December 31, 2006
and perfect light

wavewatcher, pier, cromer/polaroid spirit CL

2007 is on the horizon.
may it bring you clear skies, and placid seas, and serenity.
*
happy new year!

Posted by lynn at 09:29 PM | Comments (10)
December 30, 2006
let it rain

approaching rain, suffolk/nikon FE

“after rain comes rained. look in the dictionary”
- loesje (dutch fictional character "active and international girl", b.1983)

i confess: i cross my fingers for inclement weather as new year's eve creeps closer.
cacophany is not my cup of tea.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 06:26 PM | Comments (3)
December 29, 2006
roses are reddish

step and winter violets, grootschermer/bronica SQ-A

my lovely daughter, in an impulsive attempt to help me over one of the halfway hurdles, promised: if i made it through my planned month of thirty-one postings, she would update her own website every single day in january.
*
bless her.
it will be better than a daily bunch of blossoms, a whole month long.

Posted by lynn at 08:33 PM | Comments (4)
December 28, 2006
the book and the cover

bench decoration, alston/nikon FE

he tossed his moth-eaten black cloak, and then himself, onto the seat across the aisle
from me, adjusted his enormous earphones, and turned up the heavy-metal-volume as high as it could go.
i sighed audibly - someone else's bass is my bane - and, gathering up my things, i
headed for the coupé door.
"ma'am?" he ventured. "may i ask why you're leaving?"
"you may", i answered, less curtly than i intended, partly bacause he had used the
polite form of "you". "it's sunday morning. i'd like a little quiet."
"then why didn't you just ask me to turn it down?" he asked.
i explained, wearily, that requests of that nature generally elicit aggressive responses, which are no fun on a sunday morning, either.
"oh!" he cried. "but i'm not an aggressive person at ALL!"
i sat back down.
he lowered the volume.
a few awkward minutes passed.
"i actually ha-have quite eclectic tastes in music", he volunteered.
a few more minutes passed.
"so do i." i smiled.
by the time the conductors came controlling tickets, he had relocated to my side of the carriage, and was confiding his talents, his passions, and his plans for the day, and he stammered enthusiastically, to everyone within earshot, "oh, we are ha-having such an enthra-thralling conversation!"
they laughed, and so did i, but sheepishly:
i had jumped to conclusions, and allowed first impressions to mislead me.
i should have known better.
tsk.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 10:37 PM | Comments (6)
December 27, 2006
and joy is their reward

olde tyme sweets, hunstanton/nikon FE

“friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
- kahlil gibran (lebanese-born philosophical essayist, novelist and poet, 1883-1931)

i gambled on the gift; it was small, and sentimental, and very personal.
it pleased.
oh, yes:
giving is much better than receiving.

Posted by lynn at 07:43 PM | Comments (4)
December 26, 2006
a tisket, a tasket

baskets, upper canada village, 1974/praktica LTL

my futile forage through the attic in search of errant christmas crackers uncovered
this: a photograph taken in 1974, at upper canada village, during an outing with my college photography class. it was shot with my first camera, a praktica LTL, and, although i probably cajoled a course-mate into developing the negatives (self-
confidence was not my strong point; the mere thought of doing something wrong and ruining my pictures terrified me), i remember printing it all-by-myself.
i might compose - or crop - it slightly differently these days, but contrast like this still
fills me with delight, and makes me wish i could remember which film i used.

Posted by lynn at 02:40 PM | Comments (8)
December 25, 2006
with a star on top

snowflake, amsterdam, double exposure/great wall DF-2

may your christmas - or whatever you celebrate - be bright!

Posted by lynn at 11:05 AM | Comments (8)
December 24, 2006
running the lights

christmas in august, hoorn/canonet QL17 GIII

believe it or not, it was august when i took this photograph: a sidestreet surprise on a sultry summer day. my bare arms - for i am very vaguely visible - betray the season.
i remember thinking, then, of christmas, and how far away it seemed.
and now it's here.
almost!

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 05:02 PM | Comments (3)
December 23, 2006
the prize of the upward call

slippery dip, hunstanton/polaroid spirit 600CL

and lo, behold: december has skimmed by, swiftly, smoothly; a new year is just
beyond the rise.
it was, perhaps, a silly, spur-of-the-moment little resolution - this posting daily - but it has done me good; and here i am in the home stretch, with a festive finish in sight.
it should be an easy glide from here.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 08:17 PM | Comments (4)
December 22, 2006
wondrous familiar

brian, march/nikon FE

"let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who
make our souls blossom.”
- marcel proust (french novelist and author, 1871-1922)

those mornings - every morning - we stood companionably in the chairless kitchen, sipping makeshift lattes and waiting for the toast to brown; we watched the man-next-door tend his greens beyond the steamy window; we decided where - more or less - to go, which cameras to take there, and which film to feed them with.
those mornings - every morning - we crossed our fingers for sun, checked the door three times, and smiled wryly at how everyday routine - transformed by simple friendship - becomes a dearly cherished ritual.

