Sepia Saturday 274 : 11 April 2015

Looking out of the window and the sun is shining and Spring is in the air. The prospect for the coming months is warm summer sun, blue skies and Factor 98 Sun-screen. It is therefore a timely reminder from your Sepia Saturday host that you should be thinking of ordering your winter coal now. Our theme image for Sepia Saturday 274 - post your posts on or around Saturday 11 April 2015 - comes from the Library Company of Philadelphia (via the ever-faithful Flickr Commons) and shows a World War 1 era poster for the United States Fuel Administration. If you are a theme then you can think about horses, carts, coal, fuel, fires or posters. If you are a dreamer you can think about toasted bread around an open fire. Just make sure that amidst all that thinking you post your post and then link it to the list below.

And spare a thought for what is on the cart for the next couple of weeks

275 : Wires / Cables / Ladders / Sky

276 : Babies / Newlyweds (not necessarily in that order)

Such thoughts are for the future. For the present start shovelling those lumps of imaginary coal into the creative furnace that is Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 273 : 4th April 2015

What better way to spend an Easter Holiday weekend than to take a ride in the park. These ladies are enjoying a Springtime ride in Battersea Park - but whether it is Central Park or Waterfront Park, Myers Park or La Fontaine Park, it makes no difference if you want to join in the fun. Just choose an old image - either connected to the theme image or not - and share in in a Sepia Saturday post. Post your post on or around Saturday 4th April 2015 and add a link to the list below. Our theme image comes from the British Library collection on Flickr Commons and is taken from a book entitled "The Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London" So as a sepia Easter present you have a range of potential themes to follow - cycling, parks, long skirts, book and newspaper illustrations - the choice is yours.

Before you push off - so to speak - take a look at what our next couple of themes are so you can be ready to recycle an appropriate old image.

274 : Coal / Power / Horses / Carts

275 : Cables / Wires / Ladders / Workers

So have a great Easter and get those sepia cycles on the road.

Sepia Saturday 272 : 28 March 2015

We seem to be on a transport thing at the moment. There were horses last week, tractors this week and bikes next week. But just a little imagination can turn a drinking horse into a pub, a tractor into a potato, and a bicycle into a pair of pretty women. Our theme image comes from the collection of the SALT Institute in Istanbul, Turkey (featured on their Flickr Stream) and dates back to 1924 and shows a powerful looking tractor at an International Agricultural Fair in Adana, Turkey. You can go wherever you want to with this image (and indeed with this tractor). All you have to do is to post a post on or around Saturday 28 March 2015 and add a link to the list below.

Before you engage first gear and plough your way to a post, take a look at what awaits you over the next couple of weeks.

273 : Bicycles / Long Skirts / Newspaper Cuttings

274 : Coal / Power / Horses / Carts

Having ploughed up your imagination, it is time to plant the seeds of creativity - it is time to post your post for Sepia Saturday 272

Sepia Saturday 271 : 21 March 2015

It's a thirsty job, this Sepia Saturday lark. Trawling through those dusty old archives, sorting through those piles of faded old photographs, looking for the perfect Sepia Saturday prompt. You can't blame a chap for wanting a drink to celebrate the discovery of the perfect old sepia print. Something long, cool and refreshing; next to a charming little river perhaps. Somewhere to go with your mates and celebrate the end of another day's honest work. Where was I?  ..... ah yes, our Sepia Saturday prompt for this week - post your posts on or around Saturday 21 March 2015 - is an image from the Flickr Commons collection of the Nederlands Institute Voor Militaire Historie and shows a group of army horses enjoying a refreshing drink after a hard day's exercise. The choice of how you interpret this theme is entirely yours but drinking and horses spring to mind - or maybe drinking at the Black Horse Pub. Whatever you decided to go with, post your post and add a link to the list below.

Before you drink too much be aware of the next couple of themes because both of them involve driving in one way or another.

272 : Tractors / Agriculture / Wheels

273 : Bicycles / Long Skirts / Newspaper Images

That is enough thinking for the moment. Settle down. Relax. Have a nice drink or two. It's time for Sepia Saturday 271

Sepia Saturday 270 : 14 March 2015

Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week comes from the collection of the Preus Museum which is the National Museum of Photography in Norway. It is a photograph by Elisabeth Meyer entitled "Stewardess Hugging A Puppy" and forms part of the Preus Museum stream on Flickr Commons (you will recall that we are working the way through some of the Flickr Commons participating archives at the moment).  It appears that the photograph was taken in Alaska and it dates from sometime in the 1950s. All sort of themes come to mind - dogs, cute animals, air crew, hugs: as usual it is up to you to interpret the theme in any way you want to. Simply post a post on or around Saturday 14th March 2015 and add a link to the list below.

Before you go all weak at the knees with that lovable bundle of fluff, take a look at what is around the sepia corner.

271 : Horses / Rivers / Drinking

272 : Tractors / Agriculture / Wheels

But now let the bleating, the purring, the whimpering begin. It is time to give your best friend a sepia hug.

Sepia Saturday 269 : 7th March 2015

Ladies and Gentlemen, take your partners for the next dance at the Annual Sepia Ball. It is the ever popular polka and we will be dancing to that old favourite, the Violet Polka (which you might also notice is also called the Adelaide Polka). If you are not familiar with the dance, the steps are quite simple. Search for an old photograph which somehow connects with the theme image (think music, dance, polkas, violets .... think anything). Post it to a blog post and say something about it. Publish the post on or around Saturday 7th March 2015 and then link it to the list below. Simple as one, two, three, skip. Our theme image this week comes from collection of the Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts, just one of the splendid institutions that make their photographic collections available via Flickr.

Before we start dancing, take a look at what is on our dance cards for the next couple of weeks.

270 : Puppies / Air Crew / Hugs

271 : Horses / Rivers / Drinking

Don't worry about such things now. I can hear the band beginning to strike up. Take your partners please for the Sepia Polka.

Sepia Saturday 268 : 28 February 2015

Our trawl through the various on-line archives available via the Flickr Commons initiative has already taken us to some fairly esoteric places, and this week is no exception for we are off to St Petersburg via Geneva. The photograph is in fact a 1917 postcard depicting a political demonstration on Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd, Russia, and as students of Russian history will know, this was right in the middle of the Russian revolution. The image comes from the Kathryn & Shelby Cullom Davis Library of the Graduate Institute of Geneva. For those in search of a theme there are, as always, plenty of options: parades, banners, and gatherings spring to mind and for those in search of a more revolutionary approach, there is always revolutions. All you need do is to post a post on or around Saturday 28th February 2015 and link it to the list below. 

Before you start marching and chanting, take a look at what awaits you in the future:

269 : Music / Dance / Polkas / Violets

270 : Puppies / Air Crew / Hugs

Before you start marching off into the brave new sepia dawn, just a quick reminder to visit the Sepia Saturday Magazine on Flipboard to see all your Sepia Saturday posts in a bright new format. But all that is for the future, for the moment let us rejoin the demonstration. All together now:  "What do we want? Sepia Images. When do we want them? Now"