Dorothy Clive

The Dorothy Clive garden is a beautiful, varied and peaceful garden open to the public in North Staffordshire next to the border with Shropshire. We visit a couple of times a year. Today we went with our friends - James,Mandy, Chris, Jude and their friend Noe. We went in Chris and Jude's vehicle which is they bought as it converts to a sleeper/ camper. That may be the type we will get. Chris and Jude are about to move to Cumbria - they hope the move is next weekend. We had a really relaxed afternoon - Tone took a lot of photos - James and he love to talk photography.

I will miss Chris and Jude a great deal - and I hope we will be able to visit them often in the Lake District - which is at least a fabulous place to have to go to to see them. Bon voyage friends... x

Bare

I've just bought Annie Lennox latest album - Bare - and it's wonderful beautifully produced. The cover photo is fantastic. It prompted me to go to her website to try to get a picture - I could not download one as it's all flash, so this is from another site. However - go there and visit the gallery- the photos are amazing - she is so beautiful - more so with age I think...and she has worked with a friend of hers to do the photography herself so you see what she really wants you to see.

The description she gives of this photograph includes the lines "I have exposed myself through the work to reveal aspects of an inner world which are fragile.. broke, but not entir$ely smashed... I am a mature woman facing up to the failed expectations of life and facing up to the "core" issues. I don't want to represent myself visually in some kind of cliched, air-brushed, saccharine kind of way. I want to reveal myself as I am....The image is timeless, genderfree and racially ambiguous."


annie lennox

Alison Lapper's photography - buy it!

Alison Lapper

yclepta has posted about Alison Lapper - I also saw the programme about her - I have done some research and found that she uses photography and other media to explore herself and perceptions of others. I also saw a programme a few years ago - I think it was Child of Our Time - about her pregnancy and bringing up Parys as a baby. She is a true inspiration - celebrating her body's beauty and using her skills to show that she is more than able - society disables her by our attitudes. There are some beautiful images here. They are for sale too.

And did you know you can get an interest free loan from the arts council to Own Art yourself - up to £2,000!

Elizabeth

As you can see I have joined a webring for people with Elizabeth in their name - it's my middle name. I like it - as a child I got called Pennyliz by my uncle who called his daughter Jane, Janeyliz. I did not like Penny and called myself Mary Elizabeth for a while - why Mary I do not know - and it's not that much different.

I hope I get some visitors to my blog now I'm on a couple of rings.

When I got the black and white photos back I was disappointed - they seem dull and lacking in contrast. Tone explained that they have lots of contrast the main problem is the sky was very blank a lot of the time. So everything looks like shades of grey - little white or black. I am not sure but the processing could be a factor as the film was C41 - it was developed using colour processing - quicker and cheaper.

Having a second look there are a few that I really like. Of course the other issue is that I am used to taking 100's of pictures on the digital and only really liking perhaps 10-20%, and even though I used 3 b/w films on holiday which seemed like a real extravagance, that's only 96 photos altogether and I've not got the 24 film processing back yet. (Hopefully tomorrow). So I can only expect about 10-20 reallly good ones.

We have now put up 4 galleries of pictures from the digital - mostly Tone's because I focussed my efforts on the black and white. The sheep in Northumbria, the pics with Tone on (obviously), a few pictures on the Cumbria page (foxgloves, fern in pool of light, parasol at Windermere) and the close-up of the gunnera flower and the turbo at the hydro power station in Scotland are mine. They are not very exciting - I like the sheep best I think - not usually an interesting subject - it helps that there are clouds in the sky.

I carry the Nikon Coolpix 2500 around with me most of the time - in the car or my bag. Last week I had not got it and the sky was really black with some sun peeking through on my way home from work. I am still thinking about that - I know it's pointless - but the camera is back in my bag now..

feeling low and tired out?

Yes - me too.

I have got 2 weeks off work, sick, thanks to my GP.

I will take some time to be creative and to rest - therapeutic activity.

That may include blogging and taking pictures.....

Summer holiday..

We've just been on a summer holiday...
to some most beautiful parts of Britain - Dumfries and Galloway - via Cumbria - and home via Northumbria. We truly loved Galloway - Portpatrick, the Mull, Glentrool - and Kirkudbright in Dumfrieshire was a real place to escape to - perhaps permanently!

Here is the first picture on atypical - one of Tone's. I did not take many on the D70 - I took my Retinette and used black and white film for the first time in about 6 years - it was great fun. The fixed lens was really liberating - I had to do all the composing by moving around, rather than zooming in and out. I can't wait for the results. If I like them, Tone suggests we get our own developing kit...