Sepia Saturday 207 : 14 December 2013

This is a picture of Liverpool which I found on a CD of copyright-free archive images. What I like in particular is how it ignores all the golden rules of photography : there is a strong vertical lamp-post dividing the image in two, your eye is not guided around the image by the composition but invited to take a running jump off the edge and for good measure, the central feature of the image - the cyclist - is out of focus. But what it reminds me of, is the fact that here on Sepia Saturday we don't celebrate great photographs, we celebrate great history. So it is time to bring out more of your curiosities, the odd compositions, the crimes against perspective, the thumb in front of the lens. If you come from a long line of great photographers, you could always concentrate on monuments, cyclists, removal vans, or the tunnel which is just to the left of this photograph. The choice is yours - there are few golden rules of Sepia Saturday. Just post your post on or around Saturday 14 December and then link it to the list below.

Christmas is around the corner and we have a Festive Sepia Fortnight for SS 208, whereas the regular weekly schedule returns with SS 209. Here is a quick preview of what is in store.

208 : Celebrate Christmas with any festive themed image from the past

209 : By now, you don't need any suggestions from me. Search the image and find your own theme.

But that is all in the future. Concentrate on Sepia Saturday 207 for now. Get things in balance and maintain your focus and avoid tunnel vision at all costs.

Sepia Saturday 206 : 7 December 2013

For Sepia Saturday 206 - post your posts on or around 7 December 2013 - we are celebrating that great domestic institution : the apron. They can be flowered aprons, aprons dusted with bread flour, gear-oil coated aprons or any kind of apron you care to show us. Our theme image is called "Mother Of The Assembly Line" and comes from the Flickr stream of the US National Archives.

Before you rush off and put your aprons on, here is a glance into the future - the next two Sepia Saturday themes. As usual, our Christmas challenge will cover both Christmas and New Year and sepians can post their posts at any time over the festive season. Sepia Saturday will return to the normal weekly schedule with Sepia Saturday 209 on Saturday 4 January 2014

207 : Photos with strange compositions, passing cyclists, removal vans, tunnels (look carefully there is one there) - the choice is up to you.

208 : Celebrate Christmas with any festive themed image from the past

Before you go off to get your aprons, don't forget that the "Best Of Sepia Saturday" is now available. What better present to find beneath the tree on Christmas morning.

The Best Of Sepia Saturday

So here it is. At long last. Hot from the sepia presses!

The Best Of Sepia Saturday is now available. It has been published via Lulu books which means that it can easily be purchased from Lulu on-line stores in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and a host of other European countries. You should be able to get to the product page by following this LINK. You can get a preview of the first few pages of the book by clicking on the preview button. You can change from the UK store to other national stores by clicking on the little national flag icon.

At this stage, the book is just available in the black and white edition (with full colour covers) : unfortunately a colour edition isn't available in the format we are using, so to produce a full colour edition will mean quite a bit more reformating - and a substantial increase in the price of the finished product. But given the nature of the subject, I think the black and white edition looks quite good and is reasonably cheap to buy. If there is enough demand for a full colour edition we can revisit it as an option. At the moment, the book is only available direct from Lulu, but within the next week to ten days I will have completed the various checks to make it available via Amazon and Barnes and Noble worldwide. I will update you with progress on this as it happens. Try as I might, I was unable to make the final product genuinely profit-free (it would have complicated things no end and resulted into a complex price) and therefore I stand to make a few pence profit on each copy sold. If it is OK with you I will use any profits generated to go towards paying our Annual Linky fees.

So there we are. I hope you like it. I apologise for the delays and for the mistakes I suspect there might be in the final text. I will be officially launching the book by lifting a pint glass of ale at 9.00pm (GMT) this evening. I invite all my fellow contributors to join me at the virtual book launch party.

Thanks to you all for your support, encouragement and kind words. In particular, thanks to Marilyn for reading through the draft and spotting some important mistakes.

Cheers,  Alan

Sepia Saturday 205 : 30 November 2013

November comes to an end and all over the world men will be ridding themselves of facial hair as Movember - the annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer and other male cancers - also comes to an end. Our theme image this week comes from the Australian National Maritime Museum collection available via Flickr Commons and features an unknown swimmer with a rather fine moustache. For your theme you can go with swimmers, trophies or rather fine moustaches, or - as always - any interpretation you care to adopt. Just post your post on or around Saturday 30 November 2013 and link your post to the Linky List below.

