.
Young fruit on the old apple tree at the bottom of our garden, this morning; 8 Aug 2015.
I have to admit to neglecting our back garden this year, but then this increasingly wild waste is far from the only item on my list of “Things not to neglect” – that are being neglected just the same! It may be that retirement is really biting, that non-essentials are being treated as such – and I must say that its a pleasant lifestyle. As I read somewhere, retirement has given me my life back.
Photographs haven’t been coming easily recently, I’ve been going through an uninspired spell, but rather than fighting frantically against it I’ve been going more with the flow, not trying to force the issue. The hour pottering about with the camera this morning had a slightly better feel to it – which I hope will continue.
And I’ve gone against my own advice by immediately looking at the pictures on my PC, semi-processing one or two and then liking this one >>> I am very far from alone in thinking it better to download photos after a session but then to leave them alone for awhile – to return to them with new eyes and more creative energy after a few days or weeks – and indeed to keep returning to them from time to time, when fresh insights, ideas and visions may well appear.
Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window.
D700 with 105mm Nikkor; 1600 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Landscape preset and adding a strong cyanotype tone.
.
.
.
FATman Photos 
Nope, still can’t get past the apple crumble image. 😀
LikeLike
Now then, are you sure you’re really trying??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope, not trying at all at the moment… sometimes you just gotta have cake. 😦 🙂
LikeLike
😀 !!!!!!!!!! Absolutely true – and what I may not have mentioned is that I’m not cutting down on beer and cider … its the Unwritten Law …. 😉 ….
LikeLiked by 1 person
So plump, and somehow, modest in a very pleasing way. I like the humor in the “Things not to Neglect” list. Mine is long and lives far back in the recesses of my busy brain…
LikeLike
Thanks, Lynn! I know just what you mean by “modest”, I see that too. A 🙂
LikeLike
Good advice to yourself and from others too–you can’t force inspiration, but have to let it come in its own time–and it surely will. And if a blue apple helps to get you there, maybe it’s just the incider tip you need.
LikeLike
Yes, my friend, going with the flow is the thing – thanks for your input. A
LikeLike
That’s beautiful, Adrian. A feeling of purity and freshness comes across very strongly. I love the texture on the apple and the cyanotype processing; it adds a coolness and otherworldliness to the apple.
Interesting you say how you have your “life back” since retiring from work. I am so pleased that you are enjoying retirement and that you see it as a positive thing; wonderful!
I wouldn’t worry about photographic inspiration having taken a back seat. As you say, the best thing is not to force it – it will return.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, yes, good advice not to try to force it – I find that I sometimes get a yearning to create images – but unfortunately this doesn’t always coincide with the moments when I am either camera in hand or sitting at the computer! 🙂
Oh yes, I do think retirement a positive thing – I would be a sad sack if all I wanted were a return to work. There are only two things I miss about work – one is obviously the money. But my job in data analysis often involved complex problem solving, and I do miss the intellectual challenges that involved. But something that increasingly appals me is just what a chunk work takes out of daily life – and 5 days on and 2 off is quite a punishing schedule.
Glad you like the apple – thanks! A
LikeLike
Yea..I recognise lots in what you write…I even feel guilty if I do not do anything useful but just loaf around!!! It is an upside down world with the norm being: head down , full steam ahead not noticing anybody or anything. Love your apples, would go well with my wild pears, completely neglected by me!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the years of work encourage us to be always doing doing doing, until as you say, we feel that we must always be this this >>> that maybe it is ‘The Unwritten Law’. But what about just being instead, being being being – enjoying the moment, enjoying the sights, scents and sounds, thinking about who and where we are – as John Lennon put it, watching the shadows on the wall.
Too much loafing, too much of a sedentary lifestyle, may of course lead to a premature demise – but am I going to flog myself silly in an effort to postpone that Ultimate Certainty Of Life? I do feel that it is important to get exercise and so I walk quite a bit, and also (quite ferociously!) play table tennis and occasionally use an exercise bike (which is nothing like an enjoyable as walking). But I also, increasingly, do what my inclinations suggest.
Glad you like the apples – I very much enjoyed your Downs Syndrome post – you have interesting outlooks. A
LikeLiked by 1 person
Table tennis?
LikeLike
Yes, 45 years ago I played a lot at university – and not ping pong but the real thing. Now I’ve started again with the University of the Third Age in Bristol, and SOME of my old form has come back – actually wondered if I was going to be physically up to doing it and was surprised that I still am! A
LikeLiked by 1 person
Table tennis is Hubby’s sport too.. Veterans now, over 50’s (shhh) but he was quite a whiz in his hay-days. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person