Sepia Saturday 303 : 31 October 2015

We have a treat for you this week - or maybe it is a trick. It is an image from the collection of the New York Public Library - an old greetings card (although I can't imagine who would want to send cards at Halloween - aren't Christmas, Birthdays, Valantines' Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, and Easter enough!) If you give me a treat I will give you all sorts of potential themes you might want to follow. Without a treat, you are on your own: just post your post on or around Saturday 31 October 2015 and add a link to the list below. Before you go off knocking on doors and bothering the neighbours, take a look at what is coming next week.

Don't forget if you want the full list of theme images for the rest of the year, you can find them all HERE.

Halloween is "the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers".  And what are we Sepians dedicated to but remember the dead via photographic images : past people, past places, past events. Halloween is the natural sepia festival : Halloween Greetings To All.

Sepia Saturday 302 : 24 October 2015

Our theme image for Sepia Saturday 302 - post your posts on or around Saturday 24th October 2015 and then link to the Linky List below - comes from the stream of the Texas State Archives available via Flickr Commons. The photograph is entitled "Ina Playing Harp" which doesn't tell us much, but Sepians are very good and making a lot from a little. So wherever the image takes you in your collections of old photographs, just go there, and tell us all about the journey.

If you have been taking a look at the list of themes for 2015, you will already know where Sepia Saturday will be going next week, but here is a reminder.

But I don't want to harp on about the future, so let us return to this week: it's time to post your posts and take part in Sepia Saturday 302. Everyone is invited, no strings attached.

Sepia Saturday 301 : 17 October 2015

Regular Sepians will already know that we are experimenting with theme image prompts without words - leaving you with the freedom to interpret them in any way you want to. Without a shadow of a doubt you are on your own with this one, after all, we Sepians are adults and not children. The powers that be (Marilyn and me) have decided that you should be left looking at the picture until you come up with your own interpretation, however much time that may take. All we ask you to do is to is to come up with some kind of link and post your post on or around Saturday 17th October 2015. Take you time - there is no need to watch the clock - and once your post is up on your blog link it to the list below. Of course you don't have to be a themer - you can simply feature an old image and tell us a little bit about it - that's what Sepia Saturday is all about.

Alan forgot to tell you about the prompt image, after cleverly adding some theme suggestions. It’s from the National Archives of Estonia Album on Flickr and it’s titled ‘Children of the Rosen Family’. As well as looking back, perhaps we can look forward, and imagine what may have happened to those delightful children who are the subjects of this image. This is a Jewish family in pre-war Estonia. Now if that isn’t food for thought I don’t know what is. Above all, please remember, there is no need to theme; we just welcome your contributions.

Marilyn

And here is a quick reminder of next week's Sepia Saturday theme image. If you would like to see further down the sepia road than that you can find all of our theme images until the end of 2015 by following THIS LINK.

Sepia Saturday 300 : 10 October 2015

This week, we reach the big 300; a celebration for Sepia Saturday and also the fifth anniversary of the prompt image appearing in a blog, where it instantly grabbed my attention. It comes from a Victorian photo album that was destined to be pulped. It was saved, and posted, with some other examples from the album, on this post in ‘The Age of Uncertainty’ blog, on 10th October 2010.

The photos, and the blog, generated a huge amount of interest at the time and promoted the blog into Wikio’s top thirty, which is how I was alerted to it, and subsequently became interested in blogging. Since then, the blog owner has posted them onto this remarkable Flickr album. I urge all Sepians to visit; you will not be disappointed. I have full permission from the owner to use the photos and I have chosen the one which started the whole thing off.

Some commenters believe that at least one of the subjects is dead, and that this is what is known as a ‘post-mortem’ image. This week the blog challenge is wide open. You may indeed have an example of post-mortem photography in your albums, if not, take any thing you want from the image as a prompt. For once we are not going to give you the ideas. We want you to study the photograph and choose something, no matter how small, that will light that creative spark for your own post; an old photograph, fact, fiction, poetry, prose, family history or social history. Whatever you come up with, post your posts on, or around, Saturday 10th October, then add your link and leave a comment below. A little bit different? I thought so; enjoy SS.300.

Marilyn (Little Nell)

And here is a reminder of the theme image for Sepia Saturday 301. And don't forget, you can see all the theme image prompts for the rest of 2015 by following THIS LINK

Sepia Saturday Theme Images : October to December 2015

Here are the Sepia Saturday theme images for the period October to December 2015.

Good luck Sepians