Only Reg and I went WOW-ing this morning. The others were busy blocking roads with caravans and things. But we had an enjoyable morning having decided to go to the Derwent Visitor Centre at Belper to have a look at the river. It was swollen but not dangerously so and the level had gone down a lot since yesterday apparently.Much debrís had been washed down and was collected near bridge-arches and things but everything looked under control. The light was changeable and both of us took 'record' shots, not works of art.
We had a mooch round and spoke to a local photographer who was on a similar mission and occupying the best spot on the bridge to get a good strong diagonal. There was plenty of room for us all and we had a good chat to him about camera-club matters, the NEMPF exhibition and such like.
Picture 2 was with my long lens and shows more clearly how the water was. Not attractive; muddy and no clear 'whites' without burning out the highlights. But I managed to avoid my pet hate - the 'candy-floss' effect and at least mine looks like water.But people are entitled to have their water the way they choose. Once I would have said "It's a free country" but I'm not sure any more. It will be interesting to see how Brown fares.
Ray mentioned a Photography exhibition at Durban House, Eastwood so after leaving Belper we decided to give it a whirl. It featured the work of Nigel Vardy and there were many of snowy scenes from Alaska to Greenland and The Himalayas. He had suffered for his Art; losing fingers, toes and nose to frostbite. His chosen style was pale rather than vibrant colours, low on 'saturation' and, in our humble opinion 'lacking clout'. I'm no lover of over-photoshoppery or too much violent colour, but I considered that his work erred in the opposite direction.
After the Exhibition it was a bee-line to The Nelson for our chip-cob and very nice it was too. Smashing camera chat but also a little, very little, current affairs. Interestingly, The Nelson is a Wi-Fi hotspot and free too. If it is their internal system they really need it to be encrypted. But I didn't use it, and forgot to tell them.
I'm meeting Bungus in Mansfield tomorrow because it is of course, Burton Joyce grannying day for Y who is still on the verge of hay-fever. One would think that, with all this water there wouldn't be much pollen wafting about.
Brian has fixed my printer. But now I've got it back I've forgotten what it is I meant to print. Ho Hum as Ray says. I hope his floods are backing off rather than climbing. Apparently Saturday is going to be a bad day. Hope Jill and Ro are OK in The New Forest. This quote appeals:-
"What we call 'Progress' is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance."
- Havelock Ellis
Catch you all tomorrow. Sleep tight.
I have to admit I have never understood what you mean by the 'candy-floss' effect of water. You will have to show me an example.
ReplyDeleteAs for "It's a free country" I would certainly have agreed with that at one time but, so far as I am concerned, this weekend sounds the death knell with the new anti-smoking law. If it were a small minority being so persecuted I am sure there would be a greater outcry.
But I feel better about our new PM, having seen him perform today; and the Tory defection will have done him no harm.
Back to smoking: in last week’s Observer the Chief Medical Officer, or Non-Smoking Gauleiter, or Senior Spin Doctor, or whatever he’s called, was saying that smoking is the main cause of asthma. Cobblers.
When I was a kid and every man (and a few women too) smoked 40 Capstan Full Strength or 10 pipes of Walnut Plug a day, someone with asthma was a rarity (I can think of 2) and hardly anyone had hay-fever either. Today, when tobacco smoke has already been driven out of most places, it seems that every other person is asthmatic and someone who does not have some sort of hay-fever type-allergy is a rare person indeed.
That’s my perception anyway. you think as you like.
It will be drink next that they ban (the pubs will all have closed anyway) just you wait and see. Killjoys Rule.
And, if anybody wonders, I am a non-smoker for 25 years 5 months 27 days and 19 minutes. I don't even think about it anymore. But I could soon start drinking greater amounts in order to forget.
‘To forget what?’ you ask? I’ve forgotten.
You, R-Gandy, may feel justified in saying “I'm no lover of …too much violent colour”, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
If I knew what you meant by ‘their internal system … really need(s) …to be encrypted’, I would know whether to agree with you or not !!! I need an Enigma machine to translate that and almost every other bit of information that is now thrust in front of me. Do I care? Do I fish?
Not a bad rant that. ي
Great post, I am almost 100% in agreement with you
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