The Gallery - Mother Nature: A Gentle Wonder

This weeks Gallery prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers is Mother Nature.

And I have the most wonderful example right on my doorstep. 

Something, which at first sight can appear so serene, calm and gentle, yet hidden beneath the beauty, something which is capable of unleashing a power so ferocious and wild it can take your breath away. 

A truly glorious force of nature which never fails to amaze and fascinate me...

The Gallery - Still Life; Olives? Love 'em or hate 'em...

The theme for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers this week is 'Still Life'. 

I like this one.

This is a series of photos taken one lazy Sunday lunch time. When my children were either with their Dad or out and about (I can't remember which) and on a whim we popped to a local organic Deli that sells lunches and is so close it may as well be next door, so no effort involved!

The subject in most of the photos is olives.

Now olives are one of those things a bit like marmite, you either love 'em or hate 'em. 

My OH loves them, I hate them. Which is perfect, he gets to eat all mine too!

So tell me, are you a lover or a hater??

Never, ever break the Rules of the Teen Handbook..CHECK!

It's 5.30pm and I've just returned from an emergency dash to TDs college.

Why?

We got a phone call at 4.45 from TDs AS level photography tutor asking for TD, who wasn't in, so I asked if I could help.

'I'm marking her AS work and I don't have her coursework book here'.

'Unfortunately if I don't have both books she'll get 0 marks, a U grading. I have her final exam book, but not the other one, and I know she's done it because I've seen it before'.
Uh-huh...

...and what was sitting in the kitchen in a bag on the floor, below the wall phone? 

Yep, the other book. The very book I suggested she might need to take in Wednesday morning, last week, when she had her final 2 hour (out of 8 hrs) exam.

The book she argued 'I won't need, it's the exam we're doing, so I only need the exam book' with only a grudging attempt to keep the sarcasm from her voice, and looking at me like I was insane, stupid or both. Because of course, what do I know, huh?

Deep breath...I tried again 'But surely they'll need to mark the whole course, not just the final exam?'

...'Oh god, Muuuuummmm! If I need the other book then I'll take it in tomorrow!'

Okaaay...enough said.

Mistake? Yes, I know not mine...
But my mistake??

The Big 'Teen' no no? I didn't check...I didn't check she'd checked.

Rule #1 of the 'How to drag up a Teenager' Handbook? Always, always check. Even when you have to suffer the exasperated sighs and inevitable eye rolling. Suck it up and CHECK!

Lucky for TD she obviously has a good tutor. Who I'm sure, would have been quite within her rights to mark and send off only what she had there and then. But, no, she phoned home. And got me. Who raced to the college, only just in time, with the fricking book TD said she didn't need.

Why don't they ever bloody listen..*Wanders off mumbling*

The Gallery - Friendship

This week the theme at Sticky Fingers is 'Friendship'.

It's extremely lucky that I know my longstanding friend really well. I know she would scream every swear word she knows (oh, she taught me well) for putting this photo up here, and then cry with laughter, giving herself hiccups in the process.

But I don't feel too bad about sharing it on my blog, as I had already posted it on Facebook, ages ago. Hence the reason I know exactly what her reaction would be.

We go back a very long way, 32 years. We met when I was just 16, she was 19 or 20 (? I've actually forgotten exactly how old she is) and she was a young mum of 2 little girls. We have both moved around alot in the intervening years. Had children (me), more children (her), divorced (both) and we don't always manage to connect and go years without talking. But when we do talk it's as though one of us has just come back into the room after making a cuppa! 

Strangely, we don't have many photos of us together.

Last October, late one evening, I got a very drunken phone call from her, telling me her and her latest man were in Brighton for a dirty weekend, and did I want to meet for lunch the next day? We hadn't spoken in nearly 3 years...but that didn't stop her from launching into a blow by blow description of his attributes (I assumed he'd popped to the loo, or I hoped so anyway, it was fairly graphic!).

We met up for lunch, and talked, caught up and giggled non-stop for 3 hours. We probably won't meet up again for another 3 years. And that's fine, that's the way it is between us. It works.

My friend...
Okay it was the 80s', but even so there was absolutely no excuse for those curlers!

The Gallery - Self Portrait..Slowly does it.

 This week on The gallery at Sticky Fingers the theme is Self Portrait.....Eeeekkk!!! And I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that. Ta very much Tara! We're all guilty of hiding behind the camera, and I've found this to be the case even more so the older I've got. Basically I don't like what I see in the, very few, photos of me...that can't be me surely? When did I get so old? Maybe in my head I'm still that fresh faced 18 year old, so to be confronted with a much older version is a bit daunting. So I'm going to do this quickly, a bit like ripping a plaster off...

Okay...maybe not that fast....

...Just a little at a time might be less painful...

There, done. Ouch!

A little stroll along Brighton Seafront..for Mussels.

