Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Milldale by WoW - great day - poor light

Our 'Walking on Wednesday' today took us to Milldale, just on the border of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Although the weather wasn't great we managed a couple of rain free hours. The river was as swollen as any of us had ever seen it. Picture 1 is Duggie, Reg, Brian and Roy, setting off over the bridge. As usual, Pathfinder Duggie leads the way.

They left me in a pretty spot with cameras, a tripod, 3 lenses, plus of course, my flask of coffee and my laptop.

I found plenty of photo-opportunities and, as I've been banging-off about candy-floss water, I thought I had better demonstrate that, if I want to, I can produce as good a milky effect as the next.

Hence Picture 2. But I still don't like it. Water should look like water. The 'chaps' blame the Photo Magazines which publish them ad infinitum and Exhibitions that keep accepting them. Not to mention the Judges who are effusive in their praise.

I couldn't resist including the Robin for s special reason. When I published Reg's Rufford Robin I asked readers to guess whereabouts in Rufford Park he was? because the apparent straight lines and blocks of colour in his eye suggested buildings. If you enlarge this snap you will notice almost identical lines and shadows.

So I deduce Watson, that it is in the nature of robins' eyes. Unless of course this little fella had flown over from Rufford for the day?

After the walk, and photographs, we drove to the Miners Standard Inn just outside Winster for our chip-cobs. Delicious they were too, and so reasonable at £1.60p. A witty notice on the wall sad 1653 'Pub of the Year'.

Then it was back home. Y arrived around 3pm and was tired out but happy having seen the little girls and being useful. The journey altogther took 5 hours and she is quite entitled to be tired.

Comments.....Bungus ....Thanks for the comments. I too like the 'burnside' 'sideburns' tale. Was he the famous American Civil War general who leaned over a parapet and said "They couldn't hit a barn-door from that dist..........." ?

The group terms are sometimes strange in that the 'word' bears no apparent 'link' to the group in question. A 'clutter' of starlings I can accept. But why a 'vein' of goldfinches? However I enjoyed the 'anthology of pros'.

Jill...... The young can be quite arrogant in the mistaken belief that one knows nothing about anything. Not one's own, or the children of close friends, thank goodness. A couple of weeks ago Tracy was out and about at work, and rang me re a computer problem (fortunately I knew the answer) but her colleagues were surprised she chose to ring me rather than the County Council's technical department.

Notes for new blog-readers.:-
  1. If you left click a picture, you get an enlargement on a new page. When you've finshed with it, left click the green 'back' arrow at the top of your screen.
  2. If words appear underlined and in orange they are a live link. i.e. if you left click the link, you are whisked away to the appropriate web-page.
  3. To leave a 'comment' (and they are always welcomed) scroll right down the page until nearly the bottom. There you will find the word 'comments'. Left click it and a window will open in which you can write your comment. Follow the instructions......
Quotation for the day.......This is so true.....

"Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian"


....9.15pm and my old friend The Rev David Jones has just left; it was lovely to see him and catch up on all his news. It is ages since we saw him but we had such a lovely evening it felt as if he had been here last week. He was very interested in the mysterious stones that 'the haps ' photographed on a WoW day during the summer. And AnonymousRob discovered a site about them. I must research back blogs and track them down for him. He was intrigued by 'dip your ghosts' if I've got it right. Sleep tight folks and I'll atch you tomorrow.....

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its www.sitesofmeaning.org.uk
Like the Robin snap. Reg

Anonymous said...

You mentioned a couple of days ago that you had been bulied or shamed into having a haircut and it made me realise that mine hasn’t been cut for 4 months. At one time chemotherapy was renowned for causing baldness, something which now appears to have been largely eradicated (observation makes me think that, unfortunately, it is now more likely to happen to women). I don’t think I have suffered any loss (and for those who don’t know, I still have a ‘decent head of hair’ for my age) but the growth rate does appear to have slowed down as I still look semi-respectable. What do they say about every cloud? (silver is appropriate).

As for today’s blog, I am wary of being ‘atched’ as it might make me cross.

Any digital photographers may be interested in a current Tesco offer. 150 A5 (approx) prints are 6p each (£9) but 151 are 5p each (£7.55). Apparently you just upload (?) them online to the Tesco site, specify a store, and pay when you collect. The quality is very good (I haven’t had any but have seen 151 this afternoon, all of seals apart from 3 stags and a half dozen of birds including shags, cormorants and puffins. I am told that it is hard to tell a shag from a cormorant except that you don’t fancy a ciggy after a cormorant).

I have a hare hanging in the garage (shot 8 days ago and due to be skinned and gutted etc this weekend; also 2 pheasant, shot yesterday and ready for skinning and jointing next Tue or Wed. £5 the lot to Sandra! (but something of a favour).

Apparently there is a rumour going around Ollerton that I am suffering from Alzheimers (it stems from me walking Ralph down to the newsagent, fastening him to the door handle while I went in, and getting halfway home before he barked at me to be released. He has refused to leave the house since!).
I have sent a letter to our community newspaper, saying that I am aware of this rumour, bear the monger no ill will and am prepared to forget about it if he is.

I too prefer a 'charm' of goldfinches, Jill. But is wasn't on my 'googled' list.

Like your quote, blogmeister. Mine is less jocular:
‘One sometimes finds what one is not looking for’
(Alexander Fleming

Anonymous said...

As a (mainly) erstwhile judge who still likes candy-floss water could I request a blogmeister picture depicting water as he thinks it should be shown?

The reason I like candy-floss water is shown in your picture. The contrast between the solid, sharp stone and the soft, flowing water creates, I believe, a greater impression of movement. Added to that is the fact that our eyes don't see moving water in the way your photo shows it, hence, it's also a creative technique that shows some personal input by the photographer.

I think the 'haps' (have you got trouble with c-ing?) may well be right though. Judges do favour them a lot and so do magazines. This may be because it's a simple technique to do. (I like to use the words simple and judges in the same paragraph if not the same sentence.) Consequently we probably see far more of them than we should.

Having pulled the theme 'water' out of the EPS hat some weeks ago, guess what my water pictures are going to be like.

Rob

Anonymous said...

Good on you AnonRob. It doesn't do to let the blogmeister have it all his own way! I have no strong feelings about water except that it is unfit to drink.

If anyone else, like RG, took my Alzheimers story too seriously, the "I'll forget it if he will" was a joke, although I don't expect most of the Ollerton readership to 'get it'.
I cannot get too worked up about it (although Sandra already has several 'scotchers' at work) because we think it was most likely a 'send me three and fourpence' consequence of me suggesting that Ralph (the dog) has Alzheimers. He is, after all, 30 (dog) years older than me!
But I don't see it as a significantly more vicious a rumour than someone falsely putting it about, for instance, that I have a broken leg (I don't).

Anonymous said...

I'm with the blogmeister on the candy floss water. I'm no master but in my humble opinion I can't see the need at all as it certainly doesn't improve things. In fact I think it has the opposite effect.

Anonymous said...

It takes all sorts, don't it?