The Seven of Blades was, like the Five, one of the cards that Stephanie and I tend to read a little differently. For me, the seven is all about making the best of a bad situation, and not in the “lemons into lemonade” sense, but in the “loot the body before the vultures land” sense.

Seven of Blades 1.1

There is an element, I think, of taking something that does not belong to you. But for me, this card is the follow-up on the five; where the five is about a tense, ambiguous situation, where the battle is won, but not the war, the seven is about the war being over and everyone losing. The only one who will even come close to winning anything is the one who can sell those blades for scrap.

Seven of Blades 2.1

We decided that we wanted a bit of a post-apocalyptic feel to this card- it’s very easy, in doing this project, to get stuck in the sort of pretty-fantasy-ethereal sort of style, and while I have nothing against that style at all (and in fact the twos, fours, and sixes all fall into that camp), I get bored making a lot of pretty photos. It was time to do something a little different.

Seven of Blades 3.3

When Stephanie had said she wanted a battlefield for the fives, one of the sites that was suggested was the old bunkers on the Marin headlands. We didn’t use them for the fives, but for the sevens it seemed like it might be a good thought. It turned out to be an excellent location, I highly recommend it as a great hiking and viewing spot for anyone. Stunning vistas and some nice easy climbs.

Seven of Blades 4.1

I think these turned out all right- the main difficulty was getting a sense of motion. I wanted to convey a feeling of urgency, and if you have a camera that can shoot rapidly, that’s more easily accomplished. This one does not, and so we were trying to get still shots with motion in them, which… sometimes works. I do think we got the sense of grasping that is inherent in the card. Motion, maybe.

Seven of Blades 5.1