Sepia Saturday 565 : 10 April 2021

 

Sepia Saturday could never have survived for all these years without that magnificent resource, Flickr Commons. At a time when all and sundry want to stick copyright notices on things they have not themselves created, Flickr Commons is a shining beacon for sharing our photographic heritage. Archives that are part of the Commons initiative agree that their images can be shared by anyone, and this means that for over a decade I have been able to incorporate them into most of our weekly theme prompts.  So, for the next few months I am celebrating the Flickr Commons initiative by taking an alphabetical tour of its participating institutions. We start with the Provincial Archives of ALBERTA and a photograph from 1930 of the Ladies Curling Club of Olds, Alberta. As always, you can follow the theme, interpret the theme, turn it on its head ... or ignore it altogether: simply post an old photo and add a link to the list below on or around Saturday 10th April 2021.

Here are our next two theme images for you to be having a think about:-

BERGEN

CAEN

Sepia Saturday 564 : 3 April 2021

 

This is the last theme based on one of my old photographs - for a while, at least - and suitably enough it is a photograph of a works outing to the seaside resort of Blackpool. I am not sure if any of my wife's relatives are featured in this photograph, but that doesn't matter because we are this week celebrating relatives, work, outings and seaside resorts. We can be celebrating anything else you want to celebrate: this, after all, is Sepia Saturday where rules are not welcome. Just feature an old photograph, add a few well chosen words, post it in a post, and add a link to the list below .... on or around Saturday 3 April 2021.

Next week I will be starting an alphabetical tour through all the wonderful picture archives that belong to the Flickr Commons initiative.  Here are the first two theme images of this new series:-

ALBERTA

BERGEN

Sepia Saturday 563 : 27 March 2021

I still seem to be stuck with groups, but trust me, these are nearly at an end. Our theme image this week has a group posing in front of a fort. The fort in question is Fort Perch Rock which sounds as if it should be somewhere in the Wild West - and is in fact just off the not-very-wild west coast of England in the seaside town of New Brighton. As a theme prompt you can do what you want with it: you can have forts, groups, sea, sand, hats, stones ... or even grandfathers (that's mine on the left!). Whatever you do with it, do it on or around Saturday 27th March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Our next two theme images are still full of people, but lots of other things as well. Here they are so you can start planning your next Sepia Saturday posts.

Sepia Saturday 562 : 20th March 2021

 

Your number is up! Yes, we have graduated from a few to a lot, from three men on a boat to a crowd at a football match. The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot an entire Scottish bagpipe band in this theme photograph along with the usual supply of hats and belted coats. There is no sign of a football, so it might be a rugby match, a polo match, a hurling match, or the world final of the tiddlywinks championships. If you are game for a go, then have a go: just post your post on or around Saturday 20th March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Two more group shoots lay ahead before I think up some new themes, so you might want to be keeping these in mind for the next couple of weeks. Then we will move onto something different, I promise!

Sepia Saturday 561 : Saturday 13 March 2021

 

It's a classic! Three men in a boat - or in this case three men at the bow of a boat. It's not only a good read, it's an opportunity to share your old photographs of men in boats, women in boats, boats, three or coils of old rope. And because this is Sepia Saturday and we have the widest interpretation of themes to be found on the entire internet, it will allow you to share any old photo you like. So post your post on or around Saturday 13 March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

I still seem to be fixated with groups of people so here are another two themes for you to be thinking about.

Sepia Saturday 560 : Saturday 6th March 2021

 

You have a choice of two for your theme image for Sepia Saturday 560: you can have the young lad on the left or the young lad on the right. You can have scholars or sailors, suits or uniforms, tall or small, smiles or frowns. And this being Sepia Saturday, you can always ignore the silly theme image chosen by chap who does this, and go with your own choice of themes. All that we ask you to do is to post an old image on or around Saturday 6th March 2021 and add a link to it on the list below. It's as simple as one and one makes two.

And talking of two, here are another two .... themes for future Sepia Saturdays for you to think about. Toodle Loo!

Sepia Saturday 559 : 27 February 2021

 

The sepia alphabet is fading into the distance, thank goodness, and that means our Sepia Saturday themes have been released from the regimentation of artificial constraints. Our theme images can go where they want, take wings and sail away on a boat. So here we are with four girls on a boat. They are looking forward to seeing all the submissions to Sepia Saturday 559 which will be posted on or around Saturday 27th February 2021. If you have a submission you wish them to see, add a link to the post in the list below.

And what better way to follow four girls than with two boys and then three men. Here's what lies ahead.

Sepia Saturday 558 : 20 February 2021

 

Let's take a long look at where we have been over the last six months. To do that we will need a good zoom lens, and luckily enough, along comes the Antarctic explorer Herbert George Ponting with his telephoto apparatus. And what we discover is that the Sepia Saturday alphabet has reached the end of the road - so here we are at the letter Z. You can go to the zoo or zip up your trousers, zap the alien invader or take a trip around the zodiac. The choose, as always, is yours - whatever you decide upon, post it in a post, post the post on or around Saturday 20th February, and post a link to the list below.

