365 ~ May 9th ~ 15th

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This week was a colour week and this tie we’re doing orange. Not my favourite colour, though it’s nice in a sunset/rise. The ladies excelled themselves at times with annoying prompts, but I overcame most of them I think.

Day 129 ~ All-encompassing. ~ Welcome to orange week!  Orange is an all-encompassing word…it is both a noun and an adjective!  As we continue through this week, you will have opportunities to explore orange in many different ways.  Because I am terrible at making choices, I give you both the noun and the adjective here.  And, citrus, with its color variations and textures, is quite photogenic! So today, photograph orange, an orange, or both!  You choose!  Most importantly, have fun with this all-encompassing color!

Photograph an orange she said. Well the shop only had tangerines, but they are orange so I thought they would do. I fannied on for ages trying to get a nice composition, and I think this one turned out to be the best.

all~encompassing

Day 130 ~ Jewel. ~ a precious stone.  As I don’t actually have any precious stones hanging around, especially no orange ones, I thought of a slice of orange with bubbles to be a jewel of a shot! You will need a camera, a tripod, light, a large orange, a knife, some fizzy water or cheap soda, and a clear glass bowl. To set up, slice your orange and put the water into the bowl.  You may need to weight down your slice or clip it to the side of the bowl so that it stays under the water.  It is best to backlight your fruit.  I put white paper between the light and the bowl. I find it easier to shoot from above, but you can do it from the side as well.

Nope. Today was a work day and I wasn’t going to spend the whole evening clarting about with water and oranges, and besides I DO have a precious stone in the form of a necklace with a heart shaped piece of polished amber as the pendant. Much nicer than a soggy bit of orange I think.

jewel

Day 131 ~ Kinship. ~ I feel a kinship with my roots!  I simply love my home.  My cabin on the lake is my happy place.  It is where I feel the most like myself.   I feel a connection with the water, the sky, the forest, the animals and the people who surround me in this happiest of places.The colour orange is associated with joy, warmth, heat, sunshine and happiness.  My home, glows ‘orange’ for me.  (It is a log home so it also actually literally has an orange glow!)  I like to sit on the deck and take in the view and be reminded daily of my connection, my bond and my kinship to my home and the environment in which it is located.Whom or what do you have a kinship with?   Remember to add the colour orange to your photograph because it is orange week! 

Sigh. This from the slightly bonkers leathers wearing, climber in a cocktail dress who has a lovely log cabin home by a lake which she’s quite enamoured of as you can tell. Mind you I would be too, but Gateshead isn’t really a lake and logs kinda place, more like bricks and puddles. I don’t go around feeling kinshippy with stuff, my family perhaps but they’re 250 miles away so not available for a photo. However, I do have a log cabin shed studio that I am very fond of and as I was up early for work and the sun was shining on it I thought that might do. (Really it’s made of pinewood planks but it looks a bit loggy I think.)

kinship

Day 132 ~ Knot ~ Are you seeing Orange everywhere you look?  I sure hope so as we have some Orange fun planned later this week and you will need a keen eye!To help get you primed and ready you are going in search of knots.  And remember, since it is color week, make sure to incorporate the color orange with those knots! You might be surprised by what you find today!

Pfft. No actually I’m not seeing orange everywhere I look. I’m quite surprised at how little orange there is in my world. Orange ‘fun’ is not how I’d describe what’s going on later this week but more on that later this week. I am not going in search of knots, I’m going to work, where there are no knots of any colour, and then coming home where that remains the same. In the end I tied a knot in one of my Teddy’s ribbons. It’s not orange, but I magicked it so 🪄 😊

knot

Day 133 ~ Anticipation. ~ Cool springtime evenings = backyard fires = gooey (or burnt) marshmallows. I anticipate a full season of even more backyard fires and even more gooey (or burnt) marshmallows.  The crackle of a fire is very relaxing to me and it reminds me of countless hours spent visiting with loved ones while we stay cozy by the fire. I decided to share just a small amount of our backyard fire while it stuck to Blake’s marshmallow. Maybe it’s the anticipation of a delicious meal from the grill, or the anticipation of a cozy night in by the fireplace in your home. How do you enjoy the orange glow of a fire?

