Many photographers tend to avoid others of a similar persuasion, I have noted this from my own career, that is not to say it is a characteristic of all, but certainly a goodly number. The irony is that several photographers with whom I can call friends, and with whom I can relate predominately avoid the company of those with whom you would consider they had the most in common, and therefore the greater chance of sharing interests. On Friday, one such came out to meet up with me, and in general he would admit that he tends not to seek out the company of other ‘Smudgers’ — a term historically used to describe early photographers, however I am tolerated. Perhaps I am too thick to perceive that he humours me and does not wish to hurt my feelings.
I will not embarrass him by giving his name, but he accepted my invitation to venture into the environs of Marston Moretaine, and I just wanted to take him to some of the venues I attend in pursuit of photography now that Social Media has largely decimated our careers as practising photographers. It meant that when discussing places I frequent in my insatiable desire to preserve in images that capture places, atmosphere, beauty, creatures, sports, curiosities, buildings, people, whatever… there would be at least some idea of where or what these might be.
Having travelled from London, we first had a sociable cup of tea, then drove to Marston Lake, where I wanted to see whether the bird life had returned after the apparent visit from some Mink, but there was a single swan, so the Grebe pair I had earlier captured on a nest in the reeds, had left, as had fortuitously, the Cormorants which must have pleased the Anglers.
This was as much a check on whether the birds had returned, as enlightening my colleague. We then drove on to my more frequently visited lake which was home to the Windsurfers — Brogborough Lake, and I was pleasantly surprised that despite only a mild breeze, did have a few sailors visiting. What was even more encouraging was that Jeff, a seasoned windsurfer had finally been tempted to give hydrofoiling a go, and Sam who runs the place had updated his hydrofoil, and both were due out on the Lake. This meant our trip was about to go up a gear, and I tentatively got my friends acceptance to take a few pictures. Yes, I had brought along my gear, but only on the off chance, so readied my tripod, EOS R and 60-600mm Sigma with its 1.4 x Converter for action. After some shooting, mainly of Jeff and Sam, I felt my time was up, and started to pack it all away, when suddenly it looked as if both hydrofoilers were actually going to be reasonably close together for me to get both in one shot, but that decision to stop had made I missed a fabulous shot of both aloft, and with one sweeping in arc behind the other, but I did get some with both in close formation, so with that I did dismantle everything and we left.
We headed back to my place and then walked to the local church with its separated tower, and its legend of the Devil separating each! We had some more tea and biscuits before my successful photographer friend headed back for London, and I set in motion the task of creating a gallery of images to put up on the blog, which went live in the early hours of Sunday morning after I had completed this narrative of our time together. One thing we did discuss was to rekindle our effort to produce photographic images that graphically display puns or ‘double entendres’. In the past we had created ‘A Glass Half-full’ and ‘Burning the Candle at Both Ends’. Back then I had made a list of ‘Bon Mots’, but since at the time we both had plenty of work these all fell by the wayside. However, I would very much like to rekindle the idea, as photomontage is something I enjoy.
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