365 ~ 12th ~ 18th December

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This will be the last week of ‘picture style’ prompts, with the overall theme of taking pictures indoors. And as it’s coming up to Christmas time, a few prompts are leaning towards decorations and festive fun. So, cliché week is probably more apt, but who can begrudge our laydeez some Christmas cheer, especially as we are all going to be eaten by Omicron at any given moment. On with the photos!

Abbreviations you may come across during this post. AFAC~ airy fairy abstract concept. AAFP ~ annoying as F-bomb prompt. CBBP ~ completely bloody barking prompt. HDBS ~ hippy dippy bull****. AWP! ~ Absolutely wonderful prompt!

Also- there may be swearing. But not too much, it hasn’t been a bad week really.

Day 346 ~ tranquility. ~ This week our photo taking vantage point will be from Indoors. This means your camera settings and the location will need a little more consideration. For instance you may need to increase your ISO, adjust your white balance, and lower your f/stop. You will want to take into account where the light and shadows are as they move through your space. Today is also about tranquility! So show us what has kept you calm and content!

Never mind me, Lord Vincent is the epitome of tranquility.

tranquility

Day 347 ~ Sloped. ~ I love old records.  I found this turntable at a friend’s house recently and thought that this was perfect for an up-close and sloped indoor subject.  

Sloped seems a weird one to me, but not worthy of an abbreviation so there’s that. And I must mention that her picture of the turntable shows a record on it covered in dust and the stylus needle clogged up with hairs and dirt. Disgraceful. Anyhoo my kettle has slopes, so a good excuse for a nice cup of tea.

sloped

Day 348 ~ Candy Cane. ~ Candy canes abound this time of year.  They are traditionally white with red stripes and flavoured with peppermint.  However these days you can find them in all sorts of flavours and a multitude of colours.  You can get creative as you want today or you can keep it simple.  What you do with your candy cane today is completely up to you.

A bit of an AAFP this, as Candy Cane isn’t really a thing abounding about in the UK and I didn’t get what they’re all about. So I wiki’d them, and for the benefit of my non USA reader I can tell you there is evidence of sweet sticks going back to 1837 in Boston Massachusetts, (I always want to spell that Massachoosits) with the Chicago confectioners the Bunte Brothers filing one of the earliest patents for candy cane making machines in the early 1920s. So I Amazoned a pack of the things, and will ruin my grandkids teeth with them when we see them over the Christmas period. They’re peppermint flavoured and I refuse to eat anything that tastes like tooth paste ~ I don’t mind it for cleaning my teeth but that’s all.

Candy Cane

Day 349 ~ Adaptability. ~ Winter is a great time to practice indoor photography. The holiday season is perfect for honing your skills. There are many ways to be adaptive and use the interesting lights around us to capture our image. One way to adapt to the low light indoors, is deliberate soft focus. Instead of trying to capture the crisp and sharp images we photographers normally strive for, go out of focus with intention.  An easy way to capture an image like the example is to put your lens in manual focus and turn the focus ring until you get that beautiful out of focus bokeh. If you don’t have a tree, anything with lights will do!

Pfft. AFAC. I’ve lost count of how many bokeh Christmas Trees I’ve done in my photographic life. That’s the biggest cliché of them all! Here’s another one.

adaptability

Day 350 ~ Transparent. ~ There is something about the way that lights and glass dance together and make magic.  Who is leading the dance?  The glass?  The light?  Experiment today and makes some magic happen between these two.

I didn’t do the lights, just my glass snow globe with polar bears in it.

transparent

Day 351 ~ Stunning. ~In addition to the Christmas tree, I love indoor decorations around the house.  This star usually sits on top of the piano and it is stuffed full of lights. To get this to really shine, I turned the lights down low in the room and put my camera on a tripod and used my delayed timer so that I avoided any camera shake.  I eventually got the right level and then with processing I made the blacks, blacker and the whites brighter.  I added some text to really make it stand out. Show us your favourite ornament and dress it up to show it at it’s best.

