30 Days of Perception (3): 'Encounter' - days 26-30

This is the sixth and final post in the 'Perception' series. Earlier posts, including explanation of the project, are here(1), here(2), here(3), here(4) and here(5).


Day 26 - Change (especially watching things changing over time; specifically, within a day, watching the light change, for instance)

Some years go I did a year's project like this, when I went at the beginning of each month to the same place (in my now often-mentioned local park!) and took a photo - as in the collage, left.



And I've taken many sunset photos from the west-facing windows of my house . . . but I've never consciously and deliberately tracked the light through the day. I'm sure I've noticed it, just in the ordinary business of daily life, but I haven't focussed on it.







So, today I've taken frequent photos, looking west, from my upstairs window. It's been a cold day, so I haven't unlocked and opened the window each time - the photos are taken through the glass of the double-glazed window. They look over the clutter of the allotments to the houses opposite, and take in the occasional aeroplane or bird.

Day 27 - Rhythm

The email with this prompt pinged into my phone just as I was getting onto a train to London. As the physical sway and the da-da-da-daaa sound of the train filled my senses I wondered how on earth any of that translated into a visual rhythm that could become a photograph. My destination was the British Library where there is currently a special exhibition, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: art, word, war. Once I was inside the galleries I was surrounded not only by ancient texts but also by ancient artifacts and manuscript illuminations . . . full of scrolls, spirals and knots (these patterns are often popularly called 'Celtic'). Here was enough visual rhythm to fill any number of photographs . . . which, of course, were not allowed, given the fragile state of the ancient books and manuscripts. So, on the way out I bought a postcard of one of the items and here is a photograph of the postcard! It's the tooled leather cover of the oldest intact European book - St Cuthbert Gospel, early 8th century.

Day 28 - Wonder

The weather here has suddenly turned from very cold, dry and crisp to much milder, but very wet and windy. This seems to have triggered the winter indoor migration of tiny creatures looking for somewhere to hole up. This morning there was a crane fly in my bathtub and when I came downstairs there was a spider trying to make its way up my kitchen wall. I watched it for some time - the washable paint on the wall seemed to be giving it problems and it kept on slipping down and climbing up again. After a few minutes it became clear that it was heading for the shadow and shelter behind my wall clock . . . and shortly after I took this photo, it succeeded and disappeared from sight.

Day 29 - Interdependence

It just so happened that this afternoon I had an Outpatients' appointment at my local hospital. The department receptionist booked me in and notified the technician that I had arrived. The technician discovered that there was a problem with what she thought was supposed to happen. A colleague of hers sorted it out. I was supplied with a piece of kit to use for two weeks, and she explained its operation to me. Engineers somewhere had designed this piece of equipment, someone had manufactured it, someone else maintained it, UK taxpayers paid for it . . . for a split second I wondered about asking the technician if I could take a photograph of her, but settled for taking a photo, later when I got home, of the heartbeat monitor and record sheet that they had supplied me with:

Day 30 - Wholeness

It's November 30th, tomorrow is the first day of meteorological winter. It's a mild bright day and I'm outside, gardening, engaged in what I regard as an end-of-season clear-up . . . but that's just my opinion! The plants have already started their next cycle - seeds, flowers, buds, shoots: