Spotlight On An Ordinary Day

There’s nothing quite like volunteer work is there?  Today I sat/lay for a student while she learnt how to apply eyelash extensions!    I woke up to the pitty patter of rain drops on the bedroom window this morning, this did not auger well, but I manned up and decided to embrace the day!  Good inspiration for the 6^th day of my 365 day Challenge, turns out it was the automatic irrigation system, but never one to be discouraged I made my first photograph right there and then, the wet window pane and a drop or two on the handle.

The extension excercise extended until almost midday which put me behind schedule, my visions of doing a self portrait with the new lashes didn’t happen as I spent the afternoon in a nostalgic mood sifting through old photographs.   How photography has changed. The quality, size, developing techniques and the paper used hasn't really stood the test of time, but then, it could've been our budget at the time. Might even have been my old Instamatic.

Small, blurry and faded pictures of my children growing up, fortunately my memory took the best pictures and the photographs are just a reminder and a pulling together of memories.     I loved looking back to what I thought at the time was a “Kodak moment”, they don’t have much “artistic” value but they certainly made me smile and laugh out loud.  The joys of just digging them out of the Kist, seeing them raining out of the old albums is nostalgic and makes me wonder whether our grand-babies will have the privilege of having printed photographs when they grow up.  I have bags of negatives, do I keep them for prosperity I wonder?

This nostalgia on a Throwback Thursday reminded me of a beautiful photograph I have of my Aunt taken in 1954 at the Kenilworth racecourse in Cape Town.   It was published in the Cape Time and she managed to find a copy which I have.  The quality is superb, thick beautiful paper, ink which maintained its colour and quality for all these years.   Just goes to show some things were better in the olden days.

I like to have an idea in my head about what I’m going to shoot and today I didn’t, so as the sun was setting I dashed around looking for something to shoot.  First choice was my Canon Macro lens 100mm; it’s fast, has good Aperture and gives a different perspective.

Necessity is the Mother of invention so I used my tri-pod and a very slow shutter speed when I poured water into a glass bowl, first added dishwashing liquid, that didn’t work, then added Olive oil, drops of Glyserine and used a few crayons underneath the bowl for the background.    When all else failed I grabbed three different nail varnishes added a few shakes, gave it all a good stir and took some shots on a really slow shutter speed. I’m no Jackson Pollock but I like the effect, colour range and patterns.  As he said “It doesn’t matter how the paint is put on, as long as something is said.”  Jackson Pollock.

So with extended lashes I agree with Coco Chanel who said “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.”  I wonder whether wishes come true if you wish on a false eyelash? Two have just sailed down like feathers onto my keyboard.  I'd hate to look like a burnt-out drag Queen in the morning.