Posted by lynn at 05:15 PM | Comments (7)
December 21, 2006
like the first morning

bicycle stands, bergen aan zee/leica m6

a few months back, i sat beside a man, a colleague, for an hour or two.
he was tough, and gruff, and very nice; he had a dozen tattoos.
he coughed a lot.
today, he died, 50 years old.
*
for many, this christmas will be rough, and raw with loss.
my heart goes out.

Posted by lynn at 09:34 PM | Comments (4)
December 20, 2006
floating through the blue

roof and clouds, broek op langedijk/ricoh Gr1s

“happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length”
- robert frost (american poet, 1874-1963)

this is - sigh - a little post, with a lofty picture.
and a lot of italics.
it's been a long day.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 08:26 PM | Comments (8)
December 19, 2006
deckled edges

picnic in barrie, 1954

most of the old family snapshots tucked into my mother's letters are warmly familiar, but this one - which arrived not long ago - was a revelation to me.
i (perhaps because i had never seen it before) find it intensely intricate, and moving: beyond the homely length of checked tablecloth, the spacious sweep of lakeshore, and
the tidy piles of melamine dishes, i see the concentration on my mother's face, and the total trust and adoration in mine. i am stirred by the delicate curve of her slender arms, and her tousled hair, by her innocent determination to do things the right way, and by her sheer and utter youth.
i have no memory of this her - i was just three - but this insight into this her delights,
and touches me.

Posted by lynn at 10:20 PM | Comments (9)
December 18, 2006
sancho and me

kop van noord-holland/yashica electro GSN

"much water goeth by the mill that the miller knoweth not of”
- proverb

i'm taking the easy way out tonight: i spent all day following a computer training (my eyes are now square, as we say here) and my lovely daughter in canada could do with
a long-overdue pre-christmas email.
this, in case you wonder, is my screen saver, and has been for over a year. the calm pleasure it instills in me has me suspecting that i am even fonder of this flat little country, this home-away-from-home, than i ever thought i could, and would be.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 09:08 PM | Comments (3)
December 17, 2006
a level of sagacity

patient, cromer, norfolk/nikon FE

this - on a lazy december sunday - is for bob, who loves dogs (especially his lainey), and who gave me some excellent advice the week before last.
thank you, mr. smith.
i took it.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 08:02 PM | Comments (2)
December 16, 2006
against all odds

the old neighbourhood, alkmaar/ricoh gr1s/svemapan 130, exp. 1968

i mentioned this film - grungy old svemapan, expired almost 40 years ago - once before, and i may mention it again: i am so taken with its endurance of the decades.
in whimsical moments, i perceive these coils of celluloid as wise, wizened gentlemen, deemed done-for, disproving preconceptions and sell-by dates: they climb mountains, they swim seas and cycle into suburban sunsets.
in realistic moments, i know that i was just lucky - and am lucky, for there are two
more rolls waiting to surprise me.

Posted by lynn at 10:37 PM | Comments (4)
December 15, 2006
into temptation

canada geese, cambridge/nikon FE

it was mid-afternoon when we arrived in cambridge, and we had just managed a short stroll and several frames of film before i - tsk! - got waylaid: by the sensuality of lush,
by the nostalgia of marks and spencer, by the allure of next and monsoon.

path, cambridge/nikon FE

we got back on track, eventually, but by then the day had dimmed, and the shutter speeds - as you can see - got slower and slower.
and slower.
taking a shopper like me into a city for a photo shoot is a risky undertaking indeed.

Posted by lynn at 09:09 PM | Comments (3)
December 14, 2006
where the heart is

beach huts, southwold/polaroid spirit CL

this house of ours needs a name, rather like snuggly toys need names, although my daughter has always called her beloved little bear "bear", and i'm not sure that "house"
would be the most inspiring choice for a one-hundred-year-old-former-post-office in
broek op langedijk.
"you could always call it 'dunroamin'", chortled my english companion as we strolled the southwold seafront, where the beach huts glow with a unique individuality. his irony escaped me, for what do i know of british banality and clichés?
*
i'm perplexed.
"finally!", perhaps?

*larger here.

Posted by lynn at 09:07 PM | Comments (6)
December 13, 2006
best left to matadors

red house, red mailbox, durgerdam/canonet QL17 GIII

"when in doubt, wear red.”
- bill blass

if i can achieve twelve, i can achieve thirty-one.
yes.
yes, i can.
*
(and may i say: i am filled with admiration for those who do this all the time.)

Posted by lynn at 07:56 PM | Comments (5)
December 12, 2006
the fool on the hill

country road,norfolk/nikon FE

i'm in a bit of a dip.
i'll be fine.
tomorrow.

Posted by lynn at 07:16 PM | Comments (5)
December 11, 2006
and half a dozen to take away

donuts, blackpool/great wall df-2

they came cream-filled, double-chocolate-dipped, sprinkled with sweetness; they came delicately puffed and powdered. sometimes they came simply - and beautifully - plain, and pure.
they were set before me. i tasted; i feasted. i swept morsels - discreetly - to the side of
my plate, and later - replete - i wondered which had pleased me most, and knew how little it really mattered.

