For the love of dirt.

Spring is in the air and today I'm finally getting around to starting some plants, but before I could get out the door, Mr. Mailman (or Mr. Maleman as I like to call him) came strutting up my steps with a big package in his hands. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Here's what it was:

Not the package you were expecting?

Aw it's so good! Look at the sun bouncing off those happy leaves! Look at that fabulous dirt! It occurred to me that I certainly have a 'thing' for autochromes that feature dirt. I think the graininess of the format is particularly flattering to texture. It also helps that the three 'dirty' autochromes I have are all much larger than most of my others; as far as I'm concerned, the bigger the better when it comes to autochromes (the motion of the ocean is only a detriment).

You can almost smell those flowers, non?

But this one still reigns supreme for nice soil: it's a very old one and the colour is still vibrant for it's age, it's giant sized, and the dirt looks magnificent. Gaze away:

You should come over and see this one under the loupe - it's amazing.

Keep your eyes peeled for dirty autochromes! They have an inflated value at the moment. Happy filthing!

Autochromes: soft, gorgeous reality.

I'm delighted to have finally found a way to reasonably photograph some of my autochromes. These are certainly the jewels of the collection and over the next two weeks, I'll be posting several. The following three have a few things on common, they are a larger format for autochromes, roughly 5" x 7" which make them particularly difficult to see properly without adequate lighting. This is essentially the first time I've experienced their beautiful details all at once, without having to inspect them through the loupe one square inch at a time. The other commonalities are gloriously obvious. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, please be sure to view on black.

Autochromes taken inside or around greenhouses really do it for me. It's the combination of flowers en masse and glass panes that is particularly attractive. The second scene is wonderful for it's almost gloomy early-spring mood, and the addition of the house in view gives it delicious gravitas. But for me, the award for most beautiful element goes to the luscious dirt in the bottom left corner of the third autochrome. You can smell it, you can feel it - cool, aromatic and fertile! Simply simply sublime.