Sepia Saturday 311 : 2 January 2016

Welcome to a new year of Sepia Saturday and the start of a new set of themes which will run for the first half of the year. This year we are abandoning wordy prompts and just leaving you with an image which you are free to interpret as you like. You might want to look within the image for shapes, places, objects, words, colours ... or whatever you want : the choice is yours. And, in the finest Sepia Saturday traditions, you also have the choice of ignoring any talk of themes and just sharing an old photograph and a few new words. When Marilyn and I were putting this set of prompts together we thought it might be fun to have an hidden theme within a set of themes - let's see if anyone can spot it within the months to come.

Whatever you decide to do with the above image - which is a 1942 photograph of the Grand Grocery Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska from the Library of Congress stream on Flickr Commons - do it on or around Saturday 2nd January 2016 and link it to the list below. You can see the next couple of Sepia Saturday prompts below and a full list for the first three months of the year can be accessed via the link in the sidebar.

 

As you will see I have done a little tidying up of the Sepia Saturday Blog. If your blog has been inadvertently dropped from the list of participants please let me know and I will replace it. It is nice occasionally to have a little spring cleaning of our Blog, after all it is the shop window of Sepia Saturday. And talking of shop windows ....

Sepia Saturday 310 : Christmas and New Year 2015

Here is our Sepia Christmas image for 2015 which will carry us over the festive season. I apologise for it being a little late in appearing - my hand is still heavily bandaged after last weeks' operation so typing is a slow and tedious process. But I now have a couple of weeks until we return for the start of our 2016 Sepia campaign - so I will try and get plenty of rest and physiotherapy in (think of gently lifting glasses overflowing with fine ale) before returning with Sepia Saturday 311 in the new year. Our Christmas sepia prompt traditionally covers the entire festive season so all you need to do is to post your posts anytime between now and the new year - and add a link to the list below. Don't forget you can find a complete list of all our prompts for the first quarter - and indeed by the start of next year, the first half - of 2016 by looking HERE.

As you will know I have been hors de combat recently with my hand, but hopefully from the start of 2016 I will be back to my old sepia ways. In the meantime can I take this opportunity to thank you for all your good wishes and to send to you all the very best wishes for Christmas and the coming year.

A HAPPY SEPIA CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Alan

Sepia Saturday 309 : 12 December 2015

As Sepia Saturday moves relentlessly towards the end of another year, we pause before the final push to seek a little rest and relaxation. A cup of coffee perhaps, a glass of beer maybe; and why not, it's nearly the holidays after all, a tasty donut. Let all thoughts of that final round of Christmas shopping be abandoned for the moment, and as we pause at the doors of yet another Shopping Mall - legs all weary and wallets all empty - let us recall the words of the September 1919 issue of The Mess Kit - "A Man May Be Down But He's Never Out". The image comes from the National Library of Medicine Flickr stream and may suggest any manner of things to the imaginative Sepian. All you have to do is to post your post on or around Saturday 12 December 2015, add a link to the list below, and reward yourself with a donut.

Whilst you are eating it you may want to ponder on our Christmas theme for this year. And if you want to think further ahead, you can find a list of all our themes for the first quarter of 2016 HERE.

I go into hospital tomorrow for my hand operation so I probably won't be able to post this week, but my eyes should be OK so I will relax and enjoy myself by reading all your posts whilst enjoying a jam donut.

Sepia Saturday 308 : 5 December 2015

Sometimes, in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of daily life, you can feel alone. Your body might be walking down the supermarket aisle searching for your Christmas brussel sprouts, but your mind is miles away, walking along the beach of some desert island. Your hands might be writing anodyne words in endless plastic Christmas cards, but your imagination is exploring the very special world of old images. Be they old postcards, old family photographs or old book illustrations, it doesn't really matter: they all have a special attraction to us sepians. And as we sort out our images and write our words, we suddenly discover the footprints of other lovers of old images - footprints in the sepia sands of time.

Which is merely a single malt-whisky induced convoluted way of introducing our theme image for Sepia Saturday 308 (post your posts on or around Saturday 5th December 2015). Make of it what you will fellow sepians, let your imagination travel as far as that of Daniel Defoe when he wrote Robinson Crusoe - from which this illustration is taken (via the Flickr Commons stream of The British Library).

But before you start following the footprints in the sand, spare a thought for what awaits you next week. And don't forget you can see the rest of the 2015 theme images HERE, and the theme images for the first quarter of 2016 HERE.

