P52 - Water

Ireland is a place not short of water. We are surrounded by it as an island nation. Then of course there's the rain. That endless rain that comes in a soft mist or in torrential downpours with thick cold droplets.

Today P52's theme is water. I have chosen this picture because it perfectly captures Ireland before a rainstorm. The sky is sleet grey & the sea mirrors it.

Please join us for P52 at www.kentweakley.com

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt & Sparkle = Life Remarkable

Perspective

Perspective - Five Minute Friday

It's how I see.  It is my sight.  My line of vision.  

It's what is importnat to me in a scene.  It's that moment that is different by a hair of a second from the next.

It is my way of seeing and then presenting my world.  

My perspective is my interpretation of my vision.

My perspective, is always developing.

Recently I was asked to write about how I take my photographs, the settings I use, the equipment, etc.  The question threw me and for several days.  I wondered, how do I answer that? What is the answer?  Do I have the answer?  Is there an answer?

The answer I came up with was all to do with perspective - yours, mine, someone elses.

If I was to stand with a group of people, we all had the opportunity to take the same picture, with the same settings, the same equipment, none of us would actually take the same picture.  Or leave the process after editing with the same picture.  Every photograph would be varied, a slightly different angle, a tone highlighted, a more prominent shadow, some would be BW, some would be vibrant colour, some would capture that split second moment, that is the money shot, others would be miles out.

This is because of perspective. There may be similarities in how we see the world, but actually our perspectives are different, our sight is different, our vision, our height, what we look for, what catches our eye first in any scene.

Photography is all about perspective.  And, yes of course, we can learn about it.  We can read about it, we can be taught.  We can understand its rules and its principles, we can put them into action.  How we position the camera, how we set it up, how we edit, how we present our images all of this can be learnt.  But there will always be some who innately see things with a different perspective.  Who's interpretation is new, fresh, different.  

It is about vision.  It is instinctive. It is a way to see the world through a lense.  I am not sure that an instinctive nature can be taught.  Yes, it can be improved upon, it can be developed, but that innate ability to pick up a camera and get the shot, the money shot within a matter of moments.  I think that comes from inside us.

Don't get me wrong I am always learning, always stretching my mind, thinking about new ways to see things, questioning how I have seen before, trying new things, looking at new settings, learning and learning and learning, about the technicalities of photography - and they still baffle me at times - trying to improve my vision, working on my perspective.  But my perspective is there, developed over years of taking pictures, years of working with images, years of learning, years of trying, years of studying perspective in art, in design and I still feel I have so far to go, so much to learn. 

So much to see!

What is your perspective - how do you look at things?  Do you think something innate can be taught?

P52 - Mum

I have chosen some of my favourite pictures of mum for the P52 prompt.  The first shot is of her with her mum, the second of my Mums in which I adore the colour and vibrancy which jumps out of the shot and reflects her, and the third is of my mum on the Irish Mother's day, with Sarah, Brian, Roxy & Naomi.

Today I have linked up with The Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday, and with P52, which used to be hosted by Darcy, and is now being hosted by Kent Weakley - I hope you will join us.

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt & Sparkle = Life Remarkable

Always looking at the world, trying to find the story, my per

Cows siesta

Today I am linking up with Darcy's P52 - theme of Siesta.  I took this picture from my hotel window in County Clare.  Why don't you join us here?

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt & Sparkle = Life Remarkable

40 shades of Green

 

 

On Friday's I just love hooking up with Darcy's P52 -this week's theme was green.  Green my national colour and the one thing all visitors remark on when they visit Ireland.

'Nicky, I just can't believe how green it is here.  It is truly amazing.'

Johnny Cash told us in his popular song that Ireland has 40 shades of green.  I think there are so many more shades in my beautiful country.  Ireland - the Emerald Isle.  When I travel, I miss the green of my homecountry, I miss its peace, and sweet scent. 

When Ireland and the UK, are looked at from space, astronauts have remarked on how vibrant the green of the island is.  Even on the dullest days, when light is flat, rain threatens or pours from the heavens, the brilliant green of the grass jumps out and brings a smile.

The colour green has many meanings, these include - praise, eternal life, vigor, prosperity, mercy, restoration, health, healing, new beginning, freshness, God's holy seed, harvest, sowing and reaping, immortality, fresh oil, new life, joy in hope.

 What does green say to you - how does it make you feel as a colour?

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt & Sparkle = Life Remarkable

What Chess teaches us about Sacrifice?

Today's P52 theme is sacrifice. 

Playing chess teaches us a lot about sacrifice.  I remember as a little girl in Primary (grade) school, spending endless lunchtimes playing this marvellous game.  I played with my friend Robert, who's Dad had taught us both to play chess.  We played chess in school, we played at each others houses.

We had games that went on for hours.  Sometimes way past our bedtime, and the board was put away, with the pieces in position, and started up again, the next time we were together.  Othertimes, games were ruthless and over within moments, a casual mistake leading to an immediate checkmate.  Sitting by the fire on cold days, or basking in the hot summer sun.  I even bought a magnetic chess board, and the games continued in the car, in the caravan, on park benches.

Unknowningly as we played we were learning about life, strategy, knowledge, prediction, winners and losers -sacrifice, and war. 

Finding out how far we were prepared to go to win, who we would sacrifice to get there, who was worth sacrificing - a pawn, a rook, a Queen.  These lessons learnt at the chess board were unwittingly grounding for life.  Even today I remember that those that we think are numerous, and not really that important - the pawns - making them easy to sacrifice, can actually be game changers.  Not only on a board but in real life.

I had gone to take photographs of my friend's grandchildren.  When I got there, their Papa was teaching them to play chess, the concentration of their faces, as they struggled with the complexities of the game, was amazing.  I literally had my camera out in seconds, and was taking shots.

Chess is a game, that I feel every child should learn to play.  Sadly I don't play as much as I would like to today, and am I am little rusty, but I look forward to the day when I will play again.

On Friday's I also love to join up with the Gypsymama Lisa Jo, and just write, freestyle for five minutes, today's prompt is goodbye.

I spend so much time saying goodbye.  Getting onto planes, and leaving.  People, I've known for years.  People I have only met. 

Life is sporadic. 

There are wonderful times of celebration when we get together.  Seeing each other after years have passed, only to find, that actually, we could have hung out yesterday.  A wedding in New York.  A trip to the Giants Causeway.  Roadtrips to Donegal.

That connection, that deep friendship is there.  But these brief moments, when it is experienced, that friendship full of shared stories. 

I think of friends across the ocean.  I think of friends across the sea.  I think of friends at the other end of the country.  I think of friends who I rarely get to see.

I think of university ...

Late night trips to the A&G, or walks on the beach at midnight.  Crazy Friday's, and sleep overs.  Driving in my little mark 3 Turquoise Fiesta with its go faster strips, and bullet hole, along twisting country lanes. Singing at the top of our voices to the Marvericks.  Or sitting in silence but for the recorded sound of Jacuqline du Pre's cello.  Heated debates, and opinions.  Lunches that ended at breakfast, two days later.  Long and deep conversations that went on to early light.  Breakfast in the hotel after a night of dancing.  Cooking dinner together.  Trolley's in the street.  Dinner parties.  Seeing how many shots we could do with straight faces.  Smashing plates on our heads - the secret is follow through.  Late night noodles, and canoodles.  Bottle walls, and curries.  Essay crisises, and studying.  Burning the midnight oil.  Any excuse to get dressed up - having a dinner party, well let's make it black tie.  Champage breakfasts.  Ulster Fries for 100 people.

Laughter. Tears. Distance. Death. Friendship. Memories. Space. Time.

How these memories make us laugh. 

We grow older, we move, we travel, we mix it up a bit.  We have new stories. 

We connect online.  We skype. We visit. We write. We email.  We share. We talk on the telephone.

