I've always been drawn to arches : give me even a hint of a railway arch, a tunnel or an arched entrance and I will grab my camera and start messing around with shadows and light. No doubt Sigmund Freud could have based a series of lectures on my proclivity for such structures - but let us not progress any further down that decidedly murky footpath. Steps are another of my passions (make of that what you will Siggy!): I like the way light plays on steps - drawing parallel lines and changing black to white. If you therefore provide me with a Sepia Saturday theme image that brings together an arch and a set of steps, I am a happy man. Here are just three examples from my collection.
My first example has caused me considerable heartache because I can't remember whether I have ever featured this photograph before on any of my blogs. Why can't someone develop a half-decent search engine for images that could help old fools like me discover whether I have posted an old image before? I fed the above picture into Google's Image Search - "the most comprehensive image search on the web" - and it tried to persuade me it was the Gateway Arch in St Louis. I find it difficult to imagine anything less like the Gateway Arch in St Louis. It is, in fact, a photograph of the entrance arch to Cardiff Castle in Wales and that is my Uncle Frank's mother and sister doing their best to smile for the camera (the one looking happy to be in such a party is, in fact, the sainted Auntie Miriam). The photograph must have been taken by Uncle Frank in the mid 1930s.
My second photograph is only mildly sepia and dates from the early 1980s. I seem to remember taking it down a back street in Lincoln - although when I did a Google Image Search for it, I was informed that it was most likely a picture of a couple celebrating their wedding at the Burford Bridge Hotel in Surrey!
I am particularly proud of my third image which manages to combine both an arch and a set of steps and throws in a dustbin for good measure. I took this photograph inside a block of old tenements in Sheffield some thirty-five years ago. I couldn't resist, of course, submitting this image to Google's Image Search and it actually came up with a definite hit - I have seemingly used this picture before in a Picture Post blogpost back in 2012. To all those readers with a better memory than I, I apologise for using it again.
To see more arches and more steps, go to Sepia Saturday Blog and follow the links.
They’re all new to me Alan and I think they are all wonderful! I recently had a brainwave for those of us who own Macs (assuming that this is where your images are stored). Not much use retrospectively, but from now on - when I remember- I am goig to tag images I use with the word ‘blog’ and create a smart folder to pick them up.
ReplyDeleteYour Uncle Frank's smiling mother and sister remind me of some of the smilers in my family.
ReplyDeleteI regret the lack of opportunity these days for doing pictures like the one in Sheffield - a great image. And I also like the alley in Lincoln.(Was the sack of potatoes the bride or groom by the way?) :)
ReplyDeleteAunt Miriam is positively glowing! How nice to see her pop up now and then! And the Sheffield shot is stunning -- amazing light reflecting off those bricks, etc. Good shot!
ReplyDeleteSome fine photographs here. But you had me laughing out loud about trying to discover who, what, and where photos are taken according to Google! Sometimes it's altogether obvious the so-called title of the photo is waaay off. Other times it seems like the information MIGHT be right, but knowing Google, you can never be 100% sure! At least you found ONE proven right! :)
ReplyDeleteClassic archway photos in 50000 shades of grey. Light and darkness. Going in and coming out. Portcullis up, portcullis down.
ReplyDelete