If The Suit Fits

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015 Ania6 Comments

The latest dilemma I seem to be facing in creating this deck, is the naming of the Minor Arcana suits. I’ve made a start on a few of the Minor Arcana cards and then it occurred to me that the “traditional” suit names don’t all *quite* work for me. Of course, traditions vary, depending on the tradition you happen to choose and its origins. Mind you, at least the plethora of fanciful modern alternatives has no appeal, since I can’t be doing with riffling through the LWB to look up which suit Chandeliers or Boulders or Dog Biscuits is supposed to be, so that narrows down the choices a tad.

Swords is a no-brainer for the…umm..Swords suit. I didn’t think twice about that one. I like swords and everyone knows where they stand with a sword. (Tip: I find that if you aren’t holding the blunt end, then out of range of the pointy end works best).

The other suits are a little more tricky.

Holy Juniper Berries!

June 21, 2015June 24, 2015 Ania15 Comments

And now for something competely different! This is the first outing for this blog on the Tarot Blog Hop and for this edition, our wrangler, Alison, has allowed us to just choose a card and write about it, rather than setting a specific topic. Before I launch into my post, here are the links for my neighbours and the master list.

PREVIOUS BLOG | MASTER LIST | NEXT BLOG

If you are of a certain age and culture, there are a great many things you can’t think of without the overlay of Monty Python humour. If you fall into this category and someone mentions, for example, parrots, the Messiah, lumberjacks, rabbits, Antioch, The Last Supper, getting stoned (in the Biblical…umm…judicial sense) or, indeed, hermits, your brain immediately converts it via the Python Filter. What you hear in your head (in summary) are phrases like: he’s pining for the fjords…pushing up daisies…, he’s not the Messiah he’s a naughty boy, I’m OK – I sleep all night…suspendies and a bra, that rabbit’s dynamite, holy hand-grenade, I may not know much about art…, Jehovah and juniper berries, respectively. Plus a whole host of other associated quotes. It can make it very difficult to take a great many things seriously 😀

Hanging About

June 16, 2015June 24, 2015 Ania3 Comments

I went in search of my Hanged Man this weekend and after a certain amount of hanging about, on both our parts, I managed to find just the right image of him. It was an excellent performance of aerial theatre and the action was fast and furious on occasion. Thankfully, I have a continuous shot facility (or what used to be known as Motor Drive) so I can take 8 shots per second*.

* This can be quite problematic at times if I forget that the camera is on and that it can also take pictures if you touch the screen. I have had to delete a great many pictures of the ground and people’s feet. Just as well I’m only shooting pictures and not bullets!

Still in Search of Justice

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015 Ania9 Comments

Opinions seem to be divided as to the Justice card, so here’s your chance to vote for which one you prefer:

You can click on the pics for a larger version of the image 🙂

Which Justice?

Nostrils of Justice (20%, 5 Votes)
Halfway There (4%, 1 Votes)
Halfway and Higher (40%, 10 Votes)
Blue Skies of Justice (20%, 5 Votes)
Blue Skies and Plinth (16%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 25

Loading ...

Don’t forget to leave a comment as to why you prefer the one you’ve chosen 😀

In Search of Justice and a Knight in Shining Armour

May 29, 2015June 24, 2015 Ania1 Comment

It’s been all go on photographing for the deck the last couple of weeks. I posted a couple of possibilities for the Wheel on the Facebook page recently and received some very useful feedback there and via shares, so I will be re-photographing the Ferris Wheel later in the year. It was my original vision for the card anyway 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, when I snapped the Round Table, I also found my Emperor. I think that he’d make an excellent King of Swords too, but I am trying to keep the Minors as real people rather than statues, which are fine for the archetypes in the Majors. And so, statues vs. people…

So We Begin

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 Ania2 Comments

I’m really pleased that the project is off to such a good start with 5 Majors in the bag already: The Fool, The Priestess, The Hierophant, Death and The Tower. Several of the other cards are already scheduled and, all being well, by the end of the Summer I should have my Magician, Chariot, Strength, Justice, Hermit and Hanged Man from the Majors and a few of the minors and courts as well. I have planned The Sun, Moon and Star cards, though these are very much location and weather dependent, sometimes both, so it’s a bit more ‘fingers crossed and hope for a following wind’ (or not, as the case may be).

Welcome to the Meniscus Tarot

May 4, 2015May 18, 2015 Ania

Meniscus, in optics, is a type of simple lens, which is found in many, if not all, camera lenses, these consisting of groupings of different type of simple lens. It seemed an appropriate name for a photographic Tarot deck, since the images you see will have certainly passed through a meniscus optical element. In anatomy, a meniscus is a fibro-cartilaginous structure found in joints such as the knee and elbow, and since much elbow and knee action was also employed in the creation of this deck, this too is relevant.

I have a fairly good eye for imagery and have taken some passably good photos in my time, so when it came to creating my own Tarot deck, using photography was a no-brainer. Thus, armed with an Olympus OMD EM-10 camera, I embarked on my photographic Tarot journey.

This journey is also one of discovery of the myriad of options and possibilities of the camera, including the ability to instantly apply a filter to any shot. As a result, many of the images in this deck are straight off the camera, unaltered in any way, other than to crop or resize the image to fit the card template or minor adjustments to the exposure or colour balance.

Thus, armed with a brand new digital Olympus OMD EM-10 camera – my old Pentax 35mm film cameras suffering the drawback of being unable to see whether you’ve taken a half-decent image in much less than a week – I embarked on my photographic Tarot journey. This journey was also one of discover of the capabilities of the camera with its myriad of options and possibilities, including the ability to instantly apply a filter, or several, to the scene. As a result, many of the resulting images in this deck are straight off the camera, unadjusted in any way, other than to crop or resize the image to fit the card template.

I hope you enjoy my work and look forward to reading your comments 🙂