Justine Gordon Photography: November 2010

Winter rituals - running in the snow

I love running, it is my exercise, my freedom, my time to think. I run with my two dogs off lead through the woods/trails and with them on the lead when I am on the road. I don't run with any music, just the sound of the countryside waking up. I like to go out just as the sun is beginning to rise.

I knew we were going to have a heavy snowfall for the first time last night and when I woke up this morning the ground was covered in a heavy blanket. I perform this ritual every winter, I have to be the first to put my footprints on the first proper snowfall of the year, the dogs race ahead and leave their paw marks and then it is my turn. This morning was like running through my own private wonderland, a few cars passed me on the road but through the woods not a sound, no birds, no other tracks, nothing, just a white carpet and the three of us. I love being at one with nature at this time, and I gave a silent salute to its beauty as I finished my run.

Tomorrow I will have to go to the gym as the roads will become dangerous and icy over the day but I know that my ritual is performed for the year and I have left my mark.

Do you have any winter rituals? do you run in the snow?

Warm soup and cold days

It's snowing outside and a perfect day for a warm bowl of soup. Hope you are all warm where you are. If you are in need of a bit of cheer do head over to A common thread where we are sharing our holiday traditions and having a welcome party.

The Sunday Creative (27th November to 4th December)

Hello everyone, I am hosting the Sunday Creative for Maegan so please join in, I am really enjoying thinking up new creative prompts each week, hope you enjoy them too.

You can use the word in it's literal or figurative sense...do not be bound by traditional implications or definitions of the word...but also don't feel like you have to have some broad and deep interpretation...just go with where you feel the prompt leading you. Your work can be in absolutely any medium!

It is my hope that through these weekly creative prompts that we can all continue to foster creativity, stretch our creative muscles, and grow in our collective creative community!

You will find the week's prompt every week here on Sundays. You can link to your project any time throughout the week. I ask that you only link up once, that you visit and support the other participants, and that this space remains nothing but positive and encouraging of everyone's creativity!

Please link back here and spread the word!

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This week's prompt:

Material

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Material: 1. A textile fabric 2. Materials, the articles or apparatus needed to make or do something. 3. Relating to, concerned with, or involving matter.

Please link to the exact post or image that correlates with your Sunday Creative submission. Also, if there is no mention of The Sunday Creative and the prompt in your post, your link will be deleted. Part of the fun of having weekly prompts is the community and sharing; please visit some of the other submissions and leave them some love!

Kitchen tools

Looking at all the lovely dishes everyone made or ate for Thanksgiving on blogs over the last two days has been wonderful - a fantastic glimpse into other lives and traditions that we just don't celebrate here in England. Seeing so much food made me think of my kitchen tools - it is another grey day so I bumped up the iso and got a nice grainy look!

Macro Friday

Here we are again on a Friday with less than a month to go till Christmas! With the cold setting in I can never have enough matches to light the fire with, as I used them this morning I thought they would make a nice black and white. I'm linking up to Blogging from Bolivia, do join in too.

Thank you!

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in England so it is just another Thursday and life carries on very much as normal, no turkey or pumpkin pie, just boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast.

When I started blogging a few months ago I had no idea about the amazing blogging community, each day I get so excited reading everyone's posts and comments, seeing their pictures, learning from tutorials, and the blogging world has so enriched my life so I would like to say a big THANK YOU today to everyone out there!

I am linking up to the wonderful mortal muses who are having a thankful blog hop, do join in and Happy Thanksgiving.

Puppy dog eyes

Mintie posed beautifully for the camera today, that's because she is lying on my bed on top of my lovely white bedspread. The look she is giving me says it all really, she knows she isn't allowed upstairs or on the bed but I couldn't get cross with her. I am linking up with black and white wednesday today over at the Long road to China, do join in.

Aga

I am struggling with the last few days of photographing only in black and white for November. I had absolutely no inspiration in the garden and as I made my cup of coffee I decided that I would photograph my aga.

