Not to be thrown away!

It always seems a pity that all the boxes get thrown away when we have removed the contents. Obviously a lot of effort has gone into their design. Sometimes this effort just produces a utilitarian box. Sometimes the result is a real visual delight. Sometimes perhaps as a result of the materials used the result is surprising. 

I'm not quite sure into which category this box fits. Made out of corrugated material the chocolate colouring reflected the contents - bars of chocolate given to me by T & S and family. Not only did the contents please me but the box itself provided a challenge to try to capture its texture.

This is just one of the attempts I have made - and I think there must be more possibilities. The box hasn't been discarded and on another day it will come out of storage and who knows what I might see.

Sign of Past Times!

I can almost hear grandchildren asking what this is!

When I was growing up it was a very common place object. 

All members of the family had their own ring
At every meal time when we sat down together our serviette rolled into its silver ring was laid beside our place setting. Even if visitors were present the individual ring marked out where we were expected to be - no argument - that's where your ring is, that's where you are sitting.

This now is my ring. It belonged to my maternal grandfather and I adopted it, as it were, when on marrying my wife came without a serviette ring! Now she has my silver oval ring given to me by friends of the family when I was born.

The two of us still use our rings with serviettes. It's part of the routine of our life - as much as possible we eat at set times of the day and at a rather formally set table. You probably think, how very odd!

Kitchen Wanderings

I really went into the kitchen to see what was happening to the marmalade making. The last time I had popped in the preserving pan had been on the stove with the contents gently bubbling away. This time it looked very much the same! The only difference was that now I had my camera with me!
Looking round for inspiration there was a washed spoon on the plate rack.
Here it is!

It's the box not the contents!

Packages delivered to the door can be quite exciting especially if you don't know the contents. A not quite surprise box arrived last week and among other items was a Panettone! But perhaps I'm the very small boy always more fascinated by the packing, a box this time, rather than the contents. So no hasty ripping apart of the string and cardboard to get at the 'cake' but a study of the quite delightful box.

With a red top and lovely colourful multi strand 'string' - just look at those hairs - this was something I had to photograph. Pity the weather is so wet still and I had to use the kitchen table and available light with quite a high ISO to have any reasonable depth of field, but worth the effort I think.

I'm beginning to get quite a collection now of 'box pictures'. Do I get prints made, do I put them together into a BLURB book, or do I have small collections in something like 14 page concertina type folders?

Not What I Intended!

As seems to be usual these days it was very overcast and grey outside with a blustery wind making it feel colder than it really was.So this afternoon I had decided to investigate the near macro possibilities I could achieve using extension tubes or additional screw on lenses.  A useful hour was in prospect. What I hadn't bargained for was the camera battery being flat, and the back-up as well! A good idea while it lasted!

A photograph of a folded piece of paper came to mind - something I must have seen on one of those photographic websites that I sometimes dip into. No difficulty in finding and folding a piece of A4 paper - a piece that I had already used drafting a bible reading for M. And I've a small selection of glass balls. My Lumix point-and-shoot camera is always at hand so grabbing it I began to experiment.

Lighting is available fixed tungsten spotlights with the paper and ball on my desktop. I've closed the camera lens aperture as much as possible but still had to use ISO 800 and 1/15sec settings - not the best for sharp detailed photos. Nevertheless I wasn't too displeased with this result. With better lighting it's certainly a set-up that I want to come back to again.

Perhaps not the most fruitful of afternoons but at least I have something to show for my efforts.