A Million Little Pictures Analog

I collected the photographs today that were taken by a throw away camera I received from the A Million Little Pictures project. This is organized by the same people behind The Sketchbook Project (see my post from yesterday). This is the 6th version of the A Million Little Pictures project (AMLP) and I have participated before as you can see here.

The project is about the accumulation of photographs from hundreds of different people that each create a world of their own. Once you receive your camera you go out and capture "something meaningful".Or as the project states it:" Think about who you are, where you are, and what you think will inspire the public". Sounds simple but it made me think for a long time. In the end I settled on going to a graveyard and it's one of my favourites around here in Lasswade. I have been there before as you can read in a previous post.

You take the pictures with that throw away camera. And I must admit it's a real challenge to go back to analog photography now that we're all so used to digital. You have to remember the distortion between the viewfinder and what the lens captures, as well as be aware of fingers and hairs that can be captured by mistake. Then you get the pictures developed. Again not that easy as there aren't many places left who undertake this task. But Boots came up trumps. I had them print two copies of each picture so that I could keep a set for myself and they also dumped the pics unto a CD for me which I used for this post.

You then send the pictures you're happy with (well, sort of happy!) back to the Brooklyn Art Library and 2 of them will be selected to form a huge display of pictures from participants from all over the world. The pictures will also be digitized by The Sketchbook Project and form part of my online presence there.

I wonder whether anyone else will have taken pictures in a graveyard?!

Mellow Yellow Spread

In honour of our mini Scottish heatwave, now gone, I'm sharing another spread I did in my 2012 sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. You can read all about this project here and this is my second year of participating. You can see my art for the 2011 Project here and just recently my photographs for the A Million Little Pictures were also digitally added under my artwork.

My theme this year is Monochromatic and each spread is dedicated to a different picture. A unifying presence are those little squares you can see on the right hand page. On the left you can just see a doily peeking out at the bottom. I had been using this as a stencil in my painting and suddenly realized how wonderfully yellow it looked. The page also features lots of doodling and I can't help adding to that whenever I work in the sketchbook, even on pages that I had thought were already finished. But this is probably the definitive page.

Captured in Time

I finished taking picture on my disposable camera during the visit to Melrose Abbey described in my last blogpost. Towards the end I got overexcited about all the picture and forgot which ones I had taken with my disposable camera so it was a surprise to find quite a few I hadn't taken using my digital one as well. Here they are for your delectation. Melrose Abbey suited my purposes as it demonstrates so well the theme for my AMLP project which was : Captured in Time.

The pictures you see here are from the disposable camera I received from Brooklyn Art Library to participate in the A Million Little Pictures project (AMLP), see also the relevant button in the side bar. As I rightly surmised when starting to take pictures with it there had been some damage to the camera in transit from the US to Scotland but fortunately it only affected the first few pictures. Jessops to whom I took the camera today managed to salvage most of them and provided me not only with 2 sets of glossy pictures (one set to send back and one set for me) but also plonked them all onto a CD! That saved a whole lot of scanning.

I will upload most of them to my album here in due course! The one thing that I was impressed with was the quality of the lens. Yes, the digital pics are much better but these aren't bad! Having them developed (in an hour!) also reminded me of the past, when you took all those films you'd taken while on holiday to the camera shop, and you couldn't wait to see what they would look like. You were convinced there were some true masterpieces among them but, alas, most of the time the actual prints were a disappointment, overexposed, underexposed, finger and/or hair caught on camera, missing heads or feet etc. etc.

We really are so blessed to live in the digital age and while in Jessops I took the opportunity to look at some finger-lickening great cameras (with prices to match!), but I actually purchased 2 more disposable cameras, because this exercise was excellent practice in making sure you take great pictures by thinking about them a whole lot more, making sure the camera is in the right position first time and only clicking that button when you're fairly confident you're taking a good if not great pic! My digital cameras had definitely made me lazy in that respect.

The photographs are going to tour America in a mobile and there will apparently also be a book available eventually in which there will be at least one picture from every participant. Can't wait to see which one they will choose.

Visit to Melrose Abbey

Today is the first day of Spring according to the calendar and the sun was shining. I also finished a large quilt (1M square) yesterday so a treat was in order, specially as it was all done and dusted in 29 days which is a record for me (sorry no pics till it goes to an exhibition), and it's a very happy quilt, despite being made during difficult days. How does that happen?

