) that I did the red and black glass shot with.

For this next lot, I used a regular dinner fork and some frozen sweetcorn and just looked at them from a different angle than I usually would. I then dipped the fork into the water with the food colouring and took a couple more shots.

Very simple, but, in my opinion, very pretty and unusual pictures.

Now, what else can I shoot? Ooh, look! Some dust under my cabinet. Dust bunnies, you are so photogenic...

;)

And now for something completely different...

Well, actually not different, because still photography and photos. But I thought this post would show some of my most recent shots.

I try to take photos every day, but I do go out with one of my dogs at the weekend for an extra long walk and make sure that I take photos then. Rather difficult as my dogs are large (Akitas) and they don't want to stand stock still while I try to frame up a great shot!

It is HIGHLY frustrating when you have found something incredible, a lovely clouds in the sky, birds on the wing, children playing and you go to press the camera button and...oops...dog spots a butterfly he wants to eat and you are pulled along to help him hunt it. ARGGHHH!

The moment is lost.

So really, when taking photos with dog in tow be prepared to have to delete the majority of your shots. They will be blurred, shots of the ground when you were aiming for the sky and basically unrecognisable.

To be honest, though, I like taking the dog with me. I sometimes feel a bit odd walking around taking photos of things. I feel self-conscious. I don't like people watching me or even glancing over at me. They tend to steer well clear of me when I am with a gynormous Akita. Believe me!

Anyway, these shots were taken last weekend when I took Lou, my youngest dog - 9 months old - out. Love him! Shots came out ok too!

In the Beginning

In the beginning there was a very basic digital camera, a Fujifilm Finepix A330. The camera I took photos of items I was selling on ebay. I must have taken 1,000's of photos using that camera. I was selling off my childrens outgrown clothes, videos, books, brik a brak, you name it, if it wasn't nailed down I took a picture of it and sold it.

I took my camera on a day out (June 9th 2005 to be exact). It was a fantastically beautiful day and Southbank in London was KICKING. Street performers, Skater boys and girls, graffiti artists, the London Eye, the River Thames. Amazing sunshine and a fun day to be had.

So, it was myself, my boys and my niece. all out on a day in town where we got wet in the Appearing Rooms, got run down by the BMX show off and got artistic with a cheap and cheerful camera.

I took some photos of things that were NOT for sale on ebay for once. The photos came out better than I expected they would and BAM. I had the point and click bug. And have never managed to shrug it off.

Now, I take my Canon EOS 400D absolutely everywhere I go. If I forget to take it, I kick myself because there is always something to take photo of. And I take photos of anything and everything.

The more I click, the more I learn, the more I like what happens.

So, here we have two of the photos that are my very first attempts at photography that is more than just for selling items on ebay. I owe a lot to these photos and to the rest of those I took that day.

I think I have come along in leaps and bounds, having learned a lot along the way, having a bit of a better camera to play with and knowing that I have only just peeked at the tip of the iceburg of what can be done with photography.

Here is to snapping, clicking, zooming and focusing.