In what now seems ‘Another Life’ I used to regularly visit a Colour Lab in Clerkenwell, that outlived the one for which I had been their Sales Manager, Longacre Colour Labs; that Lab was Metro and their Print Manager at the time was Grant Jenkins. After I left and set up on my own as SOLUTIONS photographic, I began creating 35mm slides initially on a Slide Writer, and then began getting scans done by my erstwhile Retouchers, The Colour Company who had by then also broken away from Longacre.
I started to gain experience of electronic retouching myself, and so I was getting my customers’ transparencies scanned by the Colour Company, I would then often create montages on my Mac, and do any retouching back out at my home in Slip End, and later Caddington, both were in Bedfordshire, and since the files were to be output to transparency, I would deliver the exposed 35mm films to Grant and he would bring them into Metro the following day where they were processed, and either picked up by myself or someone from Colour Company, or in some instances my clients.
There was a mix of 35mm slides and 10x8 and 11x14 transparencies, but the 35mm slides soon gave way to retouching 5x4, 10x8 and 11x14, and ultimately all the work was being supplied as files. But the friends and business relationships endure to this day.
Yesterday, I visited the home of Grant and his wife Clare and daughter, Elizabeth and it was good to catch up, and in the latter half of the afternoon Grant and I visited nearby Lemsford Springs Nature Reserve, and the gallery of images which I took are linked from the title of this narrative. The keys to this Reserve were obtained from a nearby private house, and arriving at the first hide, we met a charming and friendly couple both of whom were also photographers, and we stayed awhile learning of what they had already seen from this vantage point. The man had a longer zoom on than I was using on this occasion, and he showed me some excellent shots he had got of a pair of Mandarin Ducks. I managed to also get a few shots of the beautiful bird, but mine were way smaller, because on this occasion his lens had a far greater throw.
We also visited another hide, and later found we were unable to complete the entire route due to the height of the water on this occasion due to all the rain we have had of late. It was a warm afternoon despite the wind, which by the river here we were well shielded. It was good to meet up with Grant and his family after a long gap. It was a shame it has been so long, and I hope it is not as long till the next time.
