Moorish
Posted: April 16th, 2018, 1:40 pm
"Won't be long, about half an hour" I called out to Mrs Bnc as I popped out yesterday morning at 10 o'clock to drive to the bookies to pick up the proceeds of my gambling streak, also to take some photos for a HDR picture of our former library building that is currently wrapped in scaffolding.
I enjoy taking photos of buildings in our town that are undergoing repair, restoration or demolition. One-off events are particularly interesting for those of us especially interested in streetscape heritage. For example, at about 08:10 Saturday last I watched a coach trying to turn left into the road that's currently part one-way, because of the scaffolding wrapping the former library, hit some barriers between the pavement and road. The driver got out of the coach and moved the barriers out of the way, whereupon he got back into the coach and carefully manoeuvred the long vehicle inches short of the barriers. Which would have been all very uninteresting had he not overlooked to allow enough headroom to avoid smashing the coach's driver's side external wing mirror into some overhanging protruding scaffolding. I took some photos. Politely said to him, "Welcome to (name of town)". I got the idea of saying 'Welcome to' from the sign on the approach road into town which says "Welcome to (name of town)" (twinned with somewhere that I would think only those of us that live here would have heard of). Whenever I drive along that road and see the sign, I say to myself or a passenger "You're welcome to (name of town)".
The bookies didn't have enough cash at the ready, so I was asked to come back in about 10 minutes. Whilst taking the photos of the old library, I noticed a crowd of people standing around and under the market house. (Tourist info: c17, still in use). Wandering over, I remembered reading in the local newspaper on-line about a 'Blackmeet' hosted by the Silurians.
Regular readers of my posts may recall that I rarely take photos of anything that moves so what better opportunity to practise using my non-existent skills than to mingle amongst a group of Morris dancers whilst waving my camera. Early afternoon when I got back home and imported the photos into my photography software, I couldn't understand why the video images were the same colour as the raw files. Searching on-line i discovered I should've have adjusted the white balance setting before using the video feature. The software I use doesn't process movie files. Never mind, I only took the video for the sound and to share with Mrs Bnc: when I asked her if she'd like to see the photos, she said some other time perhaps. Sensible woman.
Anyhow, whilst mingling amongst the 'Blackmeet', I would estimate about 100 people, mostly dressed in collage of ribbons, strips of cloth, dried flowers, bells, and carrying sticks, groups from different parts of the country - eg, Styx of Stroud, Stone the Crows (Lancashire), Beorma (Birmingham), Domesday (Staffordshire), Bakanalia (Leicester), Beltane (Devon) - taking it in turns to dance to live musical accompaniment, I got chatting to our window-cleaner, also a Silurian, who has asked me for some of the photos I was taking. That's going to be a challenge. Quite apart from people photos not my strong point, I was using a 24mm prime lens. I don't know whether because I was weary yesterday morning or maybe not focussing the lens carefully (I always use single point auto-focus), but many of the photos seem so sharp as to be blurred.
As I wandered randomly. holding my camera above the heads of most others - no mean achievement to hold above my head arms outstretched 980 g plus camera grip steady enough to avoid camera shake I'll have you know - i overheard a conversation that caught my attention. To cut a short story, I was introduced to Rob Elliott, author of a book about the Dark Morris from the Wild Welsh Border. I said I'd buy a copy, he said he could sell me one there and then. Apparently it is £10 inclusive of postage on Amazon, but I could buy it from him for £7. I took out a £10 note from my pocket and asked if he had any change. No, he said, but i could have it for a fiver, because he had a £5 note. I handed over my £10 whereupon he proceeded to give me a £10 note change which prompted me to say how much I enjoyed doing business with him.
Later on, after I'd returned home, looked at the title of the book, I thought how apt. "The Fool and his Dancers".
I enjoy taking photos of buildings in our town that are undergoing repair, restoration or demolition. One-off events are particularly interesting for those of us especially interested in streetscape heritage. For example, at about 08:10 Saturday last I watched a coach trying to turn left into the road that's currently part one-way, because of the scaffolding wrapping the former library, hit some barriers between the pavement and road. The driver got out of the coach and moved the barriers out of the way, whereupon he got back into the coach and carefully manoeuvred the long vehicle inches short of the barriers. Which would have been all very uninteresting had he not overlooked to allow enough headroom to avoid smashing the coach's driver's side external wing mirror into some overhanging protruding scaffolding. I took some photos. Politely said to him, "Welcome to (name of town)". I got the idea of saying 'Welcome to' from the sign on the approach road into town which says "Welcome to (name of town)" (twinned with somewhere that I would think only those of us that live here would have heard of). Whenever I drive along that road and see the sign, I say to myself or a passenger "You're welcome to (name of town)".
The bookies didn't have enough cash at the ready, so I was asked to come back in about 10 minutes. Whilst taking the photos of the old library, I noticed a crowd of people standing around and under the market house. (Tourist info: c17, still in use). Wandering over, I remembered reading in the local newspaper on-line about a 'Blackmeet' hosted by the Silurians.
Regular readers of my posts may recall that I rarely take photos of anything that moves so what better opportunity to practise using my non-existent skills than to mingle amongst a group of Morris dancers whilst waving my camera. Early afternoon when I got back home and imported the photos into my photography software, I couldn't understand why the video images were the same colour as the raw files. Searching on-line i discovered I should've have adjusted the white balance setting before using the video feature. The software I use doesn't process movie files. Never mind, I only took the video for the sound and to share with Mrs Bnc: when I asked her if she'd like to see the photos, she said some other time perhaps. Sensible woman.
Anyhow, whilst mingling amongst the 'Blackmeet', I would estimate about 100 people, mostly dressed in collage of ribbons, strips of cloth, dried flowers, bells, and carrying sticks, groups from different parts of the country - eg, Styx of Stroud, Stone the Crows (Lancashire), Beorma (Birmingham), Domesday (Staffordshire), Bakanalia (Leicester), Beltane (Devon) - taking it in turns to dance to live musical accompaniment, I got chatting to our window-cleaner, also a Silurian, who has asked me for some of the photos I was taking. That's going to be a challenge. Quite apart from people photos not my strong point, I was using a 24mm prime lens. I don't know whether because I was weary yesterday morning or maybe not focussing the lens carefully (I always use single point auto-focus), but many of the photos seem so sharp as to be blurred.
As I wandered randomly. holding my camera above the heads of most others - no mean achievement to hold above my head arms outstretched 980 g plus camera grip steady enough to avoid camera shake I'll have you know - i overheard a conversation that caught my attention. To cut a short story, I was introduced to Rob Elliott, author of a book about the Dark Morris from the Wild Welsh Border. I said I'd buy a copy, he said he could sell me one there and then. Apparently it is £10 inclusive of postage on Amazon, but I could buy it from him for £7. I took out a £10 note from my pocket and asked if he had any change. No, he said, but i could have it for a fiver, because he had a £5 note. I handed over my £10 whereupon he proceeded to give me a £10 note change which prompted me to say how much I enjoyed doing business with him.
Later on, after I'd returned home, looked at the title of the book, I thought how apt. "The Fool and his Dancers".