Tea Anyone?
Earlier this year I started a personal photographic project called my ‘Tea Project’ and I’ve not blogged about for a while. Something I thought I should remedy as a few people have asked if the project has ended. Nope, I’m still doing it and friends are still being pestered while trying to have a peaceful cuppa. This particular cuppa was being poured by my mother in a lovely little cafe in Alnwick, Northumberland. It tasted as good as it looked as well.
I’m thinking of extending the tea project soon although I’m not sure in which direction. Oh well working all that sort of stuff out is half the fun isn’t it LOL…
I’m British, we celebrate with tea…
Like many people I often have to work to a deadline and this time of year is full of them. Usually I’m with Douglas Adams on the deadline front when he said, ‘I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.’ Unfortunately the type of deadlines I’ve had recently are ones that must be met head on, allowing them to whoosh past wasn’t an option. So time with my camera has been limited, and when I have made it out there’s been no time to process the shots.
So yesterday I was delighted to see the last major deadline for a while disappear out of sight. It’ll come round to meet me again next year, but, for a few days I’m determined to enjoy being deadline free. How you might wonder did I celebrate. A night out on the town? Copious amounts of alcohol and dancing? Nope…. Far to tired, it was a cuppa tea for me. Well it is the ‘British’ thing to do I suppose 
Tea anyone?
A little while ago I mentioned a new personal project I’ve been working on, nicknamed the ‘Tea Project’. Basically this involves photographing cups of tea etc in tea and coffee shops. Well the project continues and I thought I’d share a couple of shots with you.
Now I can practically hear some people muttering at the screen when reading this about what the point of this is. I mean cups of tea, boring right? Well to some maybe and I’ll admit it’s not the most thrilling or dynamic subject. However there is method in my madness honestly. As someone more at home sitting on a beach in the middle of nowhere watching the sunrise with my camera, doing photography in front of people isn’t something I’m very used to. So this project is as much about taking me outside of my comfort zone as anything else. It’s the same reason I’ve started doing street photography.
My current self imposed rules for the project are that the shots must be taken in public and be to do with having a cuppa. I think it might need to be extended to officially include chocolate and cake though hehe….
Another new project…
Recently I’ve started another new personal project. Tea…. Ok, ok, you can stop laughing now. It’s no secret that I’m somewhat obsessed with tea. You can usually find 3 or so different varieties in my kitchen and I tend to assess a location based on if I can get a decent cuppa. I suppose it was inevitable that I’d start photographing it as well. So my friends are coming to understand that if tea is involved they can expect to see me pull out my camera and start shooting away. I’ve received a few funny looks but as yet no tea shop owners have had a problem with it. In fact to date the only person to seriously object has been my mother because she wanted to drink the tea!
This particular shot was taken in a cafe called BB’s surprisingly enough. It’s fairly local to my mothers and we were visiting as one of her first forays back out into the big wide world after a major operation. The location was chosen because I could park very close by, meaning she wouldn’t need to walk far. Unfortunately I’d been so obsessed with how close I could park to minimise the distance to walk, I forgot that this is a noisy place. I think it has something to do with the acoustics of the ceiling. So given my mam is partially deaf it wasn’t the best choice. The tea was nice though hehe……