Thursday 24 November 2022

SEPIA SATURDAY 649 : Saturday 26th November 2022

 


Our theme image this week says a number of things to me - the first and most important being that the Sepia Controller should read through the graphics he creates to make sure there are no spelling mistakes in there! Or maybe, he is being rather clever and one of the possible themes for you this week is mistakes in old photographs. It also makes me wonder whether we need suggested themes - does anyone follow them anymore? And, furthermore, it forces me to ask the question I have posed several times before - has Sepia Saturday run its course? Let me know your thoughts. As I have said before, as long as there is a demand for it, I will keep on running the blog and producing the weekly calls, but if you think time should now be called, fair enough.

Let me have your thoughts along with this week's Sepia Saturday submissions by adding any comments below and, of course, adding a link to the list below on or around Saturday 26th November 2022. Here are the next two theme images, just in case anyone is still wanting themes, but to avoid any further spelling mistakes, I will leave you to provide your own interpretations of the images.




7 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Having become one of the remaining regular Sepia posting bloggers, I admit to straying into other topics more often than I would have liked. I don't really know how many years I've been doing this, but I have noticed a very slim number still involved. So with great appreciation to Alan for putting up a theme weekly, I will walk into the sunset of Sepia Saturday if he has found it time to let it go. I may still be posting some past trivia here on Saturdays, though will miss the connecting themes. Fare thee well, my friends.

ScotSue said...

A return to blogging after a spell away due to an operation. I pick up on the theme of sisters with a profile of my talented mother and aunts.

Alan re your thoughts on the future of Sepia Saturday - I very much like the theme of a prompt [photograph to write to and enjoy reading the different ways that bloggers pick up and interpret the prompt image. However I do feel that in recent months the prompts have tended to be repetitive with themes that only appeared last year. (Admittedly I cannot come up with new ones myself).

On a personal level, after so many years blogging, I am coming to the end of featuring new images in my collection and I am guilty of using them again.

I would be sorry to see the end of Sepia Saturday as it is, and thank you for your years of managing the site.

Monica T. said...

Alan, I've been participating here "on and off" in the past, but over the past year or so fairly regularly again. I'm finding it helpful both as inspiration to get on with my own family history research and as a place to link to and get response from a few others with similar projects going on. I'm not always able to match the prompt themes and images, but every now and then they've helped me find angles I might otherwise not have thought of. Perhaps a compromise could be to just post prompt images without too much effort put into written suggestions of themes - as the option to ignore them is always included anyway? At the same time, I do recognize the problem that with time, most of us run out of old photos and stories to share, so that it may feel a bit repetitive. But from my own experience, I'd also say that inspiration "comes and goes", and I hope that Sepia Saturdays will remain open for a while yet.

This week I'm continuing a series of letters written by my grandmother to my grandfather while he was away at military service in 1926. But I also actually have one 'mother and daughters' photo to match the prompt photo. (Plus a few more.)

Kristin said...

I did write a note when I posted yeterday, but it seems to have disappeared. I have been gone from Sepia Saturday for several years. I do enjoy having the prompts and the visits and comments of my fellow sepians. I know the topics have been repeated, some multiply times, but I am using them now to go further into my family information, and usually do find an unused photo or new info about an old one.

Mike Brubaker said...

My post this weekend is about a set of photos that I'm pleased to say make a very good match for your theme this weekend, Alan. It's musical of course, and as is often the case now, a bit longer than many readers might have patience for. But I continue find Sepia Saturday a fun and rewarding challenge.

I made my first contribution on Sepia Saturday #56, 8 January 2011. My comment was "Great website. I hope I can contribute from time to time." I was the 25th blogger on a list of 29. Alan was there, of course, and Kristin too, but sadly almost all the others have gone offline or faded into the ethernet.

I've used the metaphor of a virtual pub before, and I think Sepia Saturday really is like one. It's a familiar place where everyone welcomes friends and strangers to share a story, either a tall tale or a short truth, and illustrated with old photos. I often think I recognize more faces in other people's old family photos than I do in my own. So for me the SS theme are not as important as having a comfortable place to meet fellow writers and story tellers. The wealth of knowledge we've exchanged about writing, genealogy, photo analysis, history, geography, etc., especially from Sepians now gone, is a priceless treasure I could never have imagined when I first signed up nearly 12 years ago. Auntie Miriam would agree I think.

Thank you, Alan, for keeping the fire on and the keg fresh for so many years. You've been an inspiration for all of us. I'd like Sepia Saturday to continue but I thought the same about Windows 8 Mobile and Microsoft never listened. Perhaps we could stretch the time a bit longer to reach another milestone? Maybe Sepia Saturday #675 or even #700?

Anonymous said...

I have not participated the past few weeks, wondering if some curse had found its way to our family. Just so much going on for our little family that it has taken me away from my blog. But I made it back today to finally finish - at least half finish - the next offering of the series I have been writing.

And to find the note of wondering if Sepia Saturday should continue. I'm sure I have shared before when this topic came up previously what a life line Sepia Saturday has been for me. It is where I found a wonderful community of bloggers and inspiration for my blog. Several bouts of cancer knocked me out of blogging now and again, but each time I found my way back to blogging my family history here - through the Sepia Saturday prompts and a community who would read and COMMENT on what I had prepared. Such a gift!

Sometimes I get on a series theme that may or may not match the prompt photos, but in between times, the prompts have led me to think of photos and stories and my family history in new ways.

So I would be very sad to see it discontinued, but know that this has been a lengthy term of service for Alan. I would very much like for Sepia Saturday to continue. If we need to assist Alan, perhaps that is another conversation we can have.

Alan Burnett said...

THANKS EVERONE FOR YOUR COMMENTS
ALAN