Cottage: Decay

Cottage: Decay, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Eastern Poland has far more traditional cottages than other regions of Poland, but many are in advanced states of decay and there is little support available for their owners.

On close inspection it looks that the better condition left hand end might not be original. The first clue is that there are two chimneys - usually there is one, about 1/3 of the way across the roof due to the standard layout of a cottage with one living room and a cross passage behind the fireplace/stove. Where the window is in the side is where you would expect a door to be, and to the left are white painted wall boards, and the remains of white-painted walls to the immediate left. All the brown walls to the left of that is the later extension, including the chimney on the line where the two parts join.

If so, it is the earlier part of the cottage that has succumbed first, unsurprisingly given that both parts are built with the same kind of materials.

A sign of impending doom was there in tarmacadam roof - originally this was undoubtedly thatch, and anyone with the money and foresight would have typically replaced this with asbestos tiles or steel sheeting. Or plastic roof tiles, I suppose, if done recently.

by Trevor Butcher

I have similar images for sale as prints, canvas or phone cases at: www.photo4me.com/canvasprints/trevor-butcher

Yellow Car

Yellow Car, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This might look like the Fiat 600 original, but this one was known as the Yugoslavian Zastawa 750. The Italian original is very rare here in Poland, and the Zastawa has almost disappeared as well, but there are now quite a few enthusiasts around.

I just love the shape, and the colour with the added racing stripes was simply a bonus. I was surprised by how much time I spent on this image - first removing the cars on either side of this one, painting in the missing parts of the car where it had been obscured by another, then deciding to crop the image, minimizing and making consistent the background, doing than then redoing the grassy bank in the foreground and then fine finishing after blowing the image to a larger size.

However, the result is that the sales version of this image, see link below, can be blown up very large, which was the point of a lot of the effort. Roughing - 2 hours, Refining - 20 hours.

by Trevor Butcher

This image is available to buy as a print: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=247509, not just on paper - but on canvas and on phone cases!

Star 660 - Polish Army

Star 660 - Polish Army, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Long ago, when I had a large website that included Polish vehicles, I had to keep my images really small, about 300 pixels wide, to ensure they loaded onto the page. Such was the reality of life on the slow internet of the 1990s. The image had already been scanned in from a print, so the loss of quality was significant. However, these days the internet is incredibly fast in comparison, and now large images are possible - but I no longer have a scanner. The answer was a challenge, could I turn the 300 pixel wide original into a 6000 pixel wide monster.

And I succeeded! Well, this version has been resized back down to 640 pixels wide, but with a whole lot less compression - the 6000 pixel monster is for sale as a wall print, and I would not want to casually leave a print lying around on the internet that is pin-sharp at 50 inches wide when on your wall, would you?

by Trevor Butcher

Buy this as a print, on canvas or phone case at: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=292091

220 - Ania Driver Sunset

220 - Ania Driver Sunset, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I just can't stop with the driving subject, there are so many ways of showing what is great about driving without sparkling poses and speed images. The trick is to separate the experience from the car because, no matter the raves of the public and press and personal feeling, you don't yet know that car you will love in the future that has not yet been designed.

The pleasure of driving is not the car, it's what goes on in our heads.

by Trevor Butcher

See my images for sale as prints, canvases and phone cases: www.photo4me.com/canvasprints/trevor-butcher

Old Town Traffic

Old Town Traffic, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is a side street in the old town of Lublin, for a long time in an area one would not normally go at night - but since they finally reopened the old theatre and also opened a restaurant nearby it has almost become de rigueur to visit.

I hope to get some more night time old town pictures this summer.

by Trevor Butcher

This is also available to buy: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=254331, not just on paper - but on canvas and on phone cases!

House on the Hill - Winter

House on the Hill - Winter, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
A timber framed and clad cottage perched on the edge of a hill near Naleczow in Eastern Poland, late on a winter's day. Since the soil is predominantly sand-based, building so near the edge carries some risk. However, if it is all the land that you own, then build you will.

Many of the roads on slopes suffer erosion after the snow melts.

by Trevor Butcher

This image is available for sale at: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=259649, not just on paper - but on canvas and on phone cases!

Ania in White

Ania in White, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I keep forgetting to do some more black and white images, they are a challenge all of their own.

In any part of life it is all too easy to believe that you are doing the proper thing, and that the proper thing is the right thing to do. 'Proper' is a holding action prior to the disintegration of a system - the moment you start believing in it you are condemning the future of your organisation.

It works like this: Any system is designed to suit the situation at one point in time and likely deviations, based on past experience. The present is always changing, and you cannot stop that change because every single action you take changes the present. EVERY action. Even breathing does it. Imagine you decide to have pizza - the action of buying ingredients will be sensed by all those people involved in the ingredients, and even gathering the ingredients from your garden changes your garden, a garden that will be different depending on whether you choose to grow tomatoes or grass.

Since we cannot predict safely all the future, there is no such thing as a proper action predefined before the present takes place. 'Proper' assumes that you know the future, and can make it as the present. But you cannot, eventually the present will veer further and further from situation in the past.

The right action is the one best suited to the present. Not the proper one.

by Trevor Butcher

This image is available as a print, on canvas and on phone cases: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=227874