Well this one really annoyed me. Anticipation is one thing, setting fire to something is a whole other thing and apart from waiting for the fire brigade to arrive neither has much to do with the other as far as I can tell. Suburban Gateshead gardens~(we don’t have ‘backyards’ in the UK~ well I say that but then there’s Sunderland where there isn’t enough room in their outside space for grass so they just have concrete slab thing maybe a yard square, poor Mackems 😜) but I digress, where was I? Oh yep, suburban Gateshead gardens might have a shed, or a pond, even a Bar-B-Q (gas lit) and many have godammned trampolines but no-one sets fire to them and toasts marshmallows. And no siree, no fireplaces, central heating all the way. Not a chimney in sight. So I decided to forget the prompt and just photograph Mum’s plant instead.

anticipation

When I posted it in the group on Instagram (which I hate BTW) (Instagram, not the group) I waffled on about how the new leaves start out bright red then go orange, yellow and finally green (kind of opposite to Autumn) thereby anticipating the onset of summer, tenuous I know but that’s how it is. Connie asked me what the plant is and as usual I had forgotten, it’s just Mum’s Plant which I dug up from her garden after she died, put in a big pot and it has been with me wherever I lived ever since. I have of course found out now that it is a Pieris japonica, the ‘Mountain Fire’ variety, so thats how I’ve enjoyed the orange glow of a fire. Fortuitous n’est ce pas?

Day 134 ~ insect. ~ It’s definitely the time of year when insects are easy to find.  Maybe too easy!  I’m not a huge bug fan like my grandson, but I realize they have their purpose!I spend a lot of time at the Ornamental Gardens when the flowers are blooming and I love to see the bees buzzing around the flowers while searching for nectar.  Finding a bee on a flower with an orange center turned out to be just perfect for this week’s orange theme. Getting crisp photos of an insect is not always easy as they love to move fast.  If you’re photographing a fast moving bug today try to use as high of a shutter speed as possible, above 500.  This will help freeze the movement and give you a sharper photo.  

Urk!! I do not like creepy crawlies, and the bees are few and far between currently with it being a cold spring this year, I saw one butterfly but it had gone before I could fetch the camera and besides I don’t have any orange flowers in my garden for them to land on. Sigh. I was thinking I might have to get an orange card on the patio and get an ant or two to traverse it. Anyway Phil wanted to go to the Friday market in South Shields to peruse the vinyl record stall and I had to pick up my new glegs from Specsavers. After I’d got them I went to the market to meet up with him but he hadn’t finished so I went around looking at all the tat on the stalls, house clearance stuff mostly and came across a lady selling thong necklaces. One had a bee on it so that was me sorted for the prompt. Of course I own nothing orange to wear, so in the photo I had a magicked shirt on. 🪄😊

insect

Day 135 ~ Connect. ~ Are you ready for some extra fun?  It is scavenger hunt day!  Today’s challenge is to hunt for the items on the list below and photograph them! Once your hunt is complete, you will compile those images into a collage.  Today is about connection and it’s orange week.  Let your imagination do the rest!  Excited to see what orange items you find for the challenge.Let’s play!

This is the 2nd scavenger hunt thing they’ve done, and to be frank I think this is quite unfair. You have to take 9!!! pictures and do a collage with them. As if one daft prompt a day wasn’t enough, this one has 9. Anyway, undaunted I strove to do them the best I could. Last time round was a bit of a panic as it took all bliddy day to get it done, but I got myself organised this time and had already drawn up a list of what I would shoot for each prompt, and decided how/where to shoot them and did it over 2 days. I could easily have done it all on the day but Phil’s sister and her Hub visited for the afternoon and that stopped play. I didn’t mind though, it was nice to see them and we sat in the garden having cups of tea and a chat and a laugh, like the olden days when viruses were not such a thing.

connect

And that’s a wrap for this week, on the whole I think I’m winning at orange, but I’m really not a fan of it. Stay tooned for next week and Adventures with Negative space.

