I have another blog entitled “Portals And Gateways And Doors, Oh My" that I add to occasionally, which, in the whole scheme of blogging, is pretty basic. Basic in that it's no words and all pictures, which is okay for a coffee-table book perhaps, but it's hardly going to bring in the reading hordes.
But then, that's not really its purpose, for it's actually a receptacle for every door photo I've taken since I first started pounding the pavement back in August 2013. And it's a love of finding new doors to immortalise on cyber-celluloid that led me to enjoy walking in the open air as a form of exercise to help me lose weight, which in turn led me to an appreciation of the beautiful parks and woods that I'm lucky to come across on my travels.
So the doors have meaning. They're special. They could be made of the slickest, shiniest plastic, and all-seeing glass, or the roughest, most weathered wooden slats. Or the doors themselves might be a little bland, but they may be surrounded by the most abstract, elaborate, or stunning frames. I've been known to take a photograph of the entire bottom floor of a building, or whole shop-front if I think the story is better told in a door and windows context, than just by the door alone. They don't have to be historically of interest, they don't have to be beautiful, they don't even need to be functioning. They just need to be.
So the doors have meaning. They're special. They could be made of the slickest, shiniest plastic, and all-seeing glass, or the roughest, most weathered wooden slats. Or the doors themselves might be a little bland, but they may be surrounded by the most abstract, elaborate, or stunning frames. I've been known to take a photograph of the entire bottom floor of a building, or whole shop-front if I think the story is better told in a door and windows context, than just by the door alone. They don't have to be historically of interest, they don't have to be beautiful, they don't even need to be functioning. They just need to be.
Normally I let the photos speak for themselves on their own internet real estate, but I had the opportunity to spend a day walking around Brugge (or Bruges) in Belgium last week, and it was so epic, both in portal overload, and sheer energy expended over the walk, that I wanted to include it here.
Apart from half an hour sitting in a lovely wee café sipping on a restorative ginger tea and finding my bearings again, I spent five hours walking around the city, being led not by my map (although thankfully I had one safely stashed in my pocket) but by doors. Ancient doors shouting in old, raspy tones to stop and have a chat; elegant doors whispering sweet nothings suggesting that a photo might be in order; faded and forgotten doors surprised to get attention, opulently enormous doors demanding to be admired; wonderful hybrids that aren't always content to be what they once were; and many more doors disappearing around corners bidding me to follow them...
Of course, those corners turned into some great vistas, too, and although it was raining pretty much the whole day, there were still long shots to please the eye! And not all cookie-cutter postcard cute, either. I like to see a bit of character, and there was character aplenty everywhere I turned!
And, um, yes... chocolate shops. There were chocolate shops aplenty, too...
Apart from half an hour sitting in a lovely wee café sipping on a restorative ginger tea and finding my bearings again, I spent five hours walking around the city, being led not by my map (although thankfully I had one safely stashed in my pocket) but by doors. Ancient doors shouting in old, raspy tones to stop and have a chat; elegant doors whispering sweet nothings suggesting that a photo might be in order; faded and forgotten doors surprised to get attention, opulently enormous doors demanding to be admired; wonderful hybrids that aren't always content to be what they once were; and many more doors disappearing around corners bidding me to follow them...
Of course, those corners turned into some great vistas, too, and although it was raining pretty much the whole day, there were still long shots to please the eye! And not all cookie-cutter postcard cute, either. I like to see a bit of character, and there was character aplenty everywhere I turned!
And, um, yes... chocolate shops. There were chocolate shops aplenty, too...
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