What Happens on Instagram…

What happens on Instagram doesn’t stay on Instagram. That sounds catchy and cheesy, right? What I mean is that I give you literally what I posted on Instagram last week, continuing in my snap-a-day thingy.

12 March: It’s been raining and the tile on my balcony appears rusty, which is curious, given it’s not even made of metal.

13 March: The skies haven’t fallen yet. Though doom and gloom are constantly impending.

14 March: I lit a candle and it was red and warm and nice.

15 March: Today was the day when I, as every day, made coffee. 

16 March: That’s my cat’s spot. The other day I made the mistake of using the at the moment vacant spot to fold laundry. Bad idea. Now all my laundry is furry.

17 March: Kids are fascinating creatures. They need so little to amuse themselves. These look like Star Wars kids. In the modest conditions of the tenement culture, of course.

18 March: Light, light! I almost loved that, but I don’t have the capacity, obviously.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Favourite

In response to WP Weekly Photo Challenge: Favourite Place.

To be miniaturised is not small-minded.
To love you needs more details than the Book of Kells—
Your harbours, your photography, your democratic intellect
Still boundless, chip of a nation.
—Robert Crawford 

Guess my favourite place!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: More Weathered

In response to WP Weekly Photo Challenge: Weathered.

As per request, here’s another weathered snap from my hometown. I guess now is the place where I provide you with details about the image, what’s in the picture and what the heck it’s all about, alas, I have no idea.

I’m not very home in my hometown. All I know is that this is a detail on the facade of some building or another. Maybe a musician lived there in the Middle Ages, but now it’s a pawn shop. An appropriate downward spiral. Here you go.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weathered

In response to WP Weekly Photo Challenge: Weathered.

I’m fascinated with the American fascination with historical architecture. Where I live, everything is by default ancient, or at least old and weathered. Even the perfectly insignificant and uninteresting small town where I’m currently residing dates back to the twelfth century.

It has all the obligatory medieval props: remains of the city wall, cobblestones everywhere and the plague column. The poor clueless people built it to ward off the plague, rather than building a proper sewer system. Duh.

Toning Down the False Cheer

I went out shooting for a bit today. There’s chronically nothing to shoot around. So I made do with the seasonal enhancements to the village square. I deliberately toned down the bright colours and cheeky glitter in some parts of the photos. To me, this is a more appropriate representation of the season than the false cheer that one is force-fed.

I perceive Christmas as the epitome of falsitude. Whether we view it as an originally pagan or as a Christian celebration, people who are neither ancient pagans nor Christians celebrate it nowadays. I find this extremely puzzling. What I associate most with the season, besides false cheer, is obligation and duty misrepresented as affection and love.

Also, there is seasonal anxiety, pressure, vague disappointment, gnawing aimlessness, deeply felt loneliness, fear of the new year, regrets about the old year, unfulfilment and all that is crap. Along these lines, here are my crappy photos.

Notice the building engravings

Chipped wooden blocks

Ominous sky

False cheer

Colourful bubble

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Scale of the Sunset

In response to WP Weekly Photo Challenge: Scale.

Striking Structures and Textures

I know. This looks like a totally random gallery I threw together when drunk. There’s however a hidden idea! All Most of these pictures have textures, patterns and structures in them, which are quite simple and straightforward and striking. That doesn’t really explain anything. So just take my word for it.

Creepy clouds

Perfectly good Tesco potatoes

I don’t even know where to begin

This is clearly a unicorn

Ok, this is just random

And this is classic!

 

Street Life in a Gritty City

Everything around me seems to be ugly, so I make it into an advantage. You couldn’t shoot this in civilisation. Here’s pretty much a proof that things are falling apart and everyone is dead.

Everyone has clearly died

Let’s build a street on top of a street

Dare you pass through the pass?

Something went wrong here

This house isn’t condemned

Someone actually lives behind this

Urban Grunge: Ugly and Pretty

   Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders.
—Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”

The other day I ventured on a business trip. It was good but the best thing about it was when it ended. It involved getting up at 3:45 am. I normally go to bed at 4:00 am. Yes. As far as my as my zombie condition allowed, I busied myself taking photos from trains and buses. I’m a firm believer in the ugly being pretty when it comes to it.

The sun also rises

Everyone is waiting for something

Low-cost is an euphemism

Industrial periphery

Shot from the train

Steel is my favourite material

Developing Your Eye I: Big and Badass

Part of WordPress’s photography course Developing Your Eye I.

The prompt for today’s shooting venture is really just big but I added badass for extra effect. Another extra of my response is the fact that I actually shot this with a real camera. Sure, on auto, because I suck, but I dragged the DSLR thing out of the depths of the closet and took it for an outing. My first in a year or so. Even more, I shot it in portrait mode, which I otherwise never use for reasons I forgot (but they must have been good). Here’s big and badass on several levels then.