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Up Close And Personal

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – It’s A Small World and Ragtag Daily Prompt – Assignment.

Guest host of this week’s Lens-Artists challenge, Anne Sandler, has invited photographers to focus on the small things and she has provided a number of useful tips for macro/micro and close-up photography. Thanks, Anne. Unfortunately, I got carried away and so I might not have stuck strictly to the brief, preferring once more to go with arty-farty rather than teeny weeny. Thankfully my True Love had something up his … oh, never mind!

I have redeemed myself though with some wee poetry – haiku, of course – and some vulgar photography humour. My friend has asked me to keep writing and who am I to refuse?

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Personal Favourites?

I have no particular favourite photos of 2020. They are all my favourites. Each month I choose a selection of photos that represent the main themes of my month and, as is often the case, many favourite-ish photos don’t make the cut. For the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Favorite Images of 2020, I’ve chosen a couple of those that didn’t fit my monthly narrative and two I published earlier this year. I wouldn’t exactly call them favourites but for personal reasons, they are ones I really like.

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My Preciouses

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Precious Moments

It may come as a surprise to my readers that when I first started this blog some 3 or 4 years ago, I wasn’t at all interested in photography. I have now got thousands of photos and since I don’t have an electronic filing system, it is hard to find that “needle in a haystack” photo that I know would be perfect for a photo challenge. So today, I decided I would start from the back of my digital catalogue to select photos for the Precious Moments challenge. All but one of the photos are family snaps (including some images of family members that are now deceased). Where appropriate, I have included privacy screens (I’ve drawn in sunglasses) to protect the identity of the living. Let’s get started.

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“A” Is For Anarchy And Art

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Subjects That Begin with the Letter A.

I have one subject and two photos for this challenge. I have chosen Art as my subject, and more specifically, my art. This is my first foray into “protest” art. It seemed an appropriate, non-violent way to express my rage over the last two months. This piece was completed today.

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Walking With Magpies

This article contains material of a satirical nature that may offend some readers. Please note the photos are awful, but the story is good/scary/funny.

For months now I have been in serious training. Magpie training. It’s full on magpie breeding season here in Canberra (Australia) and for the unlucky few, a walk, cycle or broomstick ride, may lead to being dive-bombed by a rampaging magpie. As of a few minutes ago, the count on the number of magpie attacks that have occurred in Australia this year is 3798, with 466 injuries (see Australia’s Magpie Swooping Map 2020). The number of attacks and injuries are likely significantly under-reported. But have no fear, ladies and gentlemen, there are a couple of ways to mitigate the risks.

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Writing Inspiration

Bird poetry – a pandemic distraction. Semi-infrequent opportunity to join in. Try it. Create a pingback to this post with your bird poem. Really awful poetry welcome. Good poetry welcome too.

As a bird lover, I feel slightly intimidated about venturing into bird poetry, particularly poems about gulls. This topic has already been covered by many famous poets over the centuries so I am unlikely to contribute any words that haven’t been written before. The inspiration for this short poem therefore comes not from those wonderful poets, but from the seagulls themselves and from my camera. That is as it should be.

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The Positives And The Negatives

Photo humour plus a challenge.

As yesterday was a quiet day, I thought I would have a play with some photos for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Negative Space. The negative space is the unoccupied space around the positive space, the positive space being the subject of the photo. Now you are a probably thinking that a positive and negative make a negative, and I’m sure this is true in photography too, but overdosing on the negative in photography breaks that rule. You’ll see. In photography, harnessing the divergent properties of positive and negative space can create cohesion – a sense of calm, peace, contemplation, isolation and scale. Distraction and busyness are the enemies of positive. Hence I let these adjectives be my guide in selecting photos for this challenge. Of course, everything is relative and the relative can really complicate the selection process, especially if you have a mind as busy as mine. I’m speaking from experience, or lack thereof.

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Everyday Mosaic Supplies

For Patti, who has always wanted to make a mosaic.

I always complain about not having enough space. The garage and my outdoor workspace are overflowing with stuff. My stuff. My mosaic stuff. Everything is covered with dust and cobwebs. I love it. It is a magical space full of wonder. Perhaps my affinity for tiles is instinctual, in my genes. My father was a builder in his youth. He loved concrete and his concreting skills were in high demand for major commercial builds. Funnily enough, my brother is now a tiler, a trade he came to later in life.

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Creative Comforts

Do you like my title for this blog post? I like it, but I amuse myself. However that (thinking up pithy blog titles) is about the extent of my creativity in the time of Covid. Consequently, I’ve been thinking a lot about buying a new house – one with two bathrooms; one bathroom for the healthy people and one for the sick people. Not that we have any sick people yet, but you never know …. This (thinking about buying a new house) is what I do when I don’t spend time on my art projects. When I’m in the right frame of mind and the weather permits, fiddling with tiles is my passion. I’ve been inspired by a fellow blogger to be arty this month, so I’ve started the prep for a couple of mosaics.

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