Photo © *Sabine*

42, as we all know, is the answer to the big question. All of the big questions, actually. But Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, wasn't just a numbers guy. He had a soft side, too.

To wit (stolen shamelessly from Wiki)

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself defines a towel as "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have". Its uses, as listed, include: wrapping it round you for warmth; sunbathing on it; sleeping under it; wetting it for use in hand-to-hand combat; waving it in emergencies as a distress signal (see below); and wrapping it round your head to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal because this is such a "mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you". You can also, of course, dry yourself off with it, if it still seems to be clean enough."

Adams was a liberal guy, right? I'm guessing he wouldn't mind if we expanded on the towel to include any linen (but special points for towels, of course!). Today's blog conspired with this thread to convince me that we need to do something with linens.

One of my favorite paid-work shots (sorry, no copy on flickr) is actually of a set of linens about to be put onto a bed.

You mustn't think of this as a"have to take a picture of a towel, ferchrissakes" thing - instead we urge you to consider this an opportunity to make

- a portrait (come on, it would look good wrapped around you like a superman cape)
-an interior shot (make like Better Homes and Gardens just called and they want some shots for an upcoming issue)
-a product shot (you just got paid with a hundred thousand towels instead of money and you're going to need to sell those puppies!)
-a texture macro (terry cloth is pretty darn cool)
-a light and color abstract (I saw some tea towels on a clothesline today that looked like jewels!)

(I could go on, really)

Anyway ... towel up, Utatans - it's weekend project time!

tag your photos: utata:project=linen

Not sure how to get involved in a project? Read this..

And have fun!