And finally I realized it was about time to get on with taking more pictures with my disposable camera. This was send to me after I signed up to become a participant in the A Million Little Pictures (AMLP) and although I took quite a few pictures with it before winter, it has been rather neglected since then. The pictures in this post were taken with my digital camera but I took the same ones with the disposable one.

All in all those factors combined, led me to climb in my car and drive off through the beautiful Borders landscape to the ruins of Melrose Abbey. There has been an abbey on this spot since about the 12th Century but it was destroyed by the English king Richard II in 1385. Rebuilding started almost immediately incorporating what was left of the old abbey, however the building was probably never completed. It was used by Cistercian monks (otherwise known as white monks after the colour of their habits), who strived for monasteries "far from the concourse of men". The very last monk died in 1590 and the building was subsequently used as a protestant church till well into the 19th Century. Most gravestones date from that Protestant period although there are graves within the abbey which are much older than that. And of course the heart of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce is buried here.

A little door in the side of the abbey pointed the way upstairs and after a pretty dizzy making climb I reached the top, where the views (seen above) were spectacular but taking pictures was rather difficult due to the fact that the wind almost whipped me off my feet, so not only did I have to hold on to the side to keep standing but I also had an additional problem with the disposable camera as my hair kept blowing in front of the lense. I had forgotten this used to happen lots in the olden days when I used a box brownie but in our digital days we can hold the camera away from our face. Just hope I clicked the disposable shutter at the right moments!

The sun made Melrose Abbey seem a brooding presence at times and also provided me with wonderful contrasts such as this silhouette seen above. If you look closely you can see the pigeons perched high up there! They must be able to cope with the wind better than I did!

I also loved the patterns of the shadows on the ground and the picture at the top of this blog was the best one I found and I knew as soon as I took it that it would be my blip for today! Through the window on that picture you can see the Eildon Hills. The same view as seen by the monks in the Middle Ages, isn't that thought enough to take your breath away?

One of my final pictures with the AMLP disposable camera was of this gravestone which lay hidden in the ground. I just caught a glimpse of the skull and of course that was enough to warrant a closer look. What is it with me and gravestones? I do have an obsession with them.

But it did illustrate my theme for the AMLP project (Captured in Time) so well and of course like the ruins of the abbey itself is a clear illustration of the transcience of life. Seeing such signs reminds me that in the grand scheme of things our short human lifes matter little. This abbey has been around for almost 1000 years so my life span pales into insignificance in comparison. What ever troubles we humans might have, they will soon be over and we will be gone, just like the monks who used to call this place home.

To some people this might seem morbid but for me it puts things into perspective and yes, indeed, makes me feel so much better about life as well as teaching me to stop worrying about problems. All will be well eventually!

A wintry graveyard visit

The irony of my old camera dying while I was trying to take pictures of a graveyard was not lost on me! And no this is not it's gravestone above but it seemed appropriate to take the new camera back to the graveyard to take these belated pictures, in order not to incur a curse on the new Lumix.

I also brought with me the disposable camera I received for the A Million Little Pictures project and as before I took the exact same picture with that and with my digital camera so that I can show the pictures for the project on this blog before I get them all developed. I got carried away a bit and took a picture of this very elaborate gravestone with Celtic patterns,

as well as one of these two arches which sort of echo of each other. Very Gothic!

All the pictures were taken in the Newlands ruined old church. According to the information board (which we eventually discovered in the snow, and had to defrost before we could read it!) there has been a church on this site since the 12th century but the present ruin dates from the early part of the 16th century. The graveyard was still in use around the middle of the 20th C as we discovered by studying the gravestone inscriptions. The picture just above became my blip for the day.

We did not have the best day for this visit although I have to admit the snow and ice improved the general funereal atmosphere. But they also made getting about a risky business and I was reduced to seeking help from the dead to stay upright by hanging on to their monuments.

It is really strange (specially in view of the fact that I love graveyards) that I'd never been here before as the road to Peebles from West Linton runs nearby and from there you can admire the remains of church and graveyard, looking very scenic. But in the 15 years we've lived nearby, that was as far as we had gotten to an actual visit. Spurred on by the AMLP project as well as the need to take my blip today was the day we finally looked around here, and I'm pleased with how the camera performed so far. The sky was a bit grey, in fact the whole day was grey and extremely icy, so I could not test the camera with that. It was almost the thing the Fuji camera did best, photographing into the sun! Alas, no sun on offer today at all!

