Evergrey

Without any warning I've come down with a cold today. Nothing too bad but I thought better of going for a run and decided instead to take a walk to Northcliffe Park at lunchtime. I needed some headspace again. Walking is great for thinking. I have a few gritty shots in the can but I feel the need to post something pretty tonight to cheer myself up. I have blipped this tree before, last March, in very different conditions. I look on all that snow quite enviously now, wondering if we're actually going to get a proper winter this year?

Over the weekend, preparing the house to be put on the market, I became acutely aware of how little impinges on my awareness at home. Trying to see the house through the fresh pair of eyes of a prospective buyer it was quite shocking to notice so much that was falling apart and in need of basic repair. All that has been filtered out of my perception through a combination of constancy and necessity. I haven't had the time nor energy to do anything about it so my mind hasn't even allowed me to see it.

I'm sure the same applies to most people as they go about their lives. Our brains are programmed to detect change. Travelling the same way to work everyday we soon filter out our surroundings because there is little change from day to day. What blipping has done for me, and I'm sure it applies to most of us here, is that the need to find a photo each day has forced me to become far more aware of what's going on around me. And that has evolved further, through my love of black and white photography, to be always on the lookout for pattern and texture in the environment. I've relearned how to see.

This shot was nice enough straight out of the camera, but by removing the colour and emphasising the patterns and textures here, I believe it becomes transformed. In a bizarre way, which I can't really explain, this shot captures what I 'saw' at the time far better than the colour version. The change provided by the conversion to mono encourages the mind to engage more deeply with the image. I still find the process quite fascinating.

PS I've spawned a demon! And I now feel compelled to do the honourable thing and tell Wharfedale Bex (my precocious blip-daughter) that she is Mr.John's auntie! I've a very eccentric blip family. I feel quite proudly patriarchal about them all!!