We say hello.

We say goodbye.

Why don't you join me today, either with photographs or writing?

Have a great weekend.

That's it for now...

Nics

Salt and Sparkle = Life Remarkable 

Fooling Around

There is something wonderful about laughter between friends.  A joy to watch, and a blast to photograph, it is infectious.  Today I am linking up with Darcy's P52, with the April appropriate theme of fooling around.  The photographs I have chosen are of my brother Brian, his oldest friend Andrew, and his girlfriend Sarah.  They were all dickied up and ready to go to a wedding, and after a couple of formal shots, the laughter took over, and they started to fool around.  And, I was there to get it all on film. 

We are never too old to simply fool around.

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt and Sparkle = Life Remarkable

Rudy - probably the most intelligent dog that ever lived

The stillness of death lingers in our home.  The kitchen is empty.  

She's not there anymore.  Poking her head into the fridge.  On the look out for tasty morsels.  Standing on my toes.  Slipping her nose into the bread drawer, and sneaking a loaf, when my back is turned.  Following my every move, mirroring my steps.  Standing between the shelf and I, as I knead dough.  Checking out the door of the aga to see if there is anything tasty to nibble on coming out.  Giving me a poke with her nose, when she thought my attention was to focused elsewhere.

Her head doesn't rest on my knee as I sit at the table to read the paper.  Or when I'm eating, she's not there anymore to us her nose to get in under my arm, and knock it upwards, as if to say, 'I'm here Nicky, don't ignore me, what your eating looks good, share some with me.'

In our family there is a gap.  Toby wanders looking for her, and snuggles into us.   He feels our sadness.  He shares our sadness.  His constant companion for 15 years has gone.

Rudy, possibly the most intelligent dog that ever lived passed away this week.  

Abandoned on our doorstep when she was little over days old.  I still remember looking out of the kitchen windon and seeing this little black face head cocked to the side look up at me.  We fell in love with her immediately.

With my brother she was out on the land from dawn to dust.  Travelling on the tractor, sitting on the buggy. She was his shadow.  He trained her to search, and carry, to lie on the ground, as he toiled at it.  They both would come in after days of hard work, to stretch before the fire, the heat caressing their tired muscles.  His heart is heavy.   She was his dog.  This is my favourite photograph I took of them last year in the snow.

Rudy was a hardy little thing, a lab/collie, she had that natural instinct to herd.  So when Coco, my dalmatian would bound along beside her, urging her to play, she wouldn't stand for any nonsense.  She showed who was in charge by a turn of her shoulder there, a quick movement there.  

A boss, a matriach, our friend - she taught us much about love and loyalty.  About comfort.  Like a mindreader she knew our emotions, our feelings, and she sat with us, when we most needed her touch.  

When we would go out for a walk, she would run a head, them come back to ensure that on one was lost or injured, she waited for us to catch up.  Swimming in the ocean, she would join us in the waves, making sure none of us went under.  I remember going for a run one dreary day, and hearing a light panting behind me, I turned round, and there she was.  She had run after me for a mile, just to check I wasn't going to disappear.

When we returned home at any time of the day, she was there to greet us, with a huge smile, and a wagging tail.  After a days shopping she would be sniffing about the boot of the jeep, looking for her dental sticks.  Her favourite treat.  When I returned from anywhere, she would be out to greet me, before my car door was open.

At dinner parties, she would surprise guests by easing herself under the table, and wandering up and down, silently.  Then placing her head on their knee or hand when they would least expect it, hoping, waiting for them to give her a titbit of what they were eating.

She leaves behind endless memories of joy, and peace.  As I remember, I am still, I feel empty, but also so full of joy at having known this amazing dog.  What a gift dogs are. The most faithful, and loyal of companions.

Rudy we miss you, thank you for being our dog.

Tell me about your dog ...

Today I am linking up with the Gypsymama, and My3boybarians P52 - join us?

That's it for now ...

Nics

Salt and Sparkle = Life Remarkable