Rain and Photography

On Friday night, we went to bed with the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. On Saturday morning, we woke up to the rain again. Bliss. It's damp and chilly and the washing won't dry but I don't mind a bit. I also couldn't resist posting this photo of Mr M. It is one of a series I think of as the 'Singing in the Rain' sequence. The evening we took the photos, there wasn't much rain at all. Just a light shower. But the Teletubbies raincoat was a new purchase from the op shop and it had to be worn. Yesterday, despite heavy showers and water rushing along the gutters, the raincoat stayed inside. We did, however, get some use out of the Thomas the Tank Engine umbrella. We have all the accessories - it's the weather that has been the problem.

Photographs have been a recurring theme this week. The one above was the first Mr M has taken on the digital camera that I have actually had printed. It would be close to his first photo. He took it at the National Museum in November. He loves the Museum and often visits with J. In fact, they popped in on Thursday, after playschool and on the way to pick me up from work. At the moment, the big attraction is the small Wiggles display in the Eternity gallery. It features a purple Jeff Wiggle shirt, a very desirable object in Mr M's eyes. He can stand for a very long time in front of that display.

At work, I have been looking at photos by Charles Bayliss (1850 - 1897). I was familiar with his images of Jenolan Caves and the Blue Mountains but had never seen his images of Sydney in the 1880s. These, for me, were like looking at a city in a foreign land. There is nothing about the city in Bayliss's images that I recognise and yet I would argue that I 'know' Sydney. Nor is it as if I can see another city in the images either. This is not a place that could be mistaken for London or even Melbourne at the same period. I'm intrigued - any reading I have ever done that encompasses the period these images were taken hasn't prepared me for how the city actually appeared. And take a look at this image of Balmain. Remember, these shots were taken only 120 - 130 years ago.

Coincidentally, a friend emailed me some pix this week of her grandparents. One is of her great-grandmother with her three daughters, a formal family grouping. The other, of her grandfather, has him dressed in a suit in the foreground but in the background is a small group of workmen, completely out of focus. It's taken in a garden at what appears to be the back of a house. Reflecting on the photos, she wrote "I find the images to be eerie windows back in time".

I like that. I like the idea that a photo lets us slip back through time to another place, to fall through the rabbit hole of our histories. But these are "eerie windows", so what you see may not be exactly what it appears to be.

I'm wondering what Mr M's great-grandchildren will think of his feet.

Have a terrific week and thanks to all of you who have left comments. I'm still working out how I go about responding to them. It's very exciting to know folk are reading.