But now it is time to sift through the sands of time and see what you can come up with for Sepia Saturday 308

Sepia Saturday 307 : 28 November 2015

First of all, an apology: I didn't get round to posting an entry for Sepia Saturday 306. But I haven't been resting, instead I was busy putting together the list of theme images for the first quarter of 2016. The idea of publishing a whole three months of themes in advance was tried for the first time in September and seems to have been successful - it makes things easier for me when I put together the weekly call post and Sepians seem to like the ability to plan ahead. The list of "theme images" for January to March 2016 can be found HERE.

Let me follow that up with another apology. You may look at this week's theme image and say something like "not kids playing games again!" Marilyn chose the theme images for the current quarter but it was not her fault that the two children's game images appeared in consecutive weeks - that was down to me as I swapped the running order around. If you have run out of children's game photos just dig a little deeper and look for other themes within this image which comes from the Flickr stream of the National Archives of Estonia. Or you can ignore any pretence of a theme and give us something entirely unrelated to children playing circular games. Whatever you do, do it on or around Saturday 28th November 2016 and enter a link to it on the Linky List below.

Before we get to the first quarter of 2016, we have the rest of 2015 to deal with. Here is a quick preview of our theme image for next week. If you want to see the remaining prompts for 2015 you can find them HERE.

And finally let me apologise (yet again) for all this looking ahead. I know us Sepians are far more comfortable in looking back into the past rather than looking forward into the future. So forget the rest of 2015 for now and forget 2016. Just concentrate on the week ahead, it will stop your mind going around in circles.

Sepia Saturday Theme Images : January - March 2016

Here is the full set of Sepia Saturday "theme images" for the first quarter of 2016. I have avoided identifying specific themes by name - if you are theming, it is up to you to spot something in the image to use as a theme, however direct or obscure that link might be . And, as always, there is no need to follow any theme - all we ask for is an old image and some new thoughts.

Sepia Saturday 306 : 21 November 2015

Seven boys in a back yard playing a game that would appear to involve throwing a ball or a stone into a line of upturned caps. It is the kind of game kids couldn't play today for what self-respecting child of the twenty-first century wears a cap? It is the kind of photograph that couldn't be taken today because it is hand-tinted. But it is the kind of theme image that would make any self-respecting Sepian think of caps, or children, or playground games or any of the hundreds of things Sepians like to think of. The photograph is from Norwegian DEXTRA Photo Collection stream on Flickr Commons and dates from the early part of the twentieth century. Unlike the strange game the boys are playing, there are no complicated rules to Sepia Saturday - all you need do is to post your post on or around Saturday 21 November 2015 and add a link to the list below. 

Whilst you are waiting for your turn to play have a look at what is around the corner and waiting for us at Sepia Saturday 307. And you shouldn't need telling by now, you can see all the themes for the rest of the year HERE.

But now it is your turn to play Sepia Saturday 306. Take careful aim and off you go.

Sepia Saturday 305 : 14 November 2015

The balloon has gone up. Sepia Saturday 305 is here. The balloon in question is one called "Le Neptune" and the photograph is taken from the Flickr collection of the Bibliotheque de Toulouse. You can decide to go in whichever direction you like with this prompt - as long as it is up, up and away. There are grand balloons, children's balloons, barrage balloons, weather balloons and all other kinds of curiosities and diverse objects (which you will see is the name of the Flickr album from which it is taken). Whatever you decide to do, simply do it on or around Saturday 14th November and add a link to the list below.

But before you have ascended so far you can no longer see what is happening back here on earth, take a look at the theme image for next week.

And if you want even more you can always find a full list of all of themes for the rest of the year HERE.

Such things are for the future, for the moment simply step on board the giant Sepia Balloon. Please make sure you have no sharp comments with you - we don't want the balloon bursting.

Sepia Saturday 304 : 7 November 2015

You would think that you would be glad to see the back of all those ghosts, spirits and ghouls that gathered around the Sepia Saturday 303 prompt last week, but they seem to have sneaked in again. There is a whole sub-literature on spirit pictures - something that was very popular in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. In most cases they can be explained by accidental double exposures, but perhaps out there is the exception to that rational rule. If there is you might want to submit it for Sepia Saturday 304 (post your posts on or around Saturday 7th November 2015). If you don't have any ghosts you could always follow a more logical interpretation of the theme image which is taken from the Flickr Commons stream of Norwegian Preus Museum. Whatever you decide to do, just post your post on or around Saturday 7th November and add a link to the list below.

Ghosts and spirits can see into the future, so they will have no difficulty in telling you what lies ahead for Sepia Saturday. Here is what they predict for Sepia Saturday 305.

If you want to see even further into the future you can always find a complete list of our theme images for the rest of the year HERE.

All this talk of ghosts has made me nervous. I need to calm down before I start searching through my own old family photographs for something suitable for Sepia Saturday 304. What I need is a nice, soothing glass of spirits. Cheers!

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