Mono Monday - "Three"

For Mono Monday, hosted by the uber talented Rainie.

Firstly - may I thank all who commented etc on my first ever bee shot, let alone blipped, yesterday. I was being highly ironic and light humoured about it all especially about me finally undertaking a "normal" subject etc. A couple of you might not have understood my meaning - it was in fact some of you very guys who took much good humour in telling me that traipsing around at 4 in the morning shooting bingo halls in the middle of the road, as being, shall we say, not exactly usual, so I was merely extending that humour.

Now! - Mono Monday - This is the very first time in over 18 months of Blipping that I have partaken in any challenge. Nothing against them at all, but I always had plenty of ideas and have never missed a Blip or come up with something.

Mono Monday's seem to be undertaken by many of those I subscribe to but I always forget until it's too late and have something else. I will also most probably go with something else if I've travelled or got something significantly better, which I know, isn't hugely sportsmanlike...

Skint from Saturday's day out in London and still a bit tired from the same and with weather that is as dull as a dirty dishcloth, I had a clean slate. A mono, especially with "three", meant plenty of easy connotations.

My excuse for a walk was via the Industrial Estate about a mile and half away, where all the big retail warehouse stores are. B&Q, as anyone in the UK knows, is piled high with tat, er, I mean, quality goods for everything in DIY. I took along the macro lens I used yesterday, to perhaps close up shots of three, well, something!

B&Q customers also know that B&Q staff are rarer than honest politicians and so hopefully, I would not be disturbed in my pursuit. First, the garden "centre", being outside provided plenty of natural light. Well, some of what they sell, I'm no expert, but their Clearance bargains were at best dead and at worse, beyond dead. One pot for a pound didn't even have a plant in it at all!

As you can see from my eventual Blip (which I hasten to add, is not our local B&Q) I soon tired of this game and mostly got crap shots of prices with three in them. Most of the lighting in this humungus hangar is artificial, making exposures run into seconds - I should have taken my tripod! Then, the piped muzak - well, B&Q seem to get around the Music Performance Licence by having already crap songs re-recorded by the same bland female 'singer'. Supertramp's 'Dreamer' might have worked but who the hell would ever think of re-recording a Kajagoogoo song?? Yes, all crap songs from the 1980's, bland as skimmed milk and which finally drove me (almost) screaming back outside.

I really did start thinking that I'd have to opt out of the Challenge and try another idea. Instead of returning home, I went via a track where, now what's the current correct expression, gypsies, travellers? had a semi-permanent park, with their mobile homes etc hooked up to electricity and water. An old scrapyard had been cleared and that provided some shots but none had anything related to 3 in it! As I walked further, there were huge piles of burnt rubbish, big ugly masses, still stinking and which included electrical appliances and plastics. One really has to swallow hard and it's inevitable to think things about such establishments when one really doesn't want to.

With camera on shoulder, I trudged on and passed a gentleman with his dog sitting outside, basking in the non existent sun. "Got some good shots?" he called out. Well he wouldn't have been able to see me from where I had taken pics from and so I said "No". "I'm off up to Clarendon" - which is where the track can lead to. "Wildlife?" he called out. "Landscape" I replied. "Better go to Clarendon then. Not much good for landscape around here", he called back. 'Too ****ing right!!' I mumbled silently under my breath and instead of lying I shouted back, "yeah, not that good!"

I've passed this house many times as came back down the hill back into Salisbury centre. I've always liked how the three windows tower above each other. It's at the bottom end of a terrace. It would be OK in black and white and had three interesting windows. I already envisaged it very tall and thin. The skeletal rose bush at the base was the clincher.

Poking my Tamron SP 17-50mm f2.8 lens through the railings in a gate, I took it hastily as I really didn't want to be seen doing so. I was tired and fed up by this point, to say the least.

So, in Photoshop, I de-skewed it and where it was falling over backwards, I brought it back up square. Selective contrast and a heavy vignette. And before you all say that I should have cropped the left hand tighter, the white bits are from the adjoining windows, which were cropped away. I wanted to show that the building extends to the left, helping it all look a bit less thin and tall. A mild sort of optical illusion.

Well - sorry if the text is a little long today. I don't usually go on for so long, but there we are, I wanted to explain my reasonings and methods.

I seem to have got a headache now, as a reward for all my efforts, so will return later on....