Tag: still life

Art Imbricated

N Michigan Avenue, Chicago

These planters with sculptural plastic flowers in among the real flowers surrounded the base of one of Chicago’s iconic skyscrapers, the Hancock Building, if I rightly remember.

Trees and Chairs

West 57th Street, New York

In this waltz through the archive of September pictures we’ve now arrived at 2009, a mere 14 years ago. In the course of this archival stroll we’ve advanced from a 5MP digicam to a 6MP DSLR (Konica Minolta 7D) and now to the 12MP Nikon D300. At the time, each one felt an important step, now I find it hard to pay attention to each new year’s technical refinements.

Netting

Poughkeepsie, New York

From September 2008. I just finished reading Teju Cole’s Blind Spot a week or so ago. This feels like the kind of picture that might have been found in that book, though it lacks his mordant, poetic observations.

Chair

Brightwells Yard, Farnham, UK

Nothing much going on here. I was struck by the sharp shadows and the combination of modernist shapes and lines with the wood grain and plant shadows so, of course, I had to see what it would look like in a photograph.

Flowerbox

South Street, Farnham

A nice thing about Farnham is there are lots of flower boxes all over. I’m no sure who maintains them, I guess the council, but there’s always a profusion of colour everywhere you go. This box is on a little bridge over the River Wey about a block or two from my flat.

Mirrored Globe

Farnham Hospital

The NHS sent me for an annual blood test at the local hospital. Outside I found this sculpture surrounding a mirrored globe in the car park. I’m not sure what it’s about but I had to see what it would look like in a photograph.

Lobby Lights

Brightwells Yard, Farnham

The lobby of my block of flats has these modernist lights suspended from the 1st floor (that’s the 2nd floor for Americans). I took a couple of pictures of them from the stairwell about halfway between. Both images are in colour but I’ve shifted the colour balance to make them match better.

Brightwells Yard, Farnham

Back Home

Farnham, UK

Back home after our travels in July and this spore or floral frame was hanging by a single, unseen thread of spider silk from the side of the window. I watched it for days, blowing in the wind but not blowing away. Finally, one morning I opened the window wide, reached up and grabbed it by the thread. I then had the greatest difficulty detaching it and the still unseen spider thread from my finger and placing it on the window sill, in the stark sunlight, beside the shadow cast by a mint plant. Below is another shot I took of it by itself (with its shadow) using a 60mm macro lens.

Farnham to Paris

Farnham train station
hotel room view, Paris
rainy day on the EuroStar to Paris

We got home from Edinburgh on a Friday evening. Monday morning we set off for London and then on to Paris for a few days, where 25-years earlier we had celebrated our honeymoon.

The train home from Edinburgh

from the train window, Edinburgh to London King’s Cross

Thus ends our trip to Scotland. Below, a few snaps of the train journey to London and then on to Farnham, either through or reflected in the train windows. Click any of them to see them full sized (you may need to click the post title first if that doesn’t work and you’re seeing this in an email or on social media).

Arthur’s Seat

Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh

The next day we climbed up Arthur’s Seat, a volcanic hill that is part of Holyrood Park. Click any of the pictures below to see scenes of our ascent full sized (you may need to click the post title first for this to work if you’re seeing this in email or on social media).