Posted by lynn at 08:04 PM | Comments (4)
December 10, 2006
or what you will

from last christmas, burnham market/nikon FE

we selected our tree today, and, as i sorted bluespruce finery and untangled knots of
fairy lights, i realised that the picture i featured here last christmas is the one-and-only digital image that i have posted in the past year.
a festive house fills me with joy.
and - oh, my, yes - so does film.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 07:40 PM | Comments (5)
December 09, 2006
sweet sweet music

bar, pier, blackpool/nikon FE

sometimes, camera poised, composing, coaxing an image into clarity, i am conscious
of a melody, a lyric: what i hear by what i see, and feel - the soundtrack of my own
perception.
this past september, on the blustery blackpool pier, i saw the sign, the building, and the
sky. i loved the colours; i lined up the verticals, and, metering, hummed, "just before
our love got lost, you said: i am as constant as a northern star, and i said: 'constantly in the darkness, where's that at? if you want me, i'll be in the bar'.."
i couldn't find the joni mitchell version (my favourite) - not a bloggable one, anyhow;
i'm rather hopeless at things like that - but the diana krall version will do nicely.

Posted by lynn at 07:28 PM | Comments (6)
December 08, 2006
that light we seek

churchyard, burnham market/minolta autocord

"do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. let the days
own trouble be sufficient for the day."
- samuel butler

i was going to write:
"i have grave misgivings about the feasibility of daily posting"...
but that would be a poor pun indeed.

so i won't.

Posted by lynn at 09:39 PM | Comments (6)
December 07, 2006
in the air i rose, singing

along the promenade, hunstanton/minolta autocord

he was a traveller, back then, he tells her.
she nods.
she knows.
he was a traveller, back then, he says, and his tone is wistful, as he recalls a life astride the wind and the wide world, and watches the waves from the seawall's lee.

Posted by lynn at 05:05 PM | Comments (3)
December 06, 2006
approach with caution

lonely cactus, holt, norfolk/nikon FE

the nice people at thesaurus.com understand exactly how i feel today:
"bad-tempered, bearish, bitchy, captious, choleric, contrary, cranky, critical, cross, crotchety, crusty, difficult, disagreeable, dour, grouchy, grumpy, huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, irascible, irritable, morose, obstinate, ornery, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, snappish, sour, stuffy, testy, vinegarish, vinegary, wrinkly"
they are very perceptive.
a circuitous route might be advisable.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 07:39 PM | Comments (6)
December 05, 2006
O2B@C

southwold, seen from the pier/nikon FE

"any way you want it to be, that's just right."
- bob ross (american painter and television presenter, 1942-1995)

this scene would seem to have been watercoloured - or photoshopped - into
nostalgic surreality, but neither is true: even i was surprised at the way the negative scanned.
as my friend j. astutely remarked, it rather resembles a hand-painted edwardian
picture postcard - apt, southwold being the charming old-fashioned suffolk seaside town that it is - and, as he even more astutely reassured me (aware of my conviction that nothing can outglow the simple truth), it totally conveys the feel, the colours, the
magic palette of that fine october day.
and he should know.
he was there.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 06:28 PM | Comments (6)
December 04, 2006
how fickle, how fine

rainy café tables, hofplein, alkmaar/nikon FE

in the early hours of today, feeling low, just home from a late shift, i perceived this as a patently pertinent picture: it had poured non-stop since this month began.
i just awoke, however, to a crisp bright blueness that rather contradicts an image of
café tables in the rain; this is december, though, and this is the netherlands, so by the time i'm dressed for work it may be totally appropriate once more.

Posted by lynn at 12:55 PM | Comments (3)
December 03, 2006
the truth of tenderness

a queen's lace, wijk bij duurstede/great wall df-2

"she gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
and humble cares, and delicate fears;
a heart, the fountain of sweet tears;
and love, and thought, and joy."
- william wordsworth (english romantic poet, 1770-1850)

oh, my.
could it be said any more sublimely?

Posted by lynn at 01:11 PM | Comments (8)
December 02, 2006
serendipity-on-sea

four from hunstanton/minolta autocord

the abandoned amusement park appeared before us, suddenly, in the sunshine, as we strolled the hunstanton seafront; and, although the norfolk coast is anything but a visual desert, we exulted, like thirsty travellers stumbling upon a shimmering photographic oasis, and took our fill.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 01:01 PM | Comments (6)
December 01, 2006
unheeded flew the hours

harbour, hoorn/canonet QL17 GIII

i totally missed nablopomo, (unlike the likes of jen and marilyn) and i don't consider myself a true blogger anyhow, but i need a challenge, even if it is december, and i have hundreds of photographs that may never see the light of day otherwise.
do i have the words, though? will i have the words? thirty-one days worth?
we'll see, my lovelies.
we'll see.

*larger here

Posted by lynn at 07:13 PM | Comments (7)






Search




links
my inspiration

flickr
my flickr

archives
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
recent entries
and perfect light
let it rain
roses are reddish
the book and the cover
and joy is their reward
a tisket, a tasket
with a star on top
running the lights
the prize of the upward call
wondrous familiar