This week kicks off with a little story…

So one Tuesday afternoon, a frog walks into the local bank to take out a loan. He walks up to the bank teller, Ms. Patricia Whack.

The frog sees her nametag and says, “Good afternoon, Ms. Whack. I would like to take out a loan today.”

Understandably, Ms. Whack is thrown off because, you know, usually humans are the ones who take out loans, not frogs. So she says, “Umm…This is peculiar, but, you know what, you’re a talking frog, so let’s see what we can do. But please, call me ‘Patty,’ everyone else here does. Now, if you want a loan, you must really be something. So, tell me about yourself. What’s your name? What’s your background?”

The frog responds, “Well, Patty, my name is Jerry and actually, you probably won’t believe this, but my father is Mick Jagger.”

And Ms. Whack says, “Oh! Well I guess he’s kind of got a froggy face, so it makes sense that would, like, carry over to you. Maybe he’s a frog himself.”

The frog interrupts her and says, “Oh no. Please don’t say that about my dad. That’s not a nice thing to say about him.”

And then Ms. Whack says, ‘I’m so sorry. Well, let’s see. Do you have some form of collateral for this loan?”

So Jerry takes out a little shiny pink porcelain elephant, and he says, “Hey, you know, this is kind of ironic. Elephants are usually larger than frogs, but here I am with like a really tiny elephant in my flippers.”

Ms. Whack examines the miniature elephant for a moment and says, “Well, this isn’t exactly what we normally look for as collateral…but let me take it and speak with my manager in the back.” So she goes to the bank office and she says to the manager, “You know, I’ve got this frog up front who says he’s Mick Jagger’s son, and he wants to take out a loan. But all he has for collateral is this little pink porcelain elephant. Do you know anything about this thing? Is it valuable at all?”

And the manager says to her, “Why, that’s a knick-knack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man is a Rolling Stone.”

Ba-dum, tss!

Okay, if you’re still reading after all that, we should probably turn this to photography. Chances are, like Jerry Jagger, you’ve probably got at least a couple silly little trinkets or tchotchkes sitting on a shelf somewhere around the house. So this week I want you to create an image of a knick-knack.

But don’t just pull out your phone and snap a quick pic of your knick-knack. Spend a little time considering the shapes, colors and textures that define your knick-knack. Is there something there that might make for a more interesting image if you emphasize a certain aspect of the item? What about taking your knick-knack down from its usual perch and staging it elsewhere in the house?

So your challenge this week is to produce a creative, engaging, or dramatic photo of a knick-knack, an otherwise normal object you see every day.