Month: November 2016

The bells that still can ring

/ Su Leslie / 30 Comments
Sunrise at Wenderholm, north of Auckalnd, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed.

“The birds they sang at the break of day.  Start again I heard them say. Don’t dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.” — Leonard Cohen, ‘Anthem‘ Image: Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed.

As if this week hasn’t been bad enough, Leonard Cohen has died.

Although best known as a singer-song-writer, I discovered Cohen first as a poet. Allowed to choose the book I’d be given as the science prize in my fifth form year, I chose The Spice-Box of Earth.

I have no real idea why, or even how the only book-shop in a small New Zealand timber-town came to stock a volume of Canadian poetry published sixteen years before I bought it (the year I was born in fact).

But I’m glad that I did. I don’t know how many times in the last forty years I’ve been grateful to Leonard Cohen for putting into words (and music), ideas and feelings that I struggled to articulate.

Today Anthem seems particularly appropriate, especially (and not surprisingly) the line:

… There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in …

And that’s what I’m hoping. That somehow, in the darkness of hatred, fear and uncertainty that envelops us, the light of love and peace and tolerance will find a way in. I don’t hope that in an abstract “she’ll be right, mate” kind of way, but because I believe that there are enough people who recognise the truth in Edmund Burke‘s statement that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

I’m offering this post for Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge at Lens and Pens by Sally. This week’s theme is nature, and right now escape into the natural world seems to offer great solace. It is also of course, very much threatened by any denial of climate change, so even in comfort there is fear.

Let’s hope we really can make the light get in.

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge

/ Su Leslie / 23 Comments
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Old wallpaper? I’m sure one of my childhood homes had a wall-covering like this. Photo-montage with recent images. Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused, Stackables and Pixlr.

It’s funny how memory works.

Inspired by Sally‘s interest in photo montage, I have been playing with an app called Fused; blending together contradictory images or those of the same scene.

Abstract pattern reminiscent of wallpaper, or formica. Photo-montage with two shots of the same scene. Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused and Pixlr.

“Feature wall”? Photo-montage with two shots of the same scene. Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused and Pixlr.

When my latest experiment — with a shot of branches reflected in a puddle — morphed into an abstract pattern that reminded me of a wallpaper design, I couldn’t help playing some more.

Photo-montage: shot of new buds overlaid with reflection of wind-blown trees in puddle. Images: Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused and Stackables.

Springtime. One minute new buds, the next rain and bough-shaking winds. Photo-montage of recent images; edited with Snapseed, Fused and Stackables. Images: Su Leslie, 2016

Adding a second image, of some blossom in bud, stirred memories of the living room of a childhood home which had a feature wall covered with paper of a bold design overlaid on the wallpaper which hung on the remaining walls.

Old wallpaper? Photo-montage with recent images. Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused, Stackables and Pixlr.

Old wallpaper? Same design in a different colour — or perhaps faded with age. Photo-montage with recent images. Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Fused, Stackables and Pixlr.

Even though this design isn’t that which adorned our long-ago living room, I still feel my mind prickling with the inhaled dust of old memories.

This post was written for Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge at Lens and Pens by Sally.

DP Photo Challenge: transmogrify, take 2

/ Su Leslie / 26 Comments

Sad clown? Yeah, nah. Image: Su Leslie, 2016

I’m practicing my clown face, not for Halloween, but another slightly eccentric project my little family has thought up.

Partial transmogrification. Image: Su Leslie, 2016

The precision isn’t there yet, but a few more trial runs and I might be ready to transform my boys for what could be our daftest photo-shoot yet.

Image: Su Leslie, 2016

This post was written for the Daily Post Photo Challenge. This week the theme is transmogrify.

DP Photo Challenge: transmogrify, take 1

/ Su Leslie / 32 Comments

Ghost of Halloween past. Image: Su Leslie, 2010

Last night was Halloween, and as I watched groups of little (and not so little) kids out Trick or Treat-ing, I had a little wave of nostalgia for the days when the boy-child would  transmogrify for the event, with face paint and costume — and more than a little attitude.

Back in the day. The boy-child and his best friend, Halloween, 2003. Image: Su Leslie


Hard to believe the transformations?

This post was written for the Daily Post Photo Challenge. This week the theme is transmogrify.