I blip and I love it

The title of this blog does not include the S word for the first time in days (you know that word starting with s and finishing with w!) although the pictures still portray plenty of the white stuff.

In fact, John was walking past as I was typing the title, and he thought I had written "I flip" and told me I did that long ago! Indeed!! But no, I really mean I blip and some of you might already have noticed that I added a new favourite website as well as an additional online presence for myself, to the relevant places on the right-hand side of this blog. What does "I blip" mean? Well, simply that I have joined the Blipfoto site and am uploading a picture there every day. The whole idea is that you take a picture and you upload it to Blipfoto on the actual day you took the picture. This is really the only rule set in stone! I found out about this website in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper and they featured it because it's based in Edinburgh. You don't have to upload a picture every day but I'm going to give that a try.

I love my challenges. The picture above is my blip for today and you can see all my blips so far on my Blip page here. If you go to their home page, you will also see why I fell instantly in love with the whole site. Doesn't it remind you of a quilt? All uploaded pictures are put on the homepage in black and white and together they form a fantastic photo collage!

When I say I love my challenges I really mean it. It's what life is all about for me. So I also took two more pictures for the A Million Little Pictures project, again showing the bridge or rather the view through its arch. If you compare it with the same view of several days ago you can see that we've had loads more s**w! I walked about with a broomstick (rather appropriately, some might say!) to take these pictures in order to test the depth of the snow before each step, as I have already sunk in to almost my hips on several occasions due to drifting. Definitely something to avoid!

The other AMLP shot I took was this one. The bridge, a rusting old post left from the old railway line, and snow, just about still clinging on! Simple but I think, quite effective. Hopefully my disposable camera also captured it all in time, as per my theme.

A Little Picture in the snow

I also decided that there is not much point waiting to get out of the lane in order to carry on with the A Million Little Pictures project as there is every possibility this might not be possible till Xmas or beyond, so I looked around and captured another detail of the bridge near our home, this time covered in snow.

Remember I'm taking the pictures for this project with a disposable camera send to me, but I'm also photographing the exact same picture with my digital camera so that I can show them on this blog on the day I take the photographs for AMLP. I will have to wait to get the film developed in order to see if the pictures on the disposable camera are of the same quality! That is of course if I manage to get to a place to get it done!! Before May!

More Little Pictures

The disposable camera for the A Million Little Pictures project came with us today on a visit to West Linton to buy the newspapers and do our shopping. As the weather is freezing with ice and a dusting of snow and the forecast is for even colder temperatures and more snow, it seemed a good idea to concentrate the pictures for my theme Captured in Time, on places close to home. West Linton and environments has a lot of imagery to offer that fit the theme perfectly without venturing far from home.

This piece of sculpture shown above is part of the gable end of a cottage in the Main Street and is the work of the local stonemason James Gifford produced in 1660. It has suffered wear and tear over the years but is still a very impressive piece of art! We pass it almost every day and don't pay as much attention as it deserves so I had a really good look at it again today while taking my two pictures, one with the digital camera, but unmanipulated, shown here, and one with the disposable camera for the project, that will hopefully look much like the digital one.

We made a small diversion on the way home so that I could also photograph the Deepsykehead kilns, shown at the top. They are in a small lane, the extension across the crossroads from our own lane, and formed part of the limestone quarry that was there (now filled in). These kilns could be burnt continuously, usually throughout the summer and the lime was raked out daily from a grate in the draw holes at the base. It must have been a busy, industrial site back in the 18th and 19th Century. Hard to imagine now when all is peace and quiet. Only sheep and crows to be seen here.

Traquair House gates

The forecast is for snow so I decided to have a little expedition to take another photograph for the A Million Little Pictures project while the roads are still clear.

My theme for this fun Arthouse Coop project is Captured in Time and the closed gates of Traquair House fit this perfectly. These gates have been closed since 1744 after a visit by Bonnie Prince Charlie when the Earl of Traquair vowed that they would never be opened again until a Stuart king was crowned in London. As this hasn't come to pass yet, the gates remain closed. They are called the Bear gates and you can see why on the photograph.

I have visited Traquair House many times. It's the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland and has been in the same family since 1491. They still own and live in it. There is a wonderful collection of embroideries on show in the house which is one of the main attractions as far as I'm concerned although the whole house is definitely worth seeing.

The picture above has been taken with my digital camera as of course the film in the disposable camera won't be developed till I've taken all 27 shots but I have tried to take the picture exactly the same so it should be a close approximation!