I didn’t ‘dress up’ my ornament but left it on the tree. This butterfly is my favourite one. Back in 2012 we spent Christmas in the sunshine in Cyprus, and for Christmas day night time we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We were the only customers in the place and the owner was so pleased to have us there! The food was great too. She gave us this decoration as a gift when we left, so it holds good memories for me. Stunning might be a bit OTT but it is lovely.

stunning

Day 352 ~ Broken. ~ It is ‘song lyric’ day and the word is BROKEN. That is a difficult one for Christmas!  I know, because I googled it and all the songs with broken in the lyrics are so sad!  Instead I thought about the Grinch, because honestly I am a Christmas Grinch when it comes to decorating!  The Seuss story is funny and it has a happy ending and I know all of us have a heart that grows 2 sizes when celebrating the Christmas season.  

“You’re a mean one, you really are a heel
You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel
Mr. Grinch, you’re a bad banana….”

I decided to go with a reenactment of Mr. Grinch stealing and breaking the decorations in Whoville.  I made the shoes which proves I am not always a Christmas Grinch! What can you come up with for “broken” in a song lyric?  There are a lot of Country and Western songs with broken hearts if you are looking for inspiration.

Actually Mrs. Cocktail~Dress, not all the songs with broken in the lyrics are sad. I give you Cat Stevens and Morning Has Broken. Except I don’t because when I got up early to catch the bliddy sunrise through my conservatory window, the world was shrouded in fog. My tree saved the day, when I was looking mournfully out of the bedroom window I spotted a broken branch (bliddy magpies did it I think!) and I found two songs on YouTube entitled Broken Branches, so I’m winning at broken!

broken

Another week over and done, and only two more to go! Next week is a colour week and Indigo is the choice, which isn’t easy, try googling ‘what colour is indigo?’ – it’s a nightmare! Stay tooned, it’s nearly over!

58 thoughts on “365 ~ 12th ~ 18th December”

  5. Thank you for the explanation of candy canes. I’ve read about them and seen pictures, but I didn’t I realise they were peppermint. I always thought they tasted like the seaside rock they resemble (in my mind, at least). My tree goes up this afternoon and it will not be as tasteful as yours, even when bokehed, but I’ll like it. Have a great Christmas.

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  8. All great shots this week! I liked them all so much that it’s hard to pick a favorite. Possibly the bokeh tree. You made only one mistake: ordering candy canes. I don’t know anyone who actually likes those ghastly things. I feel I must apologize in advance on behalf of American candy culture. May the rest of your Christmas be delightful!

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  12. I think Broken and Transparent are my favs, because they are such ‘polar’ opposites regarding light. With Broken the light is soft, diffused and pervasive; with Transparent the light is laser focused an seems to emanate from the bears themselves. And then there’s your warm, sunny Cyprus story! 🙂

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  13. Stunning is really stunning. It made me think in photos inside 70’s publications, taken with large format cameras. Broken could be the cover for “50 darkest classical piano songs” Wishing you well, fragglerocking : )

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  14. ‘Indoor’ was a good week for you! 👏🏻

    1. Sir Vincent is very regal;
    2. Your tea photo is probably one of my favourite shots of the week – I love the range of blues & the mug is great, as is the setup!
    3. I love that you actually bought some candy canes; the kids will be happy;
    4. Your tree is lovely, even if it is a cliche!
    5. The polar bear snow globe is lovely, and the photo is perfection, IMHO
    6. The butterfly is lovely, as is the story – the memories make it outstanding.
    7. I love the ‘broken’ shot – so moody. I can see it as the beginning of a mystery movie.

    Good luck with indigo! I so look forward to your interpretations! 😊

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  15. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As always, good work.

    I think that despite all the odd ways of describing things, the sets produced are really creative, in part because of the way described by the author. They could also be a bit more directional, too, than might be available with just a word. The thought processes are interesting.

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  17. Lord Vincent is indeed a picture of Tranquility and I love the contrasts in Broken. What a cool story to go with Stunning, and finally, I am shocked you don’t have candy canes in the UK! Seriously?!?!?

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  19. I love that Lord Vincent! A show stopper for sure. But then I made my way to the broken pic and something about that images seems reflective of me or maybe my state of mind. Foggy these days. I’ll admit to a twinge of jealousy over your polar bear snow globe, just a twinge, not like an enormous ache or anything! Looking forward to next week, Hugs, xxoo, C

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