For those of you who don't know, an Aga is a very English thing found in quite a few kitchens up and down the countryside. I have a two door one which actually is black and mine is gas fired but you can get a four door one or oil fired one too. My mother had an aga as her only source of heat so I have always grown up with one and love them, I don't have a microwave - just the two heavy plates with lids on top that you lift up - one very hot one that the kettle is on in this picture and one not so hot and one oven that is about 220 degrees and a second one that is about 160. The aga is on constantly and heats the rest of the house, it is also perfect for drying clothes, sleeping dogs to lie against and my mother used to hatch chickens in the bottom oven when I was a child.

Monday morning.

I found one solitary camelia in the garden this morning, I have no other flowers at all, everything has gone to sleep for the winter. I thought it looked pretty floating in a bowl of water.

The Sunday Creative (21st to 27th November)

I am hosting the Sunday Creative for Maegan this week and because the festive season is underway I thought this would be a good word for this week. Hope you enjoy participating.

Welcome to The Sunday Creative! In this space, each week, on Sunday, I will offer a creative prompt; just one word that you can use as kindle for your creative fire in a project which I hope you'll consider sharing here!

You can use the word in it's literal or figurative sense...do not be bound by traditional implications or definitions of the word...but also don't feel like you have to have some broad and deep interpretation...just go with where you feel the prompt leading you. Your work can be in absolutely any medium!

It is my hope that through these weekly creative prompts that we can all continue to foster creativity, stretch our creative muscles, and grow in our collective creative community!

You will find the week's prompt every week here on Sundays. You can link to your project any time throughout the week. I ask that you only link up once, that you visit and support the other participants, and that this space remains nothing but positive and encouraging of everyone's creativity!

Please link back here and spread the word!

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This week's prompt:

Indulge

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Indulge: 1. To yield to, satisfy, or gratify. 2. To yield to the wishes or whims of; be lenient or permissive with. 3. To allow oneself to follow one's will.

Saturday morning

It is a cold bleak grey saturday morning here in England so I put my ISO up to 6400 (the first time I have used the highest setting) to take this picture of my hydrangeas that have been drying inside. Hope you are all having a nice weekend.

Macro Friday

It's friday again so do check out other entries at blogging from Bolivia. I took this macro of the reeds at the edge of the stream in my garden, at the moment they are all linked by a series of intricate spider webs.

Christmas preparations

People keep telling me they are cooking and preparing things for Christmas now, I wish I was that organised but I prefer the last minute method. I'm not actually cooking today, I just thought the eggs, bowl and whisk looked nice together - waiting for something to happen.

I wish it was summer...

I keep seeing this hat on the peg just waiting for a hot sunny day, not long to go now... I know I should embrace winter for all that it brings and I do, it's just I prefer the heat of summer. I just want to hibernate now under thick woolly blankets and not get up in the morning in the dark, doesn't everyone feel like this or is it just me? It's also black and white Wednesday at the long road to China, do check out other entries.

Party time

We got an invitation to a Christmas party last night and of course I was more excited about the fact that it would be a good prop for photographing! Once I took it out of the envelope in opened out to silhouettes of a ballerina, a singer, a rap dancer and a waltzing couple, all so pretty and perfect for black and white. Do you get excited when you can see a picture potential in things?

Monday morning.

My Queen Anne's lace has a few flowers left on it but the frost came overnight.

The Sunday Creative (14th to 20th November)

I am hosting the Sunday Creative for Meagan this week, hope you enjoy it, do please join in.

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This week's prompt:

Lonely

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Lonely: 1. lone; solitary; without company, companionless. 2. remote from places of human habitation. 3. standing apart; isolated.

Reflections

A few people seemed to think that I had put my tape measure on a mirror to photograph and so commented on the reflection, I hadn't actually done this, it was just bits of the tape measure sitting on top of each other but it did make me think about reflections so this morning I took a picture with the vase and fruit basket in front of the mirror and managed to also get a reflection of the window and sofa in too. I am sure it would be much more vibrant in colour but at the moment I am sticking to black and white as it is November and again I used a high ISO so lots of grain. I do love experimenting don't you?

