Clerkenwell Design Week 2016

I had been up very late the night before, having attended a networking event in Hemel Hempstead and decided to take a swift look at some of the shots before going to bed, ending up by not doing so till nearly three in the morning. Waking at six-thirty five, I realised I could make it to London with enough time to take the Tube to Leicester Square, walk round the corner into Shaftesbury Avenue, pick up my iPad that very fortunately had been found by the QParks car park attendant a few days back when I had been photographing at a Casino and after that getting back on the Tube to reach Old Street station where I was due to meet Catherine at around nine.

I was unaware that the message I had sent in the early hours suggesting I had been unrealistic in my timings had meant that Catherine had taken me at my word, as she missed the later message that said I was back on schedule! So despite my being at Old Street at four minutes past nine, it would be considerably later before Catherine would make it! The plan was for her to meet me and take a wander through the streets of Clerkenwell to visit various showrooms taking part in Clerkenwell Design Week. This was to be a far more joyous three-day-week than the ones I endured back when this area of London was my milieu.

I therefore walked into Clerkenwell on my own to get the feel of the atmosphere and see who was participating this year. Along the way, before reaching Whitecross Street, I took out my camera having just witnessed a scaffolder taking poles from the back of a Lordy and passing them up a ladder to his mate at first-floor level — it caught my eye because of the flourish with which he took the pole from horizontal to vertical with a flourish worthy of a highlander 'tossing the caber'! Another passer-by and myself exchanged amazed comments as we passed as we had both witnessed the same action! I did record another few shots that recorded the sequence again, but the man did not have the same energy in subsequent tosses! These shots were for myself and do not appear in the gallery, but did get me into the swing.

In passing Whitecross Street, I texted Geoff Dann whose studio is at the top end of the street, to let him know where I was as we planned to meet up later. Opposite the ex-Colour Company building was a London bus decked out to display wooden floor tiles, and I got into conversation with a man inviting visitors to their mobile showroom for a morning drink of tea or coffee and learned he was into equestrian photography but was interested in improving his skills, so we chatted awhile, and I said I would take some shots inside the bus, but await the arrival of my daughter before accepting his offer of a drink.

The  call came through a few minutes later and I headed back towards the station to meet Catherine and let her know I had a coffee ordered for her! This was a very civilised way to start the day. We chatted and formulated very loose plans of where we were to visit and were soon on our way, the only sad shame from our point of view was the dismal light and occasional drizzle, I shall let the gallery of pictures tell the rest of the story, accept to mention that we were both definitely going to pay a visit to Zaha Hadid's Gallery to pay our respects.

DeskLodge – DigiCluster Network Event

Peter Carr and I headed south from Harpenden to a gathering of DigiCluster, this time at a new venue on Tuesday evening in Hemel Hempstead – DeskLodge a new venture offering Hot Desking in a vibrant setting and with a somewhat nostalgic feel as it had various early examples of a photographic genre.

It was good to see both familiar faces from past events, and many new ones, with the theme of the evening provided by Jonas B Stockfleth who, once proceedings began, was introduced to the gathering by Syd Nadeem, CEO of Clock. But before that began cool liquid refreshments were being consumed amidst the throng of small groups in animated conversation, and certainly this was self-evident proof that networking was indeed at work; certainly I saw no wallflowers.

Although by my being behind a camera it might appear that I am not partaking, this is very far from the truth, my eyes and ears are wide open, and I am not totally passive in the conversations; I do get involved, but because I use no flash in these situations, I am not interrupting and do participate, and on this occasion I got involved in several chats with some very interesting people with whom I would very much like to work. One of my measures of whether I am succeeding in making meaningful contacts is in the handing out of business cards, and as in the past the fact that my cards actually feature my face becomes a topic discussing the merits of ensuring that my card is an aide-memoire as to what was being discussed when the card was handed over.

The presentation from Jonas was both informative and enlightening, and his enthusiastic flourish when clicking the next item in his show was a sheer delight; the movements were so expressive, he might have been using a squash racquet to perform a winning smash in the game, it was as if his clicker were only activated after achieving three or four G – it certainly ensured that his points were made with gusto!

The talk was in part the telling of his personal story as he followed his dream and where he felt the immersive medium he was now evangelising was heading and why it should be taken seriously, as he felt it was the future, certainly it was obvious at the conclusion that Syd Nadeem felt it was a direction he believed in taking.

Afterwards a few of the attendees tried out some of Jonas’ ‘toys’ and watching those who took advantage of the opportunity it was something I decided was worth recording in its own right.

As in the past pizzas were brought in after the presentation, and I took the opportunity to lessen the picture taking and involve myself in what I felt was very worthwhile conversations regarding the type of work that I enjoyed, and most people I find expect me to offer a speciality, whereas the subjects I tackle a fairly far-reaching, but when asked do I do Weddings, my lightning fast response brought immediate laughter and much sarcasm as to how much hesitation was involved in my negative reply! It is because I enjoy recording reality, telling a story, and finding beauty in say the curves of a piece of architecture, or a series of images that explain how a process flows, and unless I was watching a play, I do not want to be putting people into poses or specific groups – natural interaction is what I enjoy seeking and recording.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and meeting new people, and I hope the gallery will capture the other participants gaining equal enjoyment from the meeting.