After letters where can we go other than to numbers. So far we have a four and a two - who knows where this sum might take us.

Sepia Saturday 557 : 13 February 2021

 

Let's hear it for the youth of today, the young ones, the you and yourself that was young in years gone by. That is at least eight y's in a single sentence and quite enough of them for one week. Yes. (there goes another one) the Sepia Saturday alphabet has reached the penultimate letter and we invite you to celebrate it with an old photograph. The theme image features a youth, but, as always, you can do whatever you like with the theme image - including ignoring it all together. Just post your post on or around Saturday 13th February and add a link to the list below.

The last time we did an alphabet on Sepia Saturday, I think I used a picture of a zoo for the letter Z, so next week I have gone for something different. Yes, it is a zoom lens. See what you can do with that. And after that we can forget the alphabet for a while and wallow in disorganised serendipity. Here are the prompts:-

Sepia Saturday 556 : 6 February 2021

 

Now here's a challenge! We have reached X in our Sepia Alphabet and I think I have used the only old photograph of X rays and X ray equipment for the theme image. So that leaves you with xenophobia, xylophones and Xerox machines! Or there again, you can be inventive and let X mark the spot or do whatever else your inventive minds can come up with. All you need to do is to feature an old photograph that may or may not be associated with the letter X. Excellent! Post your posts on or around Saturday 6 February 2021 and add a link to the list below.

If you think X is tricky, wait until you see Z. You will see it as soon as I find something suitable. I realise that this is far from being an acceptable excuse!

Sepia Saturday 555 : 30 January 2021

 

I don't know about where you live, but where I live there has been a lot of water falling over recent days. Although this isn't very pleasant, at least it is suitable because our Sepia Saturday theme image this week is celebrating the letter W and is a waterfall. Of course, you can ignore the waterfall, you can even ignore the water, and you can go with wafers, waists or wickets. You can go with whatever w you want. Just give us an old photograph and a few new thoughts, post your post on or around Saturday 30th January 2021, and add a link to the list below. Wonderful. And whilst we worry about what to do, why not see what is around the corner, wonce we have walked away from all these w's.

Sepia Saturday 554 : Saturday 23 January 2021

 

Our Sepia Saturday trawl through the alphabet is nearing its end, so to take us into the last four or so letters we have a little music, played rather suitably, on the violin. You don't need to play the violin, of course, the way Sepia Saturday themes work is that you can play the vacuum cleaner, the vaudeville stage, or even the vegetable stew if you so wish. All you need to do is to stay within the rules of Sepia Saturday, and, as we lost the rule book in Week 2 back in 2009, you can interpret that as you will. Just post your post on or around Saturday 23 January 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Waterfalls and X rays are just around the corner, variety (there's another v for you) is not only the spice of life but the life-blood of Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 553 : 16 January 2021

 

"If I had a sepia umbrella / with the memories on the inside / and the COVID on the outside / if I had a sepia umbrella / what a wonderful world it would be"

Only those Sepians of a certain age will remember Diana Decker's 1954 hit song, and to those, I apologise for my 2021 re-writing of the lyrics. Whatever lyrics you prefer, the song is an introduction to this week's Sepia Saturday theme image which features an umbrella repair man from the 1930s. Normally we would turn to an umbrella when it starts to rain, but here on Sepia Saturday, we turn to an umbrella when our journey through the sepia alphabet gets to the letter U. As always, all we need for Sepia Saturday is You, so you can follow any number of themes (umbrellas, repairs, bridges, caps ...) or no theme at all. Just post a post on or around Saturday 16th January 2021 and include a link in the list below.

And if you are anxious to know what follows U, I can exclusively reveal here for the first time, it is V, W , X Y and Z. Here are the next couple of letters:

Sepia Saturday 552 : Saturday 9th January 2021

 

A Happy New Year to Sepians everywhere. First of all let me thank you for supporting Sepia Saturday for the last eleven years, and for your thoughts and suggestions about the future of Sepia Saturday. Clearly members want Sepia Saturday to continue as a Blog-based platform for sharing old photographs, and so it will. I will continue working my way through the Sepia alphabet - which should take us to the beginning of March - and I would welcome suggestions for our weekly calls after that. We can continue with optional themes, drop themes altogether or adopt some other approach - let me know what you think.

To take us into 2021 we have the letter T. You can interpret this as you like, for our theme image I have chosen a Birmingham tram from the 1920s. All you have to do is to feature an old photo in a blog post, post the post on or around Saturday 9th January 2021, and add a link to the list below.

And here are some more sepia letters for the coming few weeks:-