Some news for those who do not follow our Facebook Group: our special "Best Of Sepia Saturday" book is now finished and just needs a few final checks. Hopefully, by next week, I should be able to let you know how you can order your copies. In other news, the Sepia Saturday Magazine on Flipboard seems to be working well and, if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the magazine for free by searching for it under my name (Alan Burnett). You can use the Flipboard App on most tablets and smartphones and on desktops operating Windows 8.1 and above.

Here are the details of the next two Sepia Saturday themes for those who like to shop early for Christmas.

206 : Aprons our our theme for this week. Ladies in aprons, men in aprons, airports with aprons.

207 : Photos with strange compositions, passing cyclists, removal vans, tunnels (look carefully there is one there) - the choice is up to you.

Those are for the future. For this week, keep a stiff upper lip, or a hairy upper lip, or a clean shaved upper lip - and post those posts and link those links.

Sepia Saturday 204 : 23 November 2013

Friday, of course, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. The 22 November 1963 is one of those dates where big history and small history collide : a date on which anyone alive at the time is supposed to be able to remember what they were doing when they heard the news. Other such dates would include events like Pearl Harbour or the subject of our theme image for Sepia Saturday 204 - the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. There are a variety of interpretation for the prompt : perhaps a photograph of what you were doing on that day in 1963, perhaps an important event in your life which will always act as a historical marker, perhaps a collection of strange and wonderful hats. Whatever your interpretation, post your post on or around Saturday 22 November 2013 and then link it to the list below.

Here is the usual preview of the next two Sepia Saturdays down the line:

205 : This week brings us to the end of November or, as it has become known in much of the world, Movember. Once again it is time to celebrate bearded ladies, moustachioed men, trophies or silly swimming suits.

206 : Aprons our our theme for this week. Ladies in aprons, men in aprons, airports with aprons. 

That is for the future. For Sepia Saturday 204 just look out for those momentous moments, the moments where big history and small history collide.

Sepia Saturday 203 : 16 November 2013

Have you ever noticed how many photographs are taken in doorways? It might have been the desire to search out a convenient frame, but more likely it was the need to go in search of natural light in order to tease those silver salts into life. Whatever the reason, a lot of old photographs feature doorways and this provides our theme for Sepia Saturday 203 (Post your posts on or around Saturday 16 November and link to the list below). As usual, you can choose any of the elements of our theme image to follow - windows, number 11, small fat old ladies - although try not to be too insulting about the latter as that is my grandmother in the photograph!

Just a quick update on Sepia Saturday 200 : the cutting and pasting is at last finished and I am currently writing the introduction, so don't lose heart - the book will emerge in due course. And my usual apologies for all my tardiness and lateness during the course of the work.

Here is our usual look forward at the next two Sepia Saturday calls.

204 : It is 50 years since the assassination of JFK. It was one of those iconic moments in history, just like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. So photographs of momentous moments is one of our themes for this week, along with anything else you might find in the photograph.

205 : This week brings us to the end of November or, as it has become known in much of the world, Movember. Once again it is time to celebrate bearded ladies, moustachioed men, trophies or silly swimming suits.

But put assassinations and moustachinations to one side for the moment. For Sepia Saturday 203 we are asking you to frame yourself - well frame your great uncle Joe - open the door, and enter into the spirit of things.

Sepia Saturday 202 : 9 November 2013

Huge apologies for setting a new world record for the lateness of putting up the Sepia Saturday Call. I would love to be able to say that this was the result of becoming so involved in the editing of "The Best Of Sepia Saturday", that I have lost track of time : but I can't. It was a toxic cocktail of domestic chores and November lethargy which brought about a coagulation of the Sepia Saturday process. But fear not, I have prescribed myself some Sepia Warfarin in order to restart the creative flow and thus here - a little late but nevertheless peculiar - is our prompt for Sepia Saturday 202 (Post your posts on or around Saturday 9th November 2013).  Our prompt image comes from the Flickr Commons collection of the National Media Museum and features a beach photographer, a woman, and Felix the Cat! (who say's I never give you plenty of theme options?). As usual, post your post and then link it to the Linky List below.

Before I sink back under the rice pudding skin of Autumnal lethargy, let me point you in the direction of the next two Sepia Saturday themes.

203 : Have you ever noticed how many photographs are taken in doorways? For Sepia Saturday 203 we are asking you to frame yourself - well frame your great uncle Joe - open the door, and enter into the spirit of things.

204 : It is 50 years since the assassination of JFK. It was one of those iconic moments in history, just like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. So photographs of momentous moments is one of our themes for this week, along with anything else you might find in the photograph.

Back to Sepia Saturday 202 now. Take a look at that prompt image again and notice how the eyes of Felix the Cat follow you around the room. Spooky. Sepia Spooky.