August Photo-a-Day Challenge
This month I took part in an Instagram ‘Photo-a-Day’ challenge for the first time. I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d share the results here for those who don’t follow me on Instagram (if you are on Instagram and you’d like to follow me, I’m RachelsWritings). Some of the photos are an interesting record of what I’ve been up to this month that I haven’t necessarily written about elsewhere, while others are much older and bring back nice memories. I wouldn’t say that my photos are all that great, but it was fun to be given a theme for each day and see what I could come up with. Here was the brief:
1. Landscape
I took this photo on a flight Lee and I did a few weeks ago down to Oxford, as we’d been commissioned by the Oxford Mail to get some before and after photos of the Didcot Power Station cooling tower demolition. I spotted this field of lavender and thought this would make a great first photo of the challenge, providing a different view of the landscape normally seen from the ground.
2. Lunch
Lots of people think that Instagram is just for photos of people’s lunch, so I was slightly reluctant to upload this one – but it’s all part of the challenge! This was the lunch I had before we headed off to my friends’ wedding.
3. “S” is for
The day after the wedding, we had a lovely day in the Cotswolds, with the picturesque Snowshill providing the perfect photograph for the “S is for” on Day 3 of the photo challenge. A little bit of trivia we discovered the other day: this is the village in the snowy scene of Christmas carolers in Bridget Jones’s Diary!
4. In the middle
I struggled for inspiration for this one, so I opted to use one I’d taken at the wedding two days previously. I loved the roses and clematis against the red brick wall, growing “in the middle” of two windows.
5. Pile
My collection of vintage Observer books provided the ideal photograph for Day 5, “Pile”. I love how colourful they are. They’re a great thing to collect, because they give you something to look out for when perusing second-hand bookshops, of the sort almost always found at National Trust houses.
6. Grateful for
I allowed myself a moment of soppiness on Day 6 of the photo challenge, because if there’s one thing I’m grateful for above all else right now, it’s Lee. We’ve been through a lot in the couple of years we’ve been together, and he does a great job of looking after me and still manages to make me laugh everyday, even when I’m feeling down. This picture was taken earlier this year, when we were invited to plant a tree at Charlecote Park on Valentine’s Day.
7. Spot
What better photo for the “Spot” theme than our beautiful Dalmatians? On the left is little Dylan, whom I grew up with; he sadly died three years ago, and we all still really miss him. On the right is Fern, who’s 12 now but still a real live wire!
8. Pet peeve
Anyone who knows me will know that I have many pet peeves (bad grammar, my next door neighbour, teenagers, noise, etc etc), but I didn’t really want to put those on Instagram, so I went for “not having enough time to read” as my pet peeve. Any excuse to post a picture of (a tiny fraction of) my beloved library.
9. Mix
For the “mix” theme, I went for a photo from our trip to Cotswold Lavender, with a mix of lavender varieties. I hadn’t realised how many different kinds of lavender there were until I went there.
10. Art
This picture of me, painted by my very talented Grandad, provided the inspiration for the “Art” theme. It’s painted from a photo of me on the beach in Nice many years ago. Also vaguely arty in this photo of my dressing table are the hot air balloon, a present from Lee last Christmas, and the Venetian mask, which my grandparents bought me when we were in Rome.
11. Mirror
I knew everyone would be posting daft “selfies” of themselves in the mirror for this day of the challenge, so I wanted to do something different. This is the ‘rear view mirror’ bolted to the wing of an aircraft when towing a glider. As you can see, you can watch what the glider is doing behind you. This was taken on an aerotow we did earlier in the year and I think it’s pretty cool!
12. Gather
The brambles in the back garden have been producing blackberries for quite some time now, and were a good subject for the theme “gather”. I keep meaning to make jam out of them, but just haven’t had the time.
13. Inside
I bought a new pot of gorgeous-smelling face cream from L’Occitane on the day when the theme was “inside”, so here’s the untouched pot before I used it for the first time.
14. Give
For the “Give” theme, I had a few ideas but none of them were that easy to express in a photo, so I opted for an image of the numerous bird feeders we have in the garden. Unfortunately, the only birds we seem to get in our garden are sparrows, starlings and woodpigeons; we tried to entice blue tits into the garden with the fat balls, but we’ve only seen them once or twice!
15. Clouds
This theme came on the perfect day, as Lee had to do his multi-engine and instrument rating renewals and I got to sit in the back. It didn’t take long to get up to cloud base in this twin-engined aircraft!
