Week 42! Just ten more weeks before I finally complete this 52 week challenge! Jeez, and it took almost 1 and 1/2 years? Definitely need to improve on my commitments :) This week's theme involved creating an image that mimicked a postcard or "greetings from." I tried my very best to be innovative with this challenge. I thought long hard about what I wanted my "postcard" to look like and eventually decided on constructing something from the romantic era. Luckily, New York was graced with snowfall earlier in the week... and this created a perfect backdrop for what I had in mind.

        The image below features two roses and a quote from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. If you've read the novel, you'd remember that this is just one of the many famous lines uttered by Catherine Earnshaw as she ponders on her relationship with Heathcliff, "her soul." Wuthering Heights is Catherine's house that is hidden within the English countryside. Indeed, the house is surrounded by a harsh landscape. However, when it snowed... the Heights was a spectacular gem hidden by great trees. Since I didn't have any rugged backgrounds to showcase the quote and roses, I figured I'd lay it on the snow to suggest that it was somewhat of a long lost letter from Catherine to Heathcliff that was left behind by accident. What do you think? Romantic enough?

       The set up was fairly simple. I used two roses and some extra foliage for the romantic touch. I printed the quote in stylized handwriting and then positioned the two together to make them seem as though they had fallen and then snowed upon. Since the snow was melting against the sunlight, I cut a piece of cardboard to the length of the paper and slid it underneath so that the "letter" would not be overcome by moisture where the words would eventually bleed into the other. 

        I should add that it was quite freezing out. So the mere set up left my fingers numb. Then there was the issue of waiting for sunlight to re-appear from behind the clouds. And of course there was wind that kept blowing the edges of the paper. Here's a record of my struggle. 

         I also did an additional take with a different quote and edited the image in much darker tones. Personally, I think this image does a better job of embodying the type of dark, almost goth love that Bronte was writing of.

        However, I think it was a bit too much to submit for a postcard theme. After all, postcards are supposed to be warm and happy right? I hope my postcard warmed you up for Valentine's Day :) 

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