Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

Just a few short months after we met, my wife-to-be and I escaped for a week on the Isle of Skye. Skye is as beautiful as you might imagine, although if you are planning a trip around September, make sure you take plenty of spare clothes and waterproofs.

We took the ferry to Raasay, a small island between Skye and the mainland one Sunday. It seemed…quiet. Which was wonderful. We seemed to have the whole place to ourselves. What I hadn’t realised, was the religious traditionalism that is woven into everyday life on the west coast islands included shutting everything on a Sunday. We did eventually find a hotel to get some food at, but if we’d wanted a go on the swings…

No Playing on a Sunday

Still

My wife and son are away visiting Mémé during the school holiday, and I have a weekend to myself. Autumn is here, and I wander out into the garden, with the intention of tidying up and catching up with odd jobs.

It is so still, so quiet. Normally, the garden is full of noise and movement. Nola tending to her plants, Cameron chasing his friends around or jumping on the trampoline, the air full of shrieks and laughter.

Today is so still.

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Interference

Interference
I was skimming through my early photos in Lightroom, and came across the first image I made with my first digital SLR (a Canon EOS 300D in 2004, for those who are interested).

The thing I remember most was the immediacy of the experience. No waiting to finish the film, no processing in a dark room smelling of chemicals. Click – and there it was, on the back of the camera.

The second thought that struck me was that the immediacy of digital can affect the experience in negative ways, as well as positive. There was a period when the ability to capture an image without consequence of cost or effort meant I didn’t think through what I was trying to achieve as much as I had with film.

We live and learn.

While I still shoot film for enjoyment sometimes (there is definitely a different feel to film, that no amount of digital post processing can accurately emulate), I wouldn’t want to go back.