Born to run

January’s theme was running, quite an apt one for the month, seeing as probably quite a few people would’ve taken it up as a New Year’s you-know-what. It was actually quite a fun theme, as I’d see someone running, and would have to react pretty much immediately, with only one chance of getting the picture. Catching people running, rather than out for a run, was more along the lines of what I had in mind, but you really don’t see it that often, unless you stake out a bus stop, in which case I’m sure you’d see it all the time. The guy in the last picture really made me laugh; I saw him miles away coming running towards me, and I turned to face the doorway and meant to take a picture ahead of time to take a light reading, only to have him run past me at exactly that moment, saying “Sorry!” as he did. I love his facial expression and the ducking of his head, which is exactly what people do when they try their best to not walk (run) through someone’s shot. Little did he know that’s exactly what I wanted.

December's theme

Well, December’s theme wasn’t a particularly hard one to pick, as it was IN MY FACE, but I didn’t capture as much of it as I would’ve wanted. There were times when I just didn’t have a camera on me, and then it was the malaise at the holiday itself, creeping ever closer, with me staying at home to avoid the insane crowds, and then finally my little family all catching you-know-what and missing out on the whole shebang. This theme would’ve lent itself well to a zoom lens, but the one I have is unfortunately too huge to lug around. So Santa, you know I don’t like you and all, but if you fancied dropping a small zoom lens off with me for next xmas, I’ll happily accept.

Reflecting

My November theme was reflections, which I thought was going to be easy, but I actually ended up not having much to show for it. For some reason I didn’t want to shoot any pictures with mirrors, which made them much harder for to find (the reflection in the last picture is actually a toilet paper holder). I’m now glad I didn’t, as it leaves mirrors as a future theme 👍🏽

The space in between

I’ve had this month’s theme in my head for years. I’ve noticed the space between buildings, in particular shops, as being a kind of strange no man’s land of ugliness, a space of unsightly cables and sometimes traces of what was before. I took all of these on a walk at the beginning of October, on my way to the shops in my neighbourhood where I had some errands to run. Turns out that was lucky, as I ended up being ill and housebound for three weeks and so couldn’t go out looking for more. It’s not as pretty a theme as red dresses, but it made me see things I’ve never seen before, like all the stickers for shutters or shutter repairs. Who knew? I also can’t believe the lazy dog owner in the third pic, who rather than find a bin, tucked a bag of dog poo behind the pipes on the wall. I shall keep paying attention to these in-between spaces, and also see what they look like in different countries. This is the sort of weirdness that I find interesting 😂