Spotted photo theme March: In the Round

Spotted photo theme: circles! Any circles that you’ve photographed recently or 20 years ago, collected together in a blog post just like this one. I hope you’ll enjoy some circles, one of my favorite forms and concepts. I love photographing anything round as well as repeating patterns of circles.

My first photo is of a pink pincushion:

I still use it, and it’s on my living room table most days when I’m trying to stitch something together and need a few pins at easy reach. I love every piece of fabric I used, and it’s cozy round shape, even though it didn’t come together as easy as I thought it would.

I made this pin cushion a few years ago. It was born out of that feeling you sometimes get when you “just have to make something“, anything. If you’re a maker I’m sure you know what I mean.

Next: I wish I could see a round Hobbit house, but so far this is as close as I’ve come I think:

A round window in a little house with a view of the surrounding forest. If I had a house of my own I’d wish for either round shaped windows or a sky window (or both). Which would you pick?

Most any glass, cup or plate you’ve ever photographed could fit our theme, right? I bet you have several if you go searching for them. This photo is a triple fit because the drink is bubbly and the table it’s on is my pink polka dot table, although this photo is from a photo blog post called Rinse and repeat where you can also see at least two other photos that fit the “round” theme (coffee cup and my water jar for painting are also this shape).

I did find quite a few photos of circles that I had already blogged, so I’m linking them as well. You can click through to the original blog post if you want to read a bit more. The first one is of a snow globe photographed from above, something I love doing:

Way back I also ordered a few items with photo prints for Christmas, including a wall calendar that I designed, and these ornaments of our cat and my grandmother’s little white dog (I gifted her the ornament for Christmas):

Sadly neither of these survived (the ornaments!) very long, and has since been discarded. The cat and dog lived long and happy lives. RIP.

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.

― Rumi

This little turquoise tin is one of my favorite thrift finds ever I think. It’s utterly useless but I love everything about it. The round shape, the gold embossed swallow, the typography, it’s original use. And this photo was a big hit when I first shared it on the photo sharing site Flickr back in the day, where it was featured in their selection of popular photos of the day called “Interestingness“. There it got over 4000 views and a whopping 123 people “faved” (hearted) it after I uploaded it on May 10, 2006. That’s a tiny bit of iHanna internet history for ya.

Another older photo of mine is this lovely view, found on a walk:

I used this photo back in January’s blog post where the spotted photo theme was “shadow”, but in case you didn’t see that last post of shadows here it is again, because it fits well with “round” as well I think. As does this next one:

Spotted Photo theme circle (and shadow) in this photo of a messy desk next to my computer:

I mean, how many round shapes can you spot in that photo? Bunny dad’s eyes and the buttons on his shirt, yes, then the polka dots on the round roll of washi tape, the glass coaster under the glass… just to mention a few representations.

Tondo – round paintings

In the beginning of the year Wendy at the Draw together Club wrote about this artist, Betty Blayton, that painted in the round. I thought that was an interesting concept (but hard to execute). Wendy told us how Betty’s use of a round canvas was a nod to the “cyclical nature of life’s many stages and the continuity between man and nature”. I like that idea. To circle back to my idea that quotes lift us up and inspire our thinking, I’m sharing this one today:

Round paintings are also referred to as a “Tondo” form. Tondo means using a circular shape in paintings, sculptures, and other artworks. “Tondo” comes from the Italian word rotondo, which means “round”. The tondo form has no corner or edges to deal with. Only one continuous line of an edge, creating the entire form.

― Wendy MacNaughton of Draw together

Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

― Franklin P. Jones

Last but not least, one of my big spools of book binder’s thread:

I like how the circle pattern also shows up in the print on the fabric on the table (one of my painted fabrics) in the same color as the thread, yellow.

My post is late but Tammy shared her round photos earlier this month as did Tobia in Germany, please leave them an encouraging comment – and if you’ve posted your contribution (everyone’s welcome to join this blog challenge) and I haven’t commented please leave your link below. I’d be sad if I missed out on seeing what you’ve spotted when it comes to “round”. Even if you didn’t get ’round to it this month, a few days into the next does not particularly matter if you want to do a round-up…

We have the first quarter bit of the year under our belt, and that feels good. These posts are a lot of work but also rather satisfying to put together. Here are some more ideas to spot in your photography in the next few months.

Upcoming Spotted Photo Themes

In April I picked the theme Yellow because I’d love to see color photos (and Easter is coming up) and what you capture that is centered around a specific color, in May the theme will be Repeating (as in repeating patterns or forms) and in June Treassures (as in gold and glitter or your personal take on what’s a treassure to you – I hope this is open-ended and welcoming). In July at the hight of summer let’s spot our Toys (tools you consider your toys, cars as toys, big girl toys like your camera gear – or actual toys), August Vintage (any of your old treassures or fun finds from the thrift shop or from yours or your grandmother’s boxes perhaps). I hope these will intrigue you and make you want to search your photo folders to spot the theme. Even if you just join once and with a few photos, I’ll be delighted! The rest of the year’s themes is to be announced later, suggestions always welcome.

Keep snapping, keep tagging, keep looking & stay creative friend.

This is iHanna’s Spotted Photo Theme Blog challenge. 2025 themes are, January: shadow (selfies | bonus) | February: pair | March: round | April: Yellow | May: Repeating (pattern) | June: Treassures | July: Toys | August: Vintage | Sept – Dec: to be announced, suggestions welcome.