Bamville Cricket Club, Harpenden visited by Ivanhoe CC

A week back I had hoped I would be able to get down to visit Bamville Cricket Club for the first time this season, but it did not happen, so despite being somewhat tied up with tech-editing the first few chapters of Martin Evening’s next in the series of ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ books, I cleared what I could and headed down the M1 to Harpenden. I met more traffic than anticipated, obviously due to the attraction of bright weather, so the match had started without me! Hardly a surprise!

I gathered my kit, in this instance the 150-600mm Tamron on the 7D MkII and popped the Lensmaster Gimbal head on the Silk Road Giottos carbon fibre tripod, crossed the road and sat down just outside the closest boundary. I chose a low viewpoint and splayed the tripod legs so that when seated the camera eyepiece was at my level, and started shooting.

I soon found that was not good for my back and headed past the white screens and for a short while possibly a couple of overs I kept the low viewpoint, but eventually common sense prevailed and I accepted the higher level, an Ivanhoe player came by and I was able to learn that the Visitors  side were batting.  A short while later a Bamville gentleman came over to ask me whether I took sugar in tea, which was exceedingly generous; a sweetened cuppa followed a few moments later.

I soon had an instance of stumps akimbo and bails in the air, and was able to feel Peter Carr would be pleased rather than dismayed by this.

In the end I had captured two such instances which is always rewarding; I missed another because the batsman concerned was stood precisely in front of the stumps hiding the denouement entirely!

I came into the pavilion when the team had their break and had to let Peter know, I would also be leaving before the end of the match, but I was still reward by something to eat as well as the earlier tea, so I thanked him for his hospitality, I hope the team are happy with what I did manage to capture.

The Warm Beat of Brogborough

I had spent a thoroughly enjoyable morning and pub lunch with a friend of longstanding and his wife Jane (whom I had never before had the pleasure of meeting) – it was a boon, for I had last seen Dave on the very day my wife left our marital home after thirty three years of marriage, though h and I have kept in touch by phone over the intervening years. 

After they left I had intended to help out my immediate neighbour hacking down a somewhat overgrown hedge on the front border between our houses, but two things militated against this intention; one was the welcome, but somewhat overwhelming muggy heat and the other was the wind might just be enough to tempt some windsurfing sailors onto the water.

The temptation proved to be irresistible, though arrival at the windsurfing lake, the wind was barely more than a whisper and only a couple were to be seen gently moving in the middle of the lake, but what did come floating by were the sounds of gentle strumming from a guitar in the hands of a face not unfamiliar to me, Richard McKeating, so I changed lenses and put on my 70-200mm lens on the full-frame 5D MkIII and tried to get a few shots surreptitiously as he played completely immersed in his own musical world. I managed quite a few before he realised I was there, which sadly put an end to that series of shots under the shade of trees between the clubhouse and the water’s edge.

I did not however give up my intention to capture those scenes and took a few more of him before turning my camera on a different player I  later learned to be Clive and his Antipodean percussionist partner, Lauren. It was around this time that Colin Hunt, a another windsurfer,  hailed me and asked whether I might like to visit him in London on Tuesday to discuss some potential work up at his casino, – so ‘my journey really was necessary’ to paraphrase an old saying!

I took a few further shots of Richard, of  Clive and Lauren playing, and an opportune picture of a bumble bee pollinating the tree blossom above their shaded spot,  and shared a brief conversation with Clive over possible venues for windsurfing photography at coastal locations in Whitstable, Birchington or Portland, and learning the vital snippet of being present at low tide.

Though short in duration, my trip proved to be a good decision, and I will be phoning Colin to arrange a time to visit on the Tuesday, as having checked my diary I am free to make the trip.

Brogborough Big Sails 1st Sunday in May

There seemed just about enough of a breeze to bring out some of the Windsurfing Sailors onto the lake, so I gathered my kit and headed along to see what I might capture. I was fully aware it was hardly enough to make for anything dramatic, as the lack of a stiff breeze meant everyone would be using large sails to capture whatever wind was there. 

There was some warmth when the sun was out which did mean I was likely to suffer less from the wind on my neck than on my last visit, but foolishly I failed to bring a scarf, so a stiff neck was ‘de rigeur’, but at least it was not so cold that I might suffer ‘rigor mortis’!

I decided that my best angle was going to be to head through the anglers’ gate and follow the bank to the left of the Windsurfing grounds and find myself a low viewpoint beneath the bank; this would allow me to sit with the tripod below me and the camera at just the right height, so settled myself to see what I might capture. One advantage of the spot was that it did lend itself to the capture of wide shots with several sailors in the wide landscape, so I did ‘bank’ some shots for future purposes.

During my spell of shooting I had only two passing visitors because I was away from landing, but it did mean that several sailors did venture closer to me once they clocked where I was, though ironically several gybing came too close for my lens to cope, but were I to choose a shorter focal length I would miss any of the more distant shots! 

In this instance it is not quite the same as when shooting wildlife, where I swear several birds know precisely which lens I have on the camera and bear their safe distance from me accordingly – Kingfishers know that when I have a long lens they can sit happily really close such that I cannot get a shot in, or just far enough away that they are a mere dot in the distance! At least a camera on a tripod, sporting a long lens on Brogborough is a magnet, just a shame that wind and sun don’t always oblige!

I had considered visiting a Cricket Match and had I done so, and visited the lake on the following day there would have been more wind, but there is some law governing these sorts of decision and I often seem to encounter it, and a failing memory does not help either!