Only a brief blog tonight, due to tiredness.Our National Trust gathering at Calke Abbey, entitled - 'A Celebration of Supporter Groups' - was flawlessly organised. And it was nice to see Sue Lewis again (her responsibility at Heelis HQ covers the subject) and Steve LeMottee on arrival.
150 people attended, representing the different Centres, and it was all jolly good fun. Our guest speaker was Radio 4's John Waite and he was first rate. Light and amusing but also informative - as you would expect from an experienced journalist of his calibre.
I was sitting facing into the Hall and suddenly thought "I know that voice...." and I did - it was John Waite talking to some people immediately behind me. He and I had a good chat, ranging from Radio 4 in general, to The Miners' Strike and Max Hastings and The Telegraph.
After obtaining his permission I snapped a mug-shot, just as he began his talk. Please see Picture 1. It is good to see a face behind a voice.
Picture 2 is one of Jill's holiday photos from Devon. Taken from their hotel bedroom balcony at Sidmouth. In her e-mail she doesn't rate them and says they aren't up to usual blog-standard. Quite wrong ! I think this is an excellent picture. The curve of the shore-line takes you from the bottom right corner, all the way round the bay to that nicely lit bit at the right hand end edge of the far cliffs. That brightly lit piece of cliff-face, bang in the golden-section on the left, is a brilliant touch. Congratulations !
Comments
mannanan .... Thanks for the directions to the Queen pictures. I thought you had had a visit from Elizabeth R herself. Unfortunately with being so busy I've not yet had chance to visit RasmseyRamblings.
Jill ..... Welcome back. We've missed you. The Westcliff Hotel sounds good. Their webpage (click the link) shows your view, at the left hand side - but your cliffs are better !
The food sounds excellent. And, as you say about the town, geared up for 'those of mature years'.
Re your computer/mouse. Your solution of shut-down/ wait some minutes/ re-boot is the answer to many, many problems. It is often necessary to unplug everything too, rather than simply shutting down. Now please don't ask how or why it works because I don't know.
anonymous kevin ..... Thanks for the EPS notes. You views were shared by most, I think.
bungus ...... Thank you very much for the continued mushroom info.
Re The Farm Shop. I think there is a grave danger of it expanding so much. they need to buy-in. So long as one gets a straightforward answer if the question is asked, I guess it is OK. Provided the stuff is locally grown, and the quality is good .....
On the right is a further picture of Reg's Fungus
. This shows the full extent of it. I chose the other picture because I felt it showed more detail. I hope this helps.
Likewise with the picture on the left which was my competition entry in the 'Advertising' section.As Kevin has said (and later similarly from Helen) the judge discussed the technical merits of the picture (which I accept are close to zero) without actually understanding the joke.
But I hope you know now what was being talked about.
helen c ....... The only thing I regret about not being there on Thursday, is not having seen the pictures.
I am assuming that one of yours that did well was the 'flooded Campsite' which readers have already seen. I published it on Monday June 30th 2008. Although I'm not absolutely sure what the blog looks like at the readers' end, presumably somewhere on the left hand side there is a facility to trawl through the blog-archive.
Incy wincy will be pleased you enjoyed his Lumsdale sepia picture so much.
You aren't becoming "like one of you old camera club cynics?". You are simply understanding how things often are with camera club judging. It is a serious matter and has been for many years. As anonymousrob will possibly remember, Dr Eddie Sethna and I were going to do a pamphlet about the matter. I was going to write it with him, and he was going to do the pictures - he was a prominent and much respected photographer and critic in addition to his day job as a consultant psychiatrist. Unfortunately he died.
Quotation time .......................... All I can say is 'Don't we all ?"
"I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood."
Tom Hanks
David and family are calling in for coffee in the morning, and Tracy is eating lunch with us. It will be lovely for the children to see her and she will enjoy a chat with Helen and David. Helen and David can't stay for lunch because they need to be at Helen's niece around 1pm.
Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow
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We have been inundated with veg (from Tesco, Em, and an allotment group that is desperate to retain Steph as a member) so Sandra made soup from it all yesterday – kale, chard, spinach, squash, potato, etc, etc.
