This week the children are on Half Term holidays. Above we can see Amélie at the dentist and this shot would form part of a short project, possibly titled ‘A week in the life”. I use the words “would” and “possibly” because as usual my projects, even the smallest unambitious ones never go far. I’m not alone, many of us do it. If you pause to consider this fact you realise that beginning something and not working at it is slightly immature. Even Louis practices his guitar, with a little shove in the right direction. Okay, sometimes it’s ‘like pulling teeth’, but he knows that it has to be done. Here he is, just before going off for another lesson earlier in the week:
I’m not childish or immature, there’ll be those that disagree and to them I say “I’m not, I’m telling my mum and I want my ball back”! Seriously though, I know that continual practice is the key to good photography and I’ve tried extremely hard to work out what’s preventing me from persevering with a project. I suppose this blog is a project of sorts and I do have a Projects section here too. They are a bit weak though, I want something a little stronger, a meaningful project. One off them is called Las Vegas Daylight , it’s a good idea, however Sam wouldn’t agree (nor would I expect her to) with me travelling out there, staying for six months and doing it properly. In any case I’d become part of the project and end up living in a storm drain until she flew out to rescue me. Instead I’ve been to Vegas around 26 times over the years, week, by week and as good as that is I’m not getting what I want photographically speaking!
At the moment it seems I wander around aimlessly like these lads on a very wet half term holiday:
There’s our normal routine. Dog walks every morning etc and I could probably do a Project on just that. The children are hesitant to join me lately, they get fed up with seeing Bertie running around with some dead animal or other in his mouth. What can I say, he finds things, dogs aren’t out for a lovely morning walk in the country like us even if you think they are…they’re hunting. Okay, Dottie just trots along by your side, Bertie however is on a mission. People buy them little beds, dress them up, pretty bowls to eat and drink from. In reality they drink out of muddy puddles and eat absolutely anything they find. The other day they came back plastered in mud and so we decided to bath them, we don’t often do that, I just hose them off in the garden. Sam found some old towels that belonged to the kids: Dottie got dried off with one depicting ‘Frozen’ princesses and Bertie an ‘Iron Man’ towel. I know… anyway, imagine putting this shot on Instagram or Facebook, not sure the realism would be appreciated!
This wasn’t a week that was lacking any events either, so I can’t use that as an excuse. We had a Storm delivering a deluge of water, soon followed by another Storm that dropped a months rain in 24 hours. That, I might remind you, happened in a country that sees more than its fair share of rain.
The children and I took the bus into Bath for the aforementioned trip to the dentist. I continued to think about abandoned projects and what project I could embark on, what I should have been doing was concentrating on the one I was supposed to be working on. I snapped a few of the kids and half heartedly clicked some ‘Street’ walking up to the dentist to meet my wife:
Quite a while ago I posted on my Facebook page a kind of advert. I was asking if anyone knew of a person or if there were any charities that I could spend some time with. I’d photograph them for free in return for some access. I’d compile a project and possibly a book might result. Initial positive messages turned out not to go very far and so its seems my services aren’t required, even for free!
Nor are they wanted by the kids who are getting older and they don’t like the camera pointing at them. That hasn’t helped with this short project, you creep up on your unsuspecting victim whilst they’re having breakfast and you get “Hey, no photos!”, which is exactly what Louis has just said here:
As a side note: In the evenings we do one of two things with the children. Either we play a game or watch a film together. One game we play is called “Articulate”. Essentially two teams take turns to guess a random word from a card. One person gives clues and the other tries to guess as quickly as possible what it is. The word in this case was “Sacked” (as in from a job). Sam mentioned “job”, “lose your job”, “fired” and Louis looked puzzled until he suddenly decided the word she was trying to get him to guess was…. “Liberated?”. I’m not sure what that says about him or his future!
The film picked last night was “Groundhog Day”. We’ve seen it before, of course, but the children hadn’t. Amélie got it right away. It was about noticing the little things in life, being kind to others, eventually finding happiness and fulfilment. She more or less told me that around twenty minutes in. Louis thought it was great that you could do whatever you wanted for a day and wake up in the morning without any consequences… again, I need to keep an eye on that boy! I’m rambling on here again, but there is a point…
I don’t want to wander around aimlessly. What I need to do is become more liberated, break free from the constraints of Social Media, still post there, but not overshare. I must take even more time to notice the little details and crack on with a project or at least finish one. If I don’t then it’ll be as though I’m in some kind of photographic Groundhog Day. This one isn’t finished, no surprise there. My plans to take the kids out on day trips to the beach expired as soon as we looked out of the window and watched the rain every morning. They’re far too aware of me photographing them nowadays for any indoor shots. On Sunday, to end the half term, we’re taking the children up to London for the day. I could have waited and added it to this blog, but I won’t. I’m going to have a clean sheet. I’ll write that trip up here, I will try to document it in both words and photos, as accurately as I can and with as much attention to detail as possible. It will be a small project that even I can manage, before moving on to something bigger. We’ll see.
Incidentally, most of these shots may appear to be a little underexposed, perhaps they are. In my defence it’s been pretty dark and dreary here, we did get two seconds of sunshine in Bath on that dentist trip though. I was about to ask him if he wanted to sign up to my blog…
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
If you're interested in receiving new Blog Posts via email please subscribe using the box below which is titled ‘The Latest Leica Biker Blogposts Delivered To Your Inbox’