Tuesday afternoon TD and I took a little stroll along Brighton seafront. There was a mission in mind, it wasn't just for a leisurely amble. The aim was for TD to take photos for her A-level Photography Final exam, which starts next week.
The theme the examining board have chosen this year is 'Rhythms and Cycles'. This caused a few groans from the 1st year students, as the 2nd year students were given, what they saw as, the far more exciting subject of  'Passion and Obsession'.  

It can be anything from rhythms of music/heartbeats/life and cycles of life/death/decay/nature/buildings, the list is endless. TD can produce any image/s, any size, as long as it fits the theme and is Black and White Film, not digital.

The idea she's going with at the moment is 'Sealife; from sea to plate' sort of thing and to capture images at various stages, in the sea, on the beach, for sale at a stall, and finally on a plate as food.
This was because she took some stunning shots of mussels (below) on the beach and walls, a while back with a digital camera. She was hoping to get the same again but on film.

 

 

Unfortunately for her, that part of the mission was thwarted by the fact they had cleared and were still clearing most of them away while we were there...
So no mussels to be found on the beach.
She did manage to get shots of a couple of the stalls selling seafood though, so maybe all is not lost.

Below are my efforts at the same shots TD was taking.

 

The Gallery: Me, Forever...

Today in The Gallery at Sticky Fingers the theme is 'Me'...

Now of course this opens up huge possibilities for photo choices. I thought of trying to be clever and take or find a photo that represents who I am, not necessarily an actual photo of me. Something symbolic maybe, of who I believe myself to be. As I am many things, as are we all, daughter, sister, friend, lover, mother, dreamer, artist...

But the most life changing one of those for me is 'Mother'. 

So this is a photo of me. Taken 10 seconds after my now 22 year old son was born, still with blue fingers & toes and an interestingly pointy shaped head, caused by having been stuck on my cervix for 5 hours. 
His birth was the end of a heartbreaking 2 years for us, which involved the loss of our first son at 19 weeks the previous year, followed by many, many tests and lots of tears and soul searching about choices made.  
This was the moment I entered a wonderful world of love, hope, joy and fear, forever. And this is who I still am today. So this photo is the starting point of four wonderfully individual human beings, whose presence in my life has helped shape me into who I am today...ME.

Tagged - A photo Meme - Art & Design Textiles

Gigi's Ramblings has tagged anyone with this meme and with me being the ultra lazy blogger that I am at the moment, I swear my brain cells have been replaced with air bubbles, I thought I would run with it.

And wouldn't you just know it, it's a photo of one of my Teen Daughters Textile projects...Grrr!

This is a particular bugbear of mine at present. Last September TD chose Art Textiles and Photography as her A-level subjects (plus 2 other re-takes). Now, just in case none of you are aware, both of these are HUGE coursework based subjects. During the first year they have to produce 3 separate finished final pieces (for each subject), with large, fat sketchbooks to support the work.  TD had completed (ish) 2 and had number 3 underway, when a meeting at college was called and we were told, reading between the lines, that given the work she had done in Textiles so far, she probably wouldn't have a place at the college for the 2nd year! WTF...

TD was fine with this, she had already decided mid way through the first textiles assignment, that she'd made a mistake and wanted to change courses, too late of course. So she struggled through, with  gritted teeth (both mine and hers) I might add. 

When we had this meeting (only last week) she was 7 weeks away from her final exams (May this year), and their suggestion was that she drop textiles, there and then, with nothing, no qualification at all to show for it. So 2/3rds of the work was a complete waste of her time...as I said Grrrr!! Also, I'm not a believer in starting something and not finishing, I think it conveys a message of "It's ok, if its too hard you can just give up". She is continuing with her Photography course, but only till the end of this academic year. So we are now looking at other courses at different colleges for her, as you have to have a minimum of 3 A-level courses to attend the college, which she now won't have. More Grrr...

Anyway, rant over, back to the photo...

The first photo is of TD's final piece (not quite finished) for her 2nd project based on the title 'Lost & Found' with a sub-theme of 'Body Adornment', using some of the methods she learnt, plastics, jewellery making, etc..

She used only items found in the house. Plastic sandwich bags and fine copper wire from cables and melted them to create shapes.  Which she then turned into this 'neck piece'.

In fact, because she put a lot of hard work into this piece, contrary to college opinion, I'm going to add more than one photo, so it's the tenth, eleventh and so on, photos...well, I'm already in the folder anyway, so I may as well.

The rules are:

Open the first photo folder you find.  Scroll to the tenth photo. Post the photo and tell the story behind it.
Tag five or more people. But I'm not going to tag anyone, just jump in if you feel the urge.

The Gallery: Colour - Sail away

The Gallery theme over at Sticky Fingers today is Colour. Unfortunately, my inspiration seems to be very lacking today, so this is a photo I took 2 or 3 years ago on Brighton beach. It's my OH, TD and OH's son, checking over the sail on our hobie cat. It's not a brilliant photo technically, I cut the top off the sail for one (tut tut) but I do love all the colours. 

Oh, and roll on the summer...

