B&W - It's in the news

Whilst laying in the swing chair in the garden enjoying the sunshine I suddenly remembered that I had intended to try and post a black and white photo every week.  (let's not mention me missing last week - ok?)

Being as lazy as can be, I picked up my phone and took a photo from where I was laying!  We've been sitting out in the garden reading the weekend papers in the sunshine.  And with under a month to go, you can see that the newspapers are already getting Royal Wedding fever!

B&W - Something old and something new(ish)

Something a bit different for the black and white page of my blog this week:

Enjoy your weekend!

Black and White

I've been a bit absent with blog posting and blog watching this week; the absence of heating in the house has meant that we are trying to use as few rooms in the house as possible and the study (where the computer is) isn't one of them!  Yesterday was a glorious day and in fact it was warmer outside than it was in the house so the husband and I went for a nice long walk.  We passed this house on our travels and I thought it may make a good black and white picture for this week. However, I didn't have my camera with me and I had to take it on my phone, email it to myself and then do a save-as on the computer.  My excuse for the quality being poor ;-)

B&W - All you need is ...

Black and White - Photostrip

With all the excitement of the weekend, I forgot to take a black and white photo (I knew I wouldn't keep up to date for long!)  so instead I am going to use some photos that were taken of me in one of those old fashioned photo booths that seem to be coming back into fashion now.

My mum used to love me to wear a hat in the winter time, I hope it was a fashion statement and not just because I had ginger hair .....

Black & White - with apologies to Top Gear

Black and White - the beer page

It's my nephew's birthday next week, and I needed to get him a card.  We always exchange humourous ones so when I saw this one in Marks and Spencer, I knew it was perfect for a 39 year old ex-rugby player:

 

As it was in black and white I thought it would do nicely for this week's black and white photo!

February B&W

The weather for this weekend was forecast to be horrible and so I used my day off on Wednesday to take this week's black and white photo. I decided to go back to where I grew up to take a photo of the church in which I was Christened and married.

It's a really lovely old church and it hasn't changed too much since I was little.  In fact between 1963 and 1969 I went to school in the church building right next to it and that building looks very similar to the church!  It wasn't the ideal building for a primary school, massively high ceilings, windows very high up so at child level there was little natural light and of course as a historic building it wasn't divided up into classrooms, we just had partitions in between the classes.  The church is REALLY old, built in 1190 and I love the fact that it is still regularly used and well maintained.  My parents and great-grandparents are buried in the churchyard and as I walked down to the grave to place some flowers, I came across an old grave that is normally well hidden

There are a pair of these stone memorials with a smaller one in the middle.  They are memorials to John Watlington, his wife and infant son.  When I was growing up I lived near to a road called Watlington Road but never knew who it was named after.  Turns out he was the vicar at the church in the late 1800s.  His gravestone is inscribed by all manner of celebrations to how wonderful he was and glorifying his life, but I wondered why his wife was only given this particular sentiment that I photographed.  "She did what she could".  After the wonderful send off that her husband had, it seems a bit unfair that it was all they could say about her!

Black and White time again!

I'm looking forward to the weather being better and actually feeling like going out to different places so I can get to grips with taking some different black and white photos.  But with the temperature refusing to go past single figures, I have to resort to taking things close to home. 

This little fellow comes from Portugal and is a version of the Barcelos Cockerel.  He is said to represent faith, justice and good luck.  You quite often seen these figures painted with a black backround and quite garish patterns all done in primary colours but I think this one is a pretty version.

My sister has a holiday home in Portugal and flew out there on Thursday for a 10 day winter break.  It's not brilliant temperatures out there at the moment, think it is 11 degrees today, but I kind of wish I was out there too just to get away from January at home.

Hurry up February - and please bring a little sunshine with you!

Taking flight in black and white

I've had a bit of a grotty week at work.  When you are under the weather, all you want is to be left alone and just get on with things quietly and in your own time.  Well that doesn't happen too often in a busy school office!  So after finishing work on Friday, the sun was shining and although it was cold, it was a really nice afternoon so I went for a walk.  The sun really lifted my spirits.  The weekend was just around the corner.  There was no one else around, total solitude.  I was walking along the footpath by the side of the lake and my phone rang.  It was my son, saying his last exam had gone well, the questions he had hoped for had come up and he was relieved to have it all done and dusted.  It was a lovely feeling to be standing in the sunshine with just the ducks for company, chatting to him and hearing his voice relaxed and happy.
This is the photo I took shortly afterwards and looking at it reminds me of how nice it was to be in a quiet, sunny place, hearing good news and chatting to my boy.  It isn't a particularly special photo, but for personal reasons, when I look at it, it brings back that lovely warm feeling inside.

