SEPIA SATURDAY 500

We've made it! Sepia Saturday is 500 weeks old. It seems only yesterday that we launched Sepia Saturday back in 2009: it was always intended as a short-term project and we couldn't have imagined that it would have a life much longer than most things in this digital age. Ten years have gone by, and five hundred themes have been puzzled over, thought about and matched by contributors from all over the world. There have been times when the number of participants was large and times when that number was small - but through it all Sepia Saturday has gone on: gathering memories and wrapping them up in some wonderful old photographs. And on it will go, helping to capture history in its most honest and ordinary sense: and even after the last participant has stopped contributing, hopefully it will remain as a resource for future generations.

To mark our 500th call you are invited to return to your favourite Sepia Saturday contribution and re-share it with the world. But this is an open call, so you can post whatever old image you want: the one lasting feature of Sepia Saturday has always been its dislike of rules. As with all our Christmas and New Year calls, this one goes on throughout the festive season: the next "ordinary" Sepia Saturday call (501) will be for Saturday 4th January 2020. I will post the call prompts for all of January soon.

If you want to include more than one contribution to this Sepia Saturday call, feel free to do so. Simply add links to the list below.

Sepia Saturday 499 : 7 December 2019

I realise we are all busy preparing for Christmas - nipping to the shops to get those last minute presents - but hopefully you will still be able to fit in a couple of pre-Christmas sepia challenges. This week our theme image celebrates that finest of Christmas traditions - shopping. All you have to do is to post a post on or around Saturday 7th December 2019 and add a link to the list below.

As usual, we will have just one theme over the Christmas and New Year period and, this year, it coincides with our 500th Sepia Saturday theme challenge. To mark the event, the theme is an open one - so you might want to look out your very favourite old photograph and share it with the rest of the Sepia community over the festive season. I will put the call for Sepia Saturday 500 up early next week. In the meantime, start shopping around for a suitable post for this week.

Sepia Saturday 498 : Saturday 30 November 2019

Our theme image this week is a study in concentration: a fine photograph from the early years of the twentieth century showing a woman worker helping to build aeroplanes during the Great War. You can choose to celebrate women, workers, concentration .... or indeed anything you want - just post an old photograph on or around Saturday 30th November 2019 and add a link to the list below.

One you have done that you can concentrate on thinking of a possible match for next week's prompt image. And whilst you do that, I will concentrate on trying to come up with a theme image for our 500th call!

Sepia Saturday 497 : 23 November 2019

A fine portrait of a beautiful woman and a pioneer of the Red Cross movement is a more than suitable prompt for Sepia Saturday 497. If nothing else, it might tempt us to look out all those fine portraits of all those heroes and heroines we might have in our photographic collections. The time to look them out, dust them off, and share them with the world is now. Just post your post on or around Saturday 23 November 2019 and add a link to the list below.

Just two more prompts to go before we get to Sepia Saturday 500. Here they are:

Sepia Saturday 496 : 16 November 2019

Our theme image for Sepia Saturday 496 features an early twentieth century image of a hop house in Lowell, Oregon. It seems as if all the local residents have come out to have their photographs taken: they are standing on the drive, on the stairs - even on the roof. It provides us with an opportunity to get out all your old photographs that in some way or another might connect with this theme image. All you have to do is to post your post on or around Saturday 16th November 2019 and add a link to the list below. Hop to it!

And here is a reminder of the next two theme images:-

Sepia Saturday 495, 9th November 2019

As we move remorselessly towards Sepia Saturday 500, our prompt image this week is a Library of Congress image featuring an international novelty orchestra from the early 1920s. Not only is this a fascinating old image, not only does it provide plenty of prompt opportunities for your Sepia Saturday contributions: it allows us to celebrate a Sepia Saturday star who has been contributing for the best part of the last 500 weeks - and who has an unrivalled knowledge of, and photographs of, historic bands and orchestras from throughout the world. Mister Mike, this one is for you! 

As always you can match the theme or share any of your old images by posting a post on your blog on or around Saturday 9th November 2019 and adding a link to the list below. And whilst you are listening to the music, you might want to plan the rest of your posts leading up to SS500. Here are the themes.

Sepia Saturday 494 : 2 November 2019

An old car (which was once a new car), a young filmstar (who sadly would not live long enough to become an old film star), a practiced pose .... there are more than enough potential prompts in this week's Sepia Saturday theme image. All you need to do is to match any of them - or, if you so choose, none of them - post an old image on or around Saturday 2nd November 2019 and add a link to the list below.

Whilst you are waiting for the driver to turn up and drive the car away, take a look at what will be our theme image next week. And whilst you do that, I'll sort some more theme images out to take us up to Sepia Saturday 500.