We have yet to taste it but I fear the worst! I suspect bland bitterness with a hint of
iodine.
BLOG COMMENT
Re your somewhat ‘judgmental’ assessment of Jill's very pleasant holiday photo, I like your clever ‘brightly lit’ / ‘golden-section’ near juxtaposition. Or was it serendipity?
I still think luck often plays a significant part in the artistic and technical quality of pictures (and no doubt in music and writing too).
Discuss, in no more than 5,000 words.
Re ‘shut-down/ wait some minutes/ re-boot’. On Ch 4, I think, there was a shortish cult comedy series (I was the other person who enjoyed it) set in the rather squalid basement accommodation of the computer support unit of a large firm, which built a running joke around this treatment method. It made me smile anyway.
Afraid the further picture of Reg's fungus doesn’t help. I would really want a sample to think of committing myself.
Is there a convenient fence for me to perch on?
I shall need to involve Jessica in the search for the ten-bob bit; she's a wizz at the 'Where's Willy' puzzle books and the like.
I like the top panel of your advertising photo (which I presume is ‘untampered’?)
Donning my technical ‘judge of jokes’ mantle, however, I am a touch uneasy about the mockery of the last line of the lower panel – and, if such PT is considered permissible, shouldn’t it be ‘flied lice’?
I have revisited Helen’s 'Flooded Campsite' photo which (to this non-expert) deserves an award for its morose wit alone (a touch of Al Read or the Uncle Mort author).
I noticed however that, by concentrating on technical issues in your comment, you didn’t manage to avoid ‘judge speak’ entirely!
Helen C:
Your insight into the photo judging makes me glad that I am not involved.
To ‘normal’ people (which, I am sure, includes most camera club members when they are not being pretentious!) there are things quite as important as technical merit – it is ‘what makes the heart sing’ or, as Doddy would have it ‘what tickles the chuckle muscles’ that matters most.
I am sure your final comment sums it up nicely.
That's my judgnment anyway.
G, thank you for your kind remarks about my holiday snap! That is all I am aiming for - a pleasing-to-me picture that reminds me of happy hols. I fiddled about taking it, zooming in and out until I had something that pleased me, funnily enough I remembered what you said about curves when you were talking about another photo of a path through some woods? So I am learning! I don't know how to muck about with it - (photoshop?) what you see is how it came out of the camera.
I do like the look of your farm shop, and hope it doesn't expand and get spoiled. We found a lovely one in North Devon, three days before we came home, and would have liked to have brought stuff home, but we didn't have a fridge in our room and it was warm. I had to content myself with cake and spring bulbs - half the price they are up here.
We went to North Devon to visit Coldharbour Mill (www.coldharbourmill.org.uk) it is one of the last working mills of its kind in the UK, powered by a huge water wheel. It was restored some ten years ago by volunteers, now has a lottery grant. They process Devon wool, using mill stream water (very soft) and produce knitting yarns, stuff for spinners and cloth. There's a large shop, and an excellent cafe - we hit it OAP's special day - three courses for £6.00, all made on premises, but as we were repeatedly warned, smaller portions! We had cauliflower soup with home-made bread, cottage pie and carrots, R had a meringuey thing (pavlova?) and I had a v.gd. chocolate roulade. We got talking to other couples there, they both drove several miles on a Tuesday for the lunch....sadly they were low on knitting yarns, I shall ring them in a couple of weeks, as it is lovely stuff and unobtainable anywhere else as the supply (depending on the amount on water in the mill stream) is so erratic.
We had our flu jabs yesterday - open day at surgery, you just turn up without an appointment - and both felt 'under the weather' for a few hours in the evening, R was hot and sweaty and I was cold and shivery - and I had a heavy achey arm. Last year we didn't bother getting them....
Hope to see more pictures of Calke Abeey - it sounds as if it was a good day!
Sadly, my flooded tent picture was the only one of mine not to be placed by Thursday's judge! He didn't like it because it was 'just a record' and the tent was in the middle. He did say he liked the hills in the background though! I will e-mail the somewhat inferior picture which did win.
I like the Tom Hanks quote, a nice reminder that not all Americans are gung-ho.
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