The bridge captured in time

I took two more pictures for the A Million Little Pictures project today (with both my own digital camera and the disposable camera send by AMLP. My theme for this project is Captured in Time. I also wanted to include pictures of old stones nearer to home as well as going further afield and capture historic buildings in the Scottish Borders. It's the digital pictures you see on this blog. The bridge (familiar to regular readers of this blog as I have taken lots of pictures of it over the years) was build to take our lane over the now defunct railway line and was build in the latter part of the 19th Century. Living here makes finding old stones very easy so there should be no problem taking pictures in that respect.

But the camera (disposable) is a whole different matter. I have the feeling that the film inside is not transporting as well as it should and am wondering if I could use another disposable (bought here in the U.K.) just in case my worries turn out to be well founded. I'll have to wait till I have them all developed and then make up my mind what to do to come up with the full 27 pictures we're meant to mail back to the US.

Castlelaw Hill Fort

Today was also dedicated to photography as I took the very first photograph with my disposable camera. This camera is part of the A Million Little Pictures project. You can read all about this on the website but put in a nutshell it works like this: every participant takes 27 pictures with their camera, has them developed and mails them to the Arthouse Coop. They will then travel in an Airstream caravan around the US in the autumn of 2011 and there will also be a book with at least one photograph from each participant.

Of course that means I can't shown you the photo I took with the disposable camera yet but instead I'm also taking the self same pic with my digital camera and that is the one you'll see at the top of the blogpost. It's like going back to the dark ages when there was no digital photography, so no taking lots of pictures and keeping the best ones. Instead every pic you take had better be thoroughly thought out and spot on!

For my theme I have chosen: Captured in Time. Of course each and every photograph captures a moment in time, a moment which has never been before and will never be again. A slightly unnerving thought! But I'm also trying to capture something that preserves time and for this first photo I have travelled back to the Iron Age. I have passed the road to the Castlelaw Hill Fort many, many times on my way to Edinburgh and back, and I almost always had the thought that I should turn off one day and have a look! Today was the day and I was quite bowled over by what I discovered. Not only the hill fort but also splendid views in all directions, including Edinburgh.

According to the information on site (provided by Historic Scotland) these earth houses were erected during the Iron Age, approx in the 1st Century AD. They were build as defensive positions and of course the elevated site was very helpful in that respect. What is now left, all underground, is what would have been the cellar and this is what the picture at the top of the blog shows. I've taken it on my digital camera as if it was a disposable, so no adjustments like cropping and taken as is. Hopefully it will look very much like this on the disposable. There was plenty of light as Historic Scotland has helpfully provided skylights!

Of course I had to take some additional pictures (using my digital camera) of the wonderful views. They were specially good as the weather was cold but very sunny and bright. The pic above shows the views over towards Edinburgh.

And looking towards the south the Pentland Hills make a rugged impression. It was a good thing we went this morning for this expedition as the weather has rapidly deteriorated over the day and by this afternoon we had snow. Alright, it was wet snow but still those same Pentland Hills as seen from our cottage are now white! The first snow of this winter!

AMLP: Photomobile

lion

Sometimes I do things on a total impulse. Something attracts my attention, an interesting e-mail lands in my inbox and before I can even think about it or give it some serious consideration or even consider if I have the time, my finger instinctively clicks that left button and the next thing I know I have signed up for another project. Yes, I could have stopped before clicking but all my life I have followed my heart, rather than my head, and so far I have never, ever, regretted those impulse, jump in and get on with it, moves. This one won't be an exception, as already, I feel the excitement building up inside.

Here is the write-up about it:

"Photomobile is a traveling library of photographs built inside an Airstream trailer. The Art House team will take Photomobile on an epic journey during the fall of 2011, bringing A Million Little Pictures to museums, galleries and project spaces across the continent. We'll be documenting the process of designing and building Photomobile over the next several months — stay tuned for updates and let us know your ideas!"

This fun project is another brainwave from the organizers of The Sketchbook Project and already (I only signed up about 2 minutes ago) I can't wait to get started. It will have to wait till my camera arrives. They send this to all participants and you are meant to take 27 pictures on this disposable model on a theme of your choice. My choice was also taken in a heartbeat and it will be: Captured in Time. I saw, I loved and I made that choice in just about a second!

If you read this blog regularly you will know that time fascinates me so what better subject could I possibly have found? Like the idea too? All you have to do is click on the picture above or in the sidebar and away you go!