16. Clean
For this theme I wanted to do an arty photo of the posh bathroom we had with our room at Lumley Castle Hotel, but the bathroom had no window, making the lighting very difficult. I wasn’t very pleased with this photo of the shower, but it got quite a few likes on Instagram for some reason.
17. Dinner
Another Lumley Castle photo for the “dinner” theme: this was our beautifully set table for dinner with my grandparents on the first evening.
18. Arrow
What better image for the “Arrow” theme than the legendary Red Arrows? This one comes from our day at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford this year. The Red Arrows never fail to impress.
19. To Do
My To Do list is always massive, and I keep on top of it with this cute stationery from Alexia Claire.
20. Before bedtime
Our evening on the “Before Bedtime” day involved flying – we went to Bidford Gliding Club, where the annual BMI Fly-In was happening. This is an event where lots of airline pilots fly in with their own aircraft and do a few displays, spot-landing competitions and flour bombing. We flew in with Wilhelm and didn’t stay long, but it made a nice shot for the photo challenge. You can see Wilhelm in the pic below, slightly dwarfed by the Dragon Rapide!
21. Decorate
I couldn’t think what to do for this one, so I turned to a photo I took last year of a wedding we went to. I loved how beautifully the tables were decorated with spring flowers and a mix of glass types.
22. Words
The one writer above all others who uses words most beautifully has to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, so I chose the opening lines of Love in the Time of Cholera for the “words” theme. His writing is so evocative, and this novel is high on my list of favourites.
23. Style
I headed to Oxford on Day 23 of the challenge, bearing birthday gifts for my sister. I love curling ribbon, so I thought this would make a good subject for the day’s theme.
24. Fragrant
Turning back to our visit to Cotswold Lavender, the gorgeous smell fitted the “fragrant” theme perfectly.
25. Mail
I would have chosen an example of my mum’s amazing calligraphy for the “mail” theme, but I didn’t want to reveal our address. So I picked a letter at random from my letter rack and got this birthday card sent to me when I was at university, sent by my friend Cyrus using the messaging service that delivers mail between Oxford colleges.
26. Breakfast
Homemade banana bread, a cappuccino and Edith Holden’s Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.
27. Dull
I wasn’t sure what photo to do for “dull”, as I don’t like to post dull things on Instagram, but inspiration struck when I heard a familiar engine noise overhead, and went into the garden to see Lee flying over in Wilhelm. Not that that’s dull, but my being trapped in the house working when I could be flying definitely is!
28. Travel
I chose my all-time favourite city to travel to for the “travel” theme. Rome is definitely one of those cities best enjoyed at night, when it really comes to life. Old monuments and fountains are illuminated, the weather is more bearable and everyone’s out having fun. This is the Pantheon, surely one of the most remarkable buildings in the world and the most complete surviving building from antiquity.
29. Dessert
I’ve never had so many ‘likes’ so quickly as I did for this photo of the salted caramel chocolate pot I had when I was in Oxford with my sister. It was rather delicious, if somewhat rich!
30. Nearby
There are loads of interesting things near us here in Stratford-upon-Avon, but I picked this Vulcan bomber, which lives at our airfield. Very occasionally they get it out and do fast taxi runs down the runway in it, as seen in this photo.
31. 10am
I knew this one was going to be a dull end to the challenge, as I didn’t have any plans for yesterday other than working. At about 10am I was photographing my purchases from Shuttleworth ready to put in my blog. Can you tell I like hot air balloons?
The challenge I chose was by Fatmumslim on Instagram. I think I’ll have a break from it in September and maybe start again in October, when I’ll be in Florida and I’ll have lots of unusual things to photograph!
Felicity
September 1, 2014 at 9:08 am (10 years ago)I love this idea! I’ve been meaning to start a photo project for a while (to get me away from my obsession with photographing flowers and dogs!) but haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe I’ll do the September one!
One of my projects which I’m putting off starting is ‘Finding Beauty in Unexpected Places – Coventry’…. As you can see, I like a challenge!! Possibly one of the ugliest cities imaginable but surely I can find something pretty within?! Wish me luck!
Rachel McCombie
September 1, 2014 at 9:10 am (10 years ago)Haha that’s a great idea Felicity, good luck! Coventry does have its nice spots, you just have to know where to look for them :) I’ll look forward to seeing what you come up with! x
Sue Langley
September 1, 2014 at 9:24 pm (10 years ago)Love the photos, just an idea for Felicity one place in Coventry worth photographing a small street which has some history, the buildings are really old – Spon Street it is behind IKEA. Good luck.