Black & White Photo 3

Or rather - the story of my day told through black and white photos!

We took our son back to Sheffield today for his final semester at University of Sheffield.  I hate the drive back after dropping him off, the husband and I are both subdued and it just seems too quiet in the car.

We've been going up to Sheffield now for about 7 years!  Our daughter went to Sheffield Hallam university and as soon as she graduated, our son decided that Sheffield was the place for him too although he rang the changes by choosing the other university there.  So that 150 mile journey is becoming quite familiar now.

Before our daughter went to university I had never ventured much 'up north' apart from a long weekend in the Lake District back in the early 80s.  I guess most people have seen or heard of the film 'The Full Monty', well that was set in Sheffield.  It's a town of great contrasts, from the very old to the very new.  Certain areas are dominated by the two Universities and a lot of the housing there is student accommodation. I can't imagine what the town is like when the universities finish for the summer and it is left to just the local people.

Sheffield has a long and varied history - if you are interested, you can read about it here, it has been very prosperous when it was the centre of the British steel industry but that has long gone. The photos I have included in the collage are left to right,

Top row first - modern sculpture in the Crookes area town,  modern university building, the house that is where my son is living

2nd row Peterborough Services - an odd choice to include but we always stop here on the way as not only do I always need a 'comfort break' when we have been on the road an hour (and yet I can make the 3 hour journey back home non stop - curious!) but they have an M&S Express there and we buy our sandwiches for lunch, next two pictures are an example of a couple of church buildings in the older area of the city,

3rd row A signpost that shows we are nearly at our destination, the jumble of possessions on the bookcase in my son's room ranging from beer and wine on the top shelf, a huge variety of reading matter, a collection of DVDs and his trusty guitar, then finally a set of traffic lights.  You certainly see enough of those once you enter 'Steel City'!

Black (& white) and blue

Well today has not been quite the day I had planned.  I am supposed to be in the middle of the 10 hour crop extravaganza that was rescheduled after the snow in December but instead I am sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, sneezing and coughing and popping cold and flu capsules on a four hourly basis.  Stupid germs.
So instead, I will post the second of  my black and white pictures and with a nod to my intention to 'Learn' more new things, I am posting this:

My sister gave me these little tea light holders, all in slightly different shades of blue.  They look so pretty when lit (although not so easy to photograph!)

I love the idea of having a photo in black and white but picking out one coloured element to keep in the picture.  So I downloaded an app onto my iphone (how on earth did I manage without that phone?) where you take a photo, it automatically changes it to black and white and then you zoom in and pick out the bits that you want to restore to the original colour.  Clever - huh?  I thought I would experiment on something that was a reasonable size to work on but intend to try this on a smaller element within a black and white print. 

So that's me done, must be time for another nap.  Hope you kept a safe distance away while reading this, I'd hate to spread these germs around blogland.

Happy Saturday! 



Something different

I'm going to try and make 2011 the year that I take the opportunity to learn whatever new things are offered to me.  So that's my word for the year - 'Learn'.  {Kind of appropriate for someone who works in a school eh?}
I have been doing a bit of blog hopping today and came across the idea for taking one photo a week in black and white.  I've not done too much in B&W previously so this is a fine opportunity for me to put good intentions to the test.  I also took the opportunity of downloading an app for my phone that allows me to do a bit more editing.  So - Week One and photo one:

Aren't you pleased you aren't a duck?  Their little feet must be frozen on the ice.  This photo was taken at a lake that is about half a mile from our house.  The snow has now gone from everywhere but bits of the lake are still frozen.  Silly ducks are still congregating on this iced bit because it's close to the path and that's where all the kids like to come down with their bags of bread to feed the ducks.  If they weren't quite so greedy, they could walk across a bit and find where the ice had melted!

Back to school for me tomorrow.  When we broke up and had 2 weeks holiday, it seemed a nice long time.  Suddenly it seems like only yesterday that I was last there.  Got to feel a bit sorry for our year 11 girls though, first day back and they are straight in for GCSE Mock exams!