69 thoughts on “365 ~ May 9th ~ 15th”

  1. So funny how you duck and dive around the prompts, but she keeps you on your toes, that lady, doesn’t she? 🙂 🙂 The amber is pretty and the shed made me hoot. Good collage too! Have a nice week!

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  2. I wouldn’t call orange all-encompassing just because it can be a noun and an adjective. Can it be a verb? Can you orange someone or something? And since there aren’t any words that rhyme with it, it doesn’t bond well with others. It’s a recluse. Sort of the opposite of all-encompassing.
    I like your amber pendant!

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  4. Do you think maybe the prompt woman is going to come to this site one day to congratulate you and just see all the abuse she gets? That would be hilarious 😉

    Love the ‘all encompassing’ (agree with Alex) orange slices and the teddy as well. That’s a great shot. Ever taken Phil, Teddy and a the Fiat on a road trip? They should make a film about that. Phil gets reunited with The Showbiz Kids, just as Teddy comes to life and the whole world turns orange – this is going to make millions!

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    1. There are quite a few prompt ladies, and I’m not abusing them really, I just like to whinge. Secretly I like the challenges, even the ones that annoy me. 😊 The fiat has its own teddies but our road trips are always in Phil’s car as its bigger.

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  5. Great pictures, and I think you have more than fulfilled your remit. The pics all look very professional to me, not a big fan of all encompassing orange at all, but the pics look fresh.

    Glegs are a local terms for glasses?

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  7. Looks like you nailed it all to me. Amber is fascinating, with the tiny insects and bits of fossil inside. I think the best bit is reading about the rich prompt people with their lakeside cabins and rather pretentious suggestions. I wonder what they would make of Sunderland’s High Street West on a wet monday? Or a bit of shopping in Dereham Poundland on a busy Saturday! 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. Can you elaborate on your assignments? That is, what kind of photo club are you in? The prompts are interesting and your reactions to them fun to read. The tangerines are beautiful–made my mouth water. Do you get in trouble if you don’t keep up on a daily basis with the prompts? 😉
    I remember from a few years back your use of a sphere that was in all your posts for a year…

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    1. Not in a club Cindy, it’s a group of 7 ladies who run the 365picturetoday site here https://365picturetoday.com/. They are really helpful actually, and do blog posts on photography etc. No trouble at all, the prompts are there for you to use or ignore as you like. Pictures are posted to instagram and no one checks up on you. Some people do a few pictures at once but just post one a day, it’s all very laid back. You are thinking of the 365 I did in 2016 when I gave myself a theme for each month and I did one month of the crystal ball.

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  14. I love orange in sunrise and sunsets (also in a hearth fire) but never really thought of it in color context otherwise. I think you did a fabulous job with the prompts. And now I want a tangerine!

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  15. As a person who enjoys this color, love the post – and the opening image gave a positive rush that set the stage for the rest of the post. Although it is true with all the colors, the range of shades is interesting. Personally, I enjoy the bright shades. However, when you took me to amber, the initial excitement melted into calm. Well played. Bottom line – I greatly enjoyed the theme, the images, and your words.

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  19. Another great week, even with the problematic prompts!

    The tangerines make my mouth water with their juicy-ness!
    Your amber pendant is beautiful; the little bits inside are so interesting. After seeing this, I remembered that I have amber earrings, but didn’t even think to use them.
    Your she-shed is so cute and perfect, even with the struggle. (as you saw, I went off prompt for this one!)
    Teddy with the tie is lovely, Mr Sock Monkey says, “hi” 😄
    Thanks for looking up the name of your Peiris Japonica – I’m on a hunt to see if I can find one here in Canada! (I’ll let you know).
    The Bee necklace is cute…great find!
    Your scavenger hunt turned out well. (I confess that I start looking for subjects as soon as I see it on the prompt calendar; it certainly makes it easier than starting from scratch in one day.

    I look forward to the coming week – your descriptions always make me smile. Thank you! 😄

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