Macro Friday

It's friday again, the weeks go by so quickly don't you think? I took a picture of my tape measure for macro friday at blogging for Bolivia - do check out other great submissions.

Pears

We have gale force winds blowing outside at the moment and it's very dark so I decided to experiment more with changing my ISO and using natural light. I put these pears in front of the window and set my ISO on 5000, I did try photographing them on my highest ISO which is a whopping 6400 but that set the histogram off too much so I dropped it down to 5000. With a high ISO comes a lot of background 'noise' or grain, but in black and white I like it as it gives that sort of 60's film effect.

Life through a different lens.

We have had these binoculars for so many years, they are lovely and old and worn and come in a leather case that has mellowed with age and years of hanging off someone's shoulders. They were used a lot for horse racing a few years ago but not only tend to come out when I remember to get them to study the heron sitting in the tree or to watch the bunny rabbits eat my garden.

Planting hyacinths

Today Lisa is hosting the fabulous creative exchange and this morning I finally planted my hyacinths so I thought I would share how to do that with you as my creative exchange.

My bulbs have been lying around in the shed since last year and already they are sprouting little green shoots so I am a bit late with this but what I do is I find all the containers I can from around the house, anything will work - planters, pots, urns, tea cups, bowls, soup tureens - the list is endless and my favourite is the wooden wine boxes we get from the wine shop. I line the bigger containers with black plastic and then fill up with potting mix/bulb fibre.

I then plant my hyacinths or jonquils or daffodils and leave the tips just showing out of the soil. I then give them all a good water and leave in a cool dark place, water regularly, and move inside once the first shoots start showing. This should give you a wonderful house full of scents and colours for just before Christmas.

Monday morning.

It is such a grey day today and my sundial won't be working today as it sits in an ever increasing puddle of water. Hope you are having a bit of sun where ever you are today.

The Sunday Creative (7th to 13th November)

I am hosting the Sunday Creative whilst Meagan is taking a short break, do please join in, hope you enjoy it.

It is my hope that through these weekly creative prompts that we can all continue to foster creativity, stretch our creative muscles, and grow in our collective creative community!

Please link back here and spread the word!

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This week's prompt:

Aspiration

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Aspiration 1. Strong desire, longing or aim; ambition. 2. A goal or objective desired. 3. Act of aspirating; breath.

Saturday morning

We are surrounded by ladders and paint pots and colour charts at the moment as we repaint the house. Why are there so many different shades of white out there? Today is a much needed day off.

Macro Friday

As it's Friday it has to be macro friday over at blogging for Bolivia. Since I am on day five of black and white November my antique candlesticks are of course in black and white, it is quite hard to deliberately not choose colour at the moment. If anyone fancies joining the flickr group here is the link - it's all good fun and no pressure.

Shoes

My husband's shiny smart shoes were lined up waiting to go to work this morning!

Black and White Wednesday

It's black and white wednesday again at the Long Road to China. I was doing the ironing this morning and decided this shirt would make a good subject. Do check out other fantastic entries.

Doorway to the Cathedral

I am lucky enough to live near Canterbury Cathedral and thought it would be a perfect place to start my black and white journey but sadly the tourists blocked the way and so I just got a quick shot of the doorway but I will try again in a couple of days.

November in Black and White

I decided that because there are quite a few people interested in making November black and white, that I would start at flickr group - I'm not very good at working out how to send invites from flickr etc so if you are interested could you send me an email and I will then send you an invitation? There is no pressure in this flickr group, just a place for your pictures and a chat if you feel you want to but that's ok if you don't.
Day 1 of my black and white November is of course another flower...I am determined to move to people and architecture! these are the remains of my spider plant, only seeds and tendrils left after a wonderful summer display.