New Baker's Dozen Call for Work: 'Grandkids'

Me and my beloved grandmother, ages 71 and 15. This picture would not make the cut even though I love it.

A "Baker's Dozen" is a portfolio of a dozen pictures by readers, with one extra for good measure, juried from your submissions by Yr. Hmbl. Ed.

Each time we do this we have fun and create a nice little virtual group show. If you'd like to see older ones, click on the "Baker's Dozen" category in the right-hand sidebar.

I promised we'd do 'grandchildren' as the next subject, and here we are.

Your submission (please, only one) may be taken with any camera and may be of any vintage, as long as you either took the picture yourself or it is a family picture belonging to your family. Anything relating to the theme is potentially fair game, as long as you know the relationship for certain.

How to Submit

This is a call for work. By submitting, you give me permission to reproduce the small JPEG of your picture on TOP and that's it. Any and all rights remain where they are.

To submit, use the subject line:

BDGrandkids

Just like that...no spaces, spelled exactly like that, no variations. Capital "G" in "Grandkids." The reason is that when I begin building the post, I will search my large email stack for that phrase as the subject, and if your email doesn't come up, then I won't see your picture.

Deadline to be announced when we get close to it. The results will appear in (ahem!) less than 856 days (I'll get this here egg off my face real soon now).

Email ONE (1) JPEG, 800 pixels wide, saved in sRGB. Include in the email your name, where you live (don't forget that), and, briefly, what you want to tell other TOP readers about your picture. Technical details aren't needed unless they're especially interesting.

Lots of people write a short paragraph explaining their picture (see the "Yellow" portfolio for examples), so if you don't, just be aware that your picture might seem a little "naked" if it gets picked.

My email address is mcjohnston at mac dot com. Replace the "at" and the "dot" with the proper symbols and get rid of the spaces.

So, five components:

"BDGrandkids" in the SUBJECT LINE;
PICTURE, 800 pixels wide in sRGB;
NAME;
WHERE YOU LIVE;
Your brief COMMENTS about the shot.

And please, put everything in one email. If you forget anything, start over...don't send anything in a separate email please. Also: check that your email client is not reducing inclusions to thumbnail size. I need to see a full 800-pixel-wide JPEG.

Have fun picking! I know it could be tough.  :-)

Mike

Book of Interest:

Photographs Not Taken: a collection of photographers' essays, edited by Will Steacy (Daylight Books; Second Revised ed. edition, 2012). Recommended by Mike Chisholm, who has good taste. This is a link to Amazon from TOP.

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Gordon Lewis: "Not to pick nits or split hairs here, but aren't any children someone's grandchildren, even if said grandparent is no longer among the living? That being the case, this seems to me to be a distinction without a real difference. Does a grandparent therefore need to be visible in the photo? Your example would seem to imply that but your stated requirements aren't clear. I suggest you do yourself and potential entrants a favor by being more explicit about what you are and are not looking for.

Mike replies: If a TOP reader tells me it's his or her grandchild, I'll believe it. 

In light of the previous post, however, I'd want to give readers the latitude to be inventive with the theme if they want to be. I assume most submissions would be of the reader's own grandchild(ren), although that's not required.

I'm not conceited enough to think I can know all of the ways somebody else might interpret the theme. For instance, one thing that popped into my mind as I was mulling over the concept is a picture I think I saw in LIFE magazine many decades ago, showing the man who would have been King of America at that time if George Washington had decided to become King. The guy was a farmer in some Midwestern state and was pictured standing out in the middle of a field. Does that meet the theme? I think it does, but it's a matter of interpretation.

In a contest like this, one way to approach it is to make the best picture you can of a grandchild. Another way entirely is to see how creative you can be with the concept of the designated theme. My guess is that most submissions will be the former, but I'm interested in seeing the latter too, if anyone cares to go that way.

As far as your counterexample of any picture of any child (actually any person of any age would do just as well), the problem is that nothing in the picture would indicate a grandparent-grandchild relationship, so I would think that all such entries would fail at the theme, unless there was some pertinent explanation.

Phil Thomas: "Mike, your post has done two things, both of which were very valuable. Firstly it made me look back over old pictures of my children with their grandparents when my children were much younger (they are now both teenagers). Secondly it made me realise that I haven't taken any photos of the kids and grandparents together recently, and this needs to be redressed. So thanks, on both counts."

Comments

[Stan B.]

That's one helluva snappy plaid jacket...

[

Hey, it was the 'seventies. --Mike]

[James Allen]

I hope one day your son graces your life with some grandchildren, they'll bring more pleasure than you imagine. I know mine do. I look forward to seeing your picks for this contest!

[Clayton]

What a wholesome-looking young fellow! Bet you could write a story about what happened to him.

[Yonatan Katznelson]

Do they have to be my grandkids? I have none of those yet (and for the foreseeable future, I hope).

On the other hand, I have plenty of pictures of my father's grandkids...

[Yeah, no. Grandkids, not kids. But if you put your kid with your parent, then you're in-bounds again, right? --Mike]

[Michael Matthews]

It’s interesting to look at this photo and the one from an earlier post which shows that your son is now older than you were at one time. Bound to happen, in most cases…but putting them side by side sort of futzes with the space-time continuum.

[Luke]

I notice the sample photo on the cover of "Photographs Not Taken" is 4x5" film.

Bigger IS better !!

[scott kirkpatrick]

I didn't know grandchildren had a singular. Four child families were the norm in my parents' and grandparents' generation, so an Easter family gathering with two or more or the grand-generation taking part could easily pass 32 grandkids. We used to form a big circle. Then aunts and uncles would be led into the middle, one at a time, see how many of us they could name.

When I married an Israeli, I entered a different world. Daphna's mother, Shoshana, her uncle Max, and both grandparents survived the war, hiding in a basement in Bratislava during the final 18 months, and came to Israel as refugees. Our generation consists of three families, one secular, one observant, and one ultra-orthodox. The first two families have contributed four grandchildren, the last eleven, so the first two stages of the tree has still only 15 grandchildren. But if you add in the GREAT-grandchildren (as in the picture that I will send you), there were more than 30 at Shosh's 80th birthday, back in 2015. Today I think the total is approaching 50. And she plays a role in the lives of all of the 50.

There is an expression in Hebrew for secular children who choose the ultra-orthodox life, like my in-laws. It's "returning to the answer." The reverse move is known as "returning to the questions." And she has supported and sometimes housed grandchildren making the move in both directions.