One Passion...The Gallery at Sticky Fingers

 

ONE BOY + ONE GUITAR = ONE PASSION

The prompt for 'The gallery' over at Sticky Fingers today is....A Number.

I've chosen the number ONE...

I took this photo of my Gorgeous 18 year old son playing one of his guitars. Playing music, his guitar is his love, his number one passion. In his own words "If I don't play my guitar everyday, I feel something is missing".

And just because I can, I'm going to add sound here (Apologies to those of you who've heard it before).  My son playing (the guitar in the photo) and TD singing...

So you can hear him with his 'One Passion'...

 

Sticky Fingers The Gallery....Beauty

BEAUTY...

Tara at Sticky Fingers has a photo gallery link and the theme today is 'Beauty'

So here's mine.

I took this photo last July on the island of Poros, Greece. 

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this is one of my ideas of 'beauty'.

It's the branch of a tree, which reaches out over the sea, in an idealic place called 'Love Bay'.  
A beautiful name for a beautiful place...
I know that for all of us it was one of those holidays you hold close to your heart and carry forever...

So how come I'M the one with dye under my nails?

After more than 2 months of college, TD seems to be, sort of, getting the hang of it. Dare I speak too soon?... and is this the point where I should start touching wood? (it is only one term in)

TD now realises she made a big mistake taking on 2 courses with huge coursework content. Unfortunately she came to this realisation a week too late to swap to any other subjects.
All other courses were full, so, she's got to stick with it. This is one of the reasons her mantra is 'I HATE college'. The other is, of course, it means she has to 'GET OUT OF BED'...

Both her courses, Photography and Art Design:Textiles, slowly appear to be coming together, and she's due to hand in her finished pieces next Friday.

Currently she's filling/filled up one of her two A3 size sketchbooks with negatives, test strips, notations, photographers work and her own prints.

The other one, Textiles, the one she really, really, really (Have you got that yet??!) wanted to 'drop', is straining at the seams with fabrics, sketches, paintings, and artists work. It's actually so full, it doesn't come close to shutting.....



I've tried to help her, particularly with textiles, as there is probably 12+ hrs work a week (outside of classes) to keep up with. I've added loads of pics (I'm generous like that!) to give you an idea of the amount of work generated in less than 1 term.

This is, of course :sigh: an ongoing battle as 'I HATE this course!' is another favourite line, as she tries again, to un-stitch what the sewing machine, 'This STUPID sewing machine HATES me!' somehow manages to get wrong!








Let me explain why I'm helping out. I understand TD now 'realises' she made a mistake with this course, and there is nothing she can do but plod on with it, until the end of the academic year next June. The very fact she recognises it as a mistake, and acknowledges it, is for me, a small sign of maturity. Yes I know, this is a very tenuous 'grasping at straws' logic on my part, but hey, you grasp 'em where and when you can with Teenagers!



Which is why I ended up last night, in the kitchen, supervising saucepans full of Blue & Green food dye/Ink & mutton cloth, as TD wanted a particular colour of 'Teal' fabric to use in her Final Piece.



Can I tell you something else? Just in case you're contemplating encouraging your Teens in their creative endeavours?.... THAT particular colour of 'Teal' is a real bitch to get off your fingers & nails!

First contact sheet...And I'm a little proud & relieved!

TD came home today with a contact sheet from her Photography AS level course.

Last week, one of her Tutors took all the students down to Brighton seafront, cameras at the ready....

Very brave tutor. Imagine if you can, 20 to 30, 16 yr olds, running amok with cameras! I think I'd have been hiding in the nearest cafe with a stiff cup of tea...11am being a little too early for anything stronger..

According to TD it was a fun morning, and she managed to get her photos taken just before the skies opened up, and the rain came heaving down, sending everyone running for cover. She was so endearingly enthusiastic about the whole thing she could hardly 'talk' in a straight line when she came home.
Telling us how she had even laid down along a sea wall to try and get more interesting angles, and the fact she had managed to get a couple of shots of the 'carousel' horses & poles being moved and cleaned.

All the students developed their negatives on Monday this week, apparently amid much hysterical laughter & probably some very ripe, Teenage language, as they all fought to remove the film from the canisters inside a developing bag, and into a developing tank, in theory, blind-folded.

Today they got to play with the 'Dark Room' stuff, and print off their photos. TD says she finds it a little claustrophobic in there, with big developing trays down the centre, and enlargers/workstations down both sides. When we looked at it before her course started, I did think it looked a little like a morgue..all those stainless steel tables.....Ugh..shudder...

So, this is TD's first ever contact sheet....















And she was right, the '3 carousel horses' is a good shot. But my favourite is of the 'poles'.
I think she needs to work on the technical stuff, but then that's why she's there, that side of it will come with time and practice, but the girl has a 'good eye'.

Given the ups & downs of the last few weeks, with her wanting to drop courses, drop out of everything etc, I'm so, so happy & a little relieved that she's now enjoying her time in college.