Down on the farm -

"Hay Shed"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... there is no reason to fear the wind
if your stack of hay is well tied ..."
- Old Irish Saying

Utility -

"Perryville Shed"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... wandering, in unfamiliar territory,
I came upon an old shed, still intact,
bales of hay stacked 'round the perimeter;
having seen no live man in weeks
and due to the rage of the storm,
taking refuge seemed a safe option,
that thinking was my first mistake ..."
- Mick Mather

Thursday Challenge: Trees -

"Trees I"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

The theme is trees at Thursday Challenge this week. I should say, and any who've followed this blog for any length of time can agree, I have plenty of images from which to choose for this topic. Not wanting to drift too far into the obvious, it occurred to me that a recent photograph taken in the living room - of some interesting patterns of light - also features an old photograph of mine. Standing in a cheap, paper frame just beyond a most interesting floral candle, is an old shed. It sits, perched beyond the crest of a hill, among a small stand of mature, experienced oaks. Their position and the battered, well used demeanor of the shed gave up one of my favorite double entendre titles: "Over the Hill".

Expanding horizons -

"The Secret Shed"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

- click on image to view full size -

Today's post is rooted in an old photograph of a farm shed that's been almost completely overgrown by weeds and second growth. After running it through the usual array of plug-ins to add a little bit of mood and darkness I used what is called the stitch tool in another photo editor to add volume. I'm not sure how well I'm going to like this since the blog automatically resizes large images and what you see here is a scaled version - click on the image to see it full size.

Moody Monday: Indecent -

"Collect The Entire Set"

digital collage by Mick Mather

This week's theme at Moody Monday has more than its share of twists and turns on the road to conceptualization. My first thought for indecent was to illustrate these two choices for the top dis-honor. While the naughty matchbook cover might lead to a weakening of the soul and spirit, is it truly any worse than the cigarette that fouls the body, the temple? The other idea, arrived at well after completing the piece, is that of the typical, pubescent male who, stealing a smoke behind the shed, was additionally stimulated by particular contents of dad's secret drawer. A swig of cheap, blended scotch mixed with a little grape Nehi and the world could be as perfect as it knows how to be for that fleeting 12 or 15 minutes of forbidden fruit.