happiness is a clean floor

sheep ©Caroline Fraser 2009

It is that time of year again; when the house is full of bags containing random gifts for random people. I have a day off, and am delighted to announce that a man has arrived here to scrub my filthy kitchen floor and make it clean and shiny once more.

I was once made ecstatic by a man cleaning my oven...............

Now it seems the same may be made possible  by a clean floor.........

The best thing about the floor man's arrival is the fact that it is going to take him at least 3 hours, and while he scrubs I feel duty bound to be present in the house to protect my jewels, credit cards, bank accounts and Christmas gifts. So I cannot go shopping, or even take dog for a walk.

I will have to make do with updating my website and printing off some prints for an exhibition next year.

Life is hard.

I have managed to add two new pages to the archive section of my website, including some light hearted black and white images made in the Yorkshire dales in 2009 of man and nature interacting together under the title "Human-nature". 

See here for the new page

dog © Caroline Fraser 2009

These were all taken on a Panasonic Lumix LX3, loaned to me for a few days by Light and Land, who were helping me to "find my vision". I had a great few days in Malham with David Ward and Eddie Ephraums, taking pictures and making a book. I came away with some images that were far removed from much of my abstract landscape work, but which still give me pleasure today. I bought a Lumix on my return from that trip, and still use it more than any other camera, as it fits in my coat pocket and can be with me wherever I go. 

Another great excitement today is the purchase of a second hand tilt shift lens for my Canon camera. I have in mind some experimental multiple exposure work, and I need to practice before I return to Iceland. More on this for sure (once it arrives).

Next on the agenda for today is the great supermarket home delivery, carefully timed to coincide with the floor man. I am nothing, if not efficient. Carrots for 16 to be prepared for the big day and driven to my sister's home deep in the countryside along with a delicious chocolate yule log to be carefully assembled by my youngest, and some haggis for the eve of the big day will all be arriving shortly.

And all of this done without leaving my desk..............

As I say, life is hard.

The doorbell has just rung............ it is the man who measures the enormous cracks running through the walls of my house and tells me whether the house is expanding or shrinking this month.........

I had forgotten he was coming as well..........but I am here............so that is fine.

creativity in the kitchen

My project is  about my "ordinary life". The dilemma I wrestle with most  of the day is what should I include?

I could take a photo every five minutes, or perhaps every hour?

I could photograph my porridge on a daily basis to show you how skilled I am at using the microwave, and how much sugar I put on top.

Should I take my camera to work, or when visiting friends?

Can I venture into abstractions of normality? ( more than likely I will whether you think I should or not).

All of these thoughts buzz around throughout the day, along with wondering whether to write in my workbook, take more pictures or read something relevant to my subject area.

Today I decided to tackle FLASH; a skill that has eluded me for the last 40 or more years. I got my camera and a bottle of ketchup out on the kitchen table, and the work began. I didn't get very far, because something totally out of the ordinary happened; a man called Martin arrived to clean my oven.

Nothing ordinary about that; never before have I had a man wearing a head torch delving into my oven, down on his knees while I pretended that I know something about flash photography. Turns out that Matin is a keen photographer; he directed me to You Tube to find out what to do. Sadly, the Nikon flash that I borrowed does not talk to my Canon camera; after an hour of messing around I realised that I had no control whatsoever over exposures. I retreated to my computer. 

Martin transformed my oven, and I produced a rather unusual image of a bottle of ketchup.