Sawston Village Concert – a Service of Lessons and Carols 2014

Another year passes, my elder daughter’s girls grow older, wiser and taller; they take up musical instruments and they do well academically – it is a great pleasure to watch and to hear them singing amongst their friends, in a great acoustic and in the historic building of Great St. Mary’s, in the very heart of Cambridge.

The carols are within my vocal range, and I join in heartily, proud to be witness to their steps towards the future, with their family to watch and listen in equal pride. The viewpoint I chose to take pictures from meant I was separated from the rest of our group, but that afforded me the chance to capture the enjoyment on their faces, which had I been alongside them, would not have been possible.

On our journey back to the car it meant we could recount our evening from different standpoints, as I could see both girls where they could see only one. We certainly all agreed on one thing; we had listened and watched a beautifully joyous Carol Concert, and in splendid surroundings.

Sawston Village College Concert 2014

http://www.fntn.co.uk/rodwp/SawstonVCC14-1

Catherine alerted me to the Sawston Village College Concert, being held once again in the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, and this time both girls were to be in the Samba Band, and Poppy would also be playing her saxophone with the Sawston Saxophone Sound.

Last year I gave my 100-400mm its very first outing, as I only received it the morning of the last concert, but I learned from that evening that there were times when I wanted a wider view, so this time I also took the 70-200mm. As before I arrived early enough to get a position as far forward as possible on the left flank gallery, and there is fortunately just enough light to shoot at 6400 ISO with manageable shutter speeds to ensure most movement was captured effectively.

I had not yet cleared my 32GB cards of shots taken in India, so I foolishly omitted formatting any of them and chose to work with the space available, forcing me to change cards, which meant that when I started to create the gallery, I completely failed to spot I had missed most of the Samba Band shots. This means I now have two separate galleries and the chronology of the concert is lost unless I start again. I have more pressing things to be doing, so two galleries it is!

Here is the second.http://www.fntn.co.uk/rodwp/SawstonVCC14-2

Sawston Village Concert – Trinity College

As a family we all headed for the centre of Cambridge and grabbed a quick snack before making our way to Trinity College Chapel in light drizzle. We were all looking forward to listening to the choirs, in particular obviously the one in which Holly and Poppy were performing, and for us to join in.

We had to queue for a short while outside, which gave us a chance to catch up on news, before finding seats from which to get a good view of the girls. I had hoped I might be able to photograph the proceedings, and simply took a handful of shots before the service started, but the first announcement that was made was no mobile electronic devices or cameras during the service, so I confined myself to taking shots afterwards to add to those I managed beforehand.

As we came out into the vestibule I took shots of the beautiful statues and the magnificent organ, whilst waiting for the girls to ready themselves for the return, and it was now no longer a drizzle outside, but a downpour! So reaching the cars in the car park was very welcome. The service was well-organise, beautifully sung and the harp playing was excellent, my only disappointment was that there had not been a raised platform for this instrument such that the audience could have seen the harpist at work. One piece she played managed to sound like a plucked Lute or Mandolin, which I found very unusual, and in conversation I learned I was not alone in this thought.

Sawston Village Concert, West Road Concert Hall

Catherine invited me to her girls’ first concert at their new school, where they would be singing with the choir, and other year’s students would be playing in various groups and in a wide range of musical genres.

We arrived at West Road Concert Hall on the Sidgwick Site in Cambridge with seconds to spare in finely controlled panic, Martin took the girls in whilst Catherine and I sought to find somewhere to park the car; once parked we half-walked and half-ran from one side of the site to the other and upon arrival took ourselves to the balcony overlooking the stage, which proved to be an excellent viewpoint from a photographic standpoint. It was also handy that the level of lighting was good and covered most of the stage area.

Catherine and I sat one box back from the front with me positioned at the edge. I was somewhat concerned that I did not obscure the view for the mother and daughter behind who were present when we arrived, but fortunately they were extremely accommodating, though I did apologise and hoped I did not spoil their view too often. The mother was very chatty and had been on a First Aid Course that day and was due to do so again the day following, so was mugging up in her textbook and hoping for a good pass later.

I tried to judge when I could take shots without being obtrusive, and that meant that I could not chance taking shots of the Recorder Group in case the sound of my shutter boomed across the auditorium above their subtle notes. Because the time set on the two camera bodies was different, the shots are almost certainly out of chronological order which is a shame, but overall I am happy that I have captured some of the spirit of the evening, in particular some of the humour of the show.

Sawston Village College Concert

I was pleased to see that the morning’s fall of snow had melted before my journey across country to Sawston. Catherine had invited me to join her and Holly and Poppy at the school concert which was being held at Great St. Marys University Church in the centre of Cambridge. It was the girl’s first at the new school.

We joined a long queue outside the church, which grew to at least twice the length as we waited. Martin arrived to the obvious delight of the girls whilst we were there, and other mothers spotted Catherine and stopped by to chat. It only seemed a long time due to the cold, but soon we were making our way to find seats; I chose mine carefully to be able to see the girls clearly, but I was to learn later that there were places up in the balcony which would have offered a much-improved view – next year!

I could only take the very occasional shots from the pews of the actual singing without causing a distraction, so I concentrated on enjoying listening and singing. It was a very well-organised event and a delightful performance. Next to me sat a past Deputy Head and his wife, and she very kindly pointed out that the band were worth listening to at the end, rather than rushing out, which we duly noted. This gave me the opportunity for some more shots whilst various friends gathered to chat to either the girls or Catherine.

We then took a stroll through the Market place and visited Carlucci’s, passing the longest and possibly coldest, bare legs in Cambridge, belonging to Tina, as she stood outside a nightclub.
Poppy wanted to try her hand with the camera, once she and Holly had taken a look at some of the shots on the back of the camera – I am not sure which of the girls took the shot of Catherine, but the ladle and bowl were by Poppy, so I am hoping that the next generation of photographers might include one or both of them.