This pair of Gonepteryx rhamni / Zitronenfalter / common brimstone are my entry for “almost missed it” in my “challenge me to take a photograph of some concept or …” challenge. If you want to participate, you can challenge me here!
Here is my challenge reply for “something borrowed,” for neither the glass diamonds nor the flashes used to illuminate them belong to me – I went to a photographers meeting on Monday and we experimented with photographing glass.
So one of the things I’ve been challenged to photograph – and the thing that has really been giving me trouble – is “something true.” My blog, in its conception and name and description, if not always in its postings, is supposedly all about things often not being as ‘true’ as they seem, about how things and their perception always depend on one’s point of view and previous knowledge and experiences. … and so I spent the odd five minutes or so, when out photographing, looking for any abstract ‘true’ thing that I could photograph. And found none that I liked.
So I finally decided to take the easier way out, and to go for something concrete and solid which is, at this moment in time in which I am typing this, true. The ‘something true’ here is that I got two concert tickets (which I really wanted to have) for Christmas from my parents and will thus – always barring unforeseen circumstances &c – be attending two Indochine concerts in France in late February. The tickets weren’t a surprise present – the tickets went on sale on some Monday morning at 10am in November and I asked my dad to sit in front of the computer and to try and get some for me, as concerts were going to sell out quickly, most people need to work at that time of day, and I could not be in front of the computer at the time … and he did. Also, before all this could happen, I had to apply for and get days off as well. But I did, in the end, get the tickets themselves for Christmas. And so the plan is that I shall be in France in late February, and will finally get to see Indochine in concert.
So, as far as plans go, this one is true. And hence, voila, a photo of “something true.”
This is another challenge reply, this time for the prompt “something old.”
This, a nummus depicting the Roman Emperor Julian, is the oldest human-made thing I own (I own rocks and sand that are way, way older than this, but no human hand shaped those [afaik]) . The back tells you that it was forged in Sirmium (located in modern-day Serbia), sometime between 361 and 363. So it’s between 1650 and 1652 years old. Cool, eh?
This is for the “photos I have been challenged to take” prompt “small mended corner(s)”. It was in the process of being mended, actually – but the mended corner looked much less interesting … even though it makes for much better insulation, I am sure. :-).
It’s not a particularly good or artistic photo of a cat, but I’ve been vaguely looking for an example of the felis catus species for months now whenever I had my camera with me, to fulfil that particular unfilled prompt on my “photos I have been challenged to take” list – and since I don’t know encounter any cats regularly and am allergic to them and so don’t precisely go out looking for any, no opportunity presented itself. Until I encountered our neighbourhood cat today (sans ‘proper’ camera, however). So this is snapped with my mobile phone, but I am going to proclaim it a ‘fill’ anyway.
Here’s another challenge reply, this time for a “small blue thing”. (Also, you can say what you want, but I miss the light that good old-fashioned lightbulbs made. This ‘energy saving lightbulb’ light and my camera – do not play well together. I might re-take this photo when its sunny again [so roundabout in March, eh?].)
This is another one of the photos I was challenged to take – it turns out that taking a really interesting photo of the moon is hard, as it frequently turns out to ‘just’ be ‘the moon’. But tonight the clouds were cooperative, and so here’s my fill for “the moon/interesting”.
Here’s another challenge reply, this time for the prompt “point of view of a small child.”
This is my reply for the challenge to take a photo “from another angle.”
Here’s another challenge reply – this is my take on the prompt ‘tree’. :-)
So, one of the things I was challenged to photograph was ‘something new’ – and here is my new thing.* I bought it used, but since it’s new to me (it was delivered today), I thought it’d fit the requirement well enough.
I’m not a girl for autographs or costumes or random memorabilia, but I always wanted a 3-d chess set – I think because it is something functional outside of being a merchandise item, and I like playing chess, and adding a dimension was just mindboggling and … fascinating.
Since they were way out of my price range at the time I bought a xeroxed rulebook instead and built one myself, out of plywood and coat hangers – and while it did its job well enough, stability was an issue from time to time, and it was a bit low on elegance.
But I’ve been selling things on ebay recently (it’s great! Out of the house, things!), and while randomly/wistfully searching for 3-d chess sets it turned out that they have become a lot more affordable while I wasn’t looking! So I decided that part of the money** I’ve been making selling things might as well go towards fulfilling my more than a decade-old yearning for a shiny chess set.
And here it is. Now I need to find people to play it with.
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* My camera has a ‘pinhole camera’ setting, which is how the effect in this photo came to be.
** Most of it is vaguely earmarked towards the book printing costs that are approaching on the horizon.