Tea ~ a drink with jam and bread
Do Re Mi, Richard Rodgers, in the Sound of Music
I suspect I have given many of you an earworm with that quote! But I felt compelled to introduce this post with it, even though I don’t drink tea and very rarely eat jam!
T is the twentieth letter in the English language. It is, according to Wikipedia, the most commonly used consonant and the second-most commonly used letter in English-language texts. So it should be easy to find photographs of objects that begin with T, shouldn’t it? That’s the task set us by Leanne for this week’s Monochrome Madness. But it’s not enough that the subject of the image begins with that letter, it also has to work well as a monochrome edit of course. I trawled my archives, and this is what I came up with. From Terrapins to Tigers, and from Trolleybuses to Traffic lights, with a few double Ts like ‘TV Tower’
All these images were shot originally in colour and edited with Nic Silver Efex Pro. My feature photo was taken in Uzbekistan and is of a Traditional Teapot and Teacup. So that’s a Triple T 😆
The Torres del Paine, Chile
Telegrafbukta in Tromsø, Norway
Tree roots at Ta Prohm, Cambodia
Driving Through the Tunnel Log, Sequoia National Park, California
The Temple of Wat Nong Sikhounmuang in Luang Prabang, Laos
TV Tower in Tallinn, Estonia
TV Tower and Town Hall, Berlin
(unfortunately the ‘start with a T’ thing doesn’t work in German: Fernsehturm and Rotes Rathaus)
Thomas Hardy statue in Dorchester, England
Time for the Train: the station clock, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Train and Tracks at a station in Rajasthan, India
Trolleybus in Chongjin, North Korea
Traffic lights in Tokyo, Japan
(I couldn’t resist a bit of selective colourisation with this edit!)
Tower Bridge, London
Look carefully and you will see that the bascules are partly open for a ship to pass through
Terrapin in the lake in Boston Manor Park, west London
Tiger in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan, India
49 Comments
Annie Berger
Not only another interesting compilation of photos, Sarah, but I was amused with your introduction to the subject. I didn’t know that the letter ‘t’ was the most common one in the English language. If you’re not a tea drinker, is coffee your beverage of choice, then?! Tea is definitely mine, although I daresay my English mother would not approve of my very weak tea!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Annie 🙂 T is the most common consonant – I think E must be the most common letter, with T second to it. And yes, I love my coffee, preferably strong and black especially espresso. I’m not a fan of the hot brown water sometimes served under the name of coffee in many US eateries, nor Starbucks’ poor excuse for the drink, but we did find that in California it wasn’t difficult to find super little independent coffee shops of the sort we both favour!
Annie Berger
Thanks for the clarification about T only being the most common consonant just as you specified in your post. Steven doesn’t like Starbucks coffee either. Do I dare say he prefers McDonald’s coffee but that may sound blasphemous to you, too!
Sarah Wilkie
I had a surprisingly (to me!) OK espresso in a German McCafe once but it’s not somewhere I would ever go specifically for coffee!
Alison
Love all of them! Very innovative too. I have the temple photo in Luang Prabang and obviously Tower Bridge!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Alison, I’m happy you liked them 😊
Vicki
What a wonderful and varied collection to fill the challenge. You found a surprising number of ‘T’s’
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Vicki 🙂 I guess it helped having a relatively common letter to work with!
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
Great selection, but the tiger beats the rest.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anabel, I did think he’d make a good ending. As I said to Meg below, I was pleased he came out so well in B&W 🙂
grandmisadventures
Great collection of Ts…but the tiger picture is my favorite 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Meg 🙂 The tiger is a special memory, I was pleased he came out well in B&W!
susurrus
Great choices. My favourites are the terrapin doing the tiger impression and the tree roots.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 I’m always happy to hear which ones stand out as favourites!
Amy
Wow… Love this T post!! These photos are fabulous in black and white.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Amy, I’m really pleased you enjoyed it 😊
Leanne Cole
Looks like you had no trouble with the letter T Sarah, great choices and great post.
Sarah Wilkie
It was a great choice for a theme Leanne, thank you 🙂
kzmcb
Fabulous photos and great leading quote.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much 🙂
the eternal traveller
This is a lovely gallery. I think I’ve said before we were at the top of Tower Bridge when it opened right up to let a big boat through. That was exciting.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you – I don’t re4member you mentioning that previously, it must have been a great experience! I’ve only ever seen it open from the river bank 🙂
EgÃdio
Oh my, so many beautiful places and photos and so little time. One life is not enough. An earworm or not, you picked a good one.
Sarah Wilkie
You’re so right about the number of places and lack of time to see them all! Glad you approved of the song choice 😀
Rose
The Temple of Wat Nong Sikhounmuang in Luang Prabang, Laos is very ornate and looks even more distinguished in black and white.
Sarah Wilkie
All the gold on those Luang Prabang temples is wonderful and very ornate, but I thought it would be interesting to see what one looked like in monochrome and I was quite pleased with the result 🙂
restlessjo
The second one and the Tunnel Log are my favourites, Sarah. The log photo is like a scene from a black and white movie. I love it!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Jo 😊 I do see what you mean about a scene from a film!
Alli Templeton
A Terrific post, Thank you Sarah! 😉
All of these transferred well into mono. As always I love the animals, and the landscapes are wonderful. The Torres del Paine look incredibly dramatic, probably even more so without the colour, and the Tromso shot looks amazing. I really liked the traffic lights as well, with the single red light. I know that’s a photographic device, and it works particularly well here because it tells us more of what’s happening in and around the picture. Very imaginative use of language with the TV Tower too! And as a devoted Tea-drinker (and I like jam!), I heartily approve of your header shot! 😀
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much for the detailed comment Alli 😊 I’m glad you like the Torres del Paine in particular as it’s a favourite of mine, and that landscape seems to work well in B&W, perhaps because it was fairly monochrome even in colour. That spot in Tromsø provided some stunning views in ever-changing weather conditions – in the space of about an hour we had sleet, hail, sunshine and rain (and we were there for a picnic!)
Alli Templeton
That must have been interesting having a picnic in those conditions! It does look absolutely stunning though. Did you take any more shots of the same view as the weather changed? 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
I have quite a few from that day, yes, but no others that I’ve (yet) tried in B&W, and none during the hail!
Alli Templeton
I’d be interested to see how the others translate into mono. 🙂
thehungrytravellers.blog
No picture of Tyneside? I’m amazed !! 😂😂
Sarah Wilkie
I considered it but I’ve posted so many photos of the Tyne and Tynemouth (I was thinking of the Priory there in particular) that I decided to give them a miss for this post 😀
Monkey's Tale
Terrific take on T-theme! I love Torres del Paine the most. Maggie
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you enjoyed it Maggie, thank you 🙂 That’s your sort of landscape for sure!
Sue
Well done with this varied selection, Sarah! Love those images from Laos and Cambodia
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Sue, I’m pleased you liked them 🙂
Anne Sandler
Great T selections Sarah, especially the Cambodian tree roots and the TV towers.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anne 🙂 It’s always interesting to hear which ones stand out for different people!
Anonymous
That is one highly covetable teapot and tea bowl, Sarah. And love the moody mountain, mountains and lake scenes. So dramatic in monochrome.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much 🙂
Heyjude
Quite an assortment here Sarah, but I think Time for Trains is pushing it 😂
Sarah Wilkie
You think?! OK, yes, maybe, but how else to illustrate Time but with a clock? 😆
Heyjude
Haha… I guess.
bushboy
Lots of T’s Sarah 😀
Sarah Wilkie
That was my aim 😆
bushboy
I am yet to get my T’s together to trot out 😀