There’s a lot of photos to go through in this blog post, I’ll try to keep my writing to a minimum. That is perhaps the point where you decide that this blog really isn’t for me and leave. Conversely you might think great, I don’t have to read through his ramblings, I’ll stay. I will try to make this quick and painless either way, besides I’m anxious to watch the latest episode of “Better Call Saul”. If you haven’t watched then I can tell you that I had a discussion about it with a photojournalist a few years ago and we both agreed it contains the best photography we’ve ever seen. Actually shouldn’t that be cinematography? Whatever. A couple of weeks ago I ventured on to Facebook and my friend Juan Hernández posted that he was a fan and had been introduced to “Better Call Saul” by his photographic mentor. If you haven’t seen the series I strongly recommend it, putting to one side the great story and acting, the photography is sublime. The scenes, the perspectives, use of that beautiful New Mexico light and the creativity from those responsible for the photography is a pure joy, a lesson for any photographer.
My friend Kev, you’ve heard about him before, is fond of using a term that manages two things: Firstly I often laugh because it hits the nail right on the head. Secondly it’s an accurate description of whatever happens to be vexing us at the time. Perhaps we’re trying to work out how airline pricing policy is calculated or maybe the workings of government, more precisely those in charge and their interpretation of the rules/customer care. ‘Smoke and mirrors’ are mentioned, as is ‘black art’, however the phrase that satisfies the need above all else is when he says ”It’s a nebulous concept”. For example, people who are unable to queue at a bar or Mr Putin who regards the sovereignty of other countries as a nebulous concept. It’s vague.
Just like that guy in the opening shot laying down to pose with the couple I was photographing. He wasn’t invited to the wedding, just passing by, stood there watching for five minutes and decided he would be in the photos. Clearly he saw the principles of respecting privacy as a nebulous concept. That said it was a funny moment. The groom assured me that the only thing up his kilt was a dagger. I’m telling you this because the more I consider Street Photography it becomes increasingly clear that it’s a nebulous concept. By that I mean it’s vague, ambiguous and impossible to define. Many have tried to explain what Street Photography is, but failed. I’m not going to attempt to either explain or fail trying, you’ll be delighted to hear. What we’re really doing, and I believe this applies to any genre of photography, is documenting.
With that in mind here’s what I’ve been documenting since my previous blog post a few weeks ago…
A Wedding: I was asked to photograph our friends marriage ceremony. They were the happiest I’ve ever seen a couple on a wedding day, perhaps because they’ve been together such a long time and therefore new exactly what they wanted. It’s also been a long time since I’ve actually photographed a wedding, no gigs lately. I tried to get as many candid shots as I could. In the first shot we can see the groom may have fumbled his words slightly, however he didn’t get any of the names wrong, which I have seen before. The embarrassment when your future bride is referred to under the name of a previous girlfriend can set an uncomfortable precedent in any marriage.
Bath: I’ve had a few short trips into Bath. One of those was a complete waste of time. I saw nothing, clicked anyhow and as expected when I looked on the computer nothing whatsoever jumped out at me. It’s unusual, generally something emerges, but zero. It didn’t really bother me at all. Maybe there were some shots that others might think okay, the point is that I didn’t like any of them and so they’ll remain unpublished. This is where the passion with photography really manifests itself, whether you get anything or not you’re still driven through the pure enjoyment of the process. I travelled in another couple of times afterwards and had a little more success. Hey, if you think these aren’t great you should have seen the rejects. My friend Mark Benedyczak pointed out that there was definitely a metaphor of some religious kind with the two shots that included Bath Abbey in the background.
Family Life: I haven’t taken many shots of Amélie lately, I’m determined to put that right over this coming weekend. The shots I have of Louis consist of him with either a bow and arrow or his penknife sharpening arrows. I went to the woods with him three weeks ago, I have my own penknife. I’m always drumming into him that we need to be responsible, safe and whatever we do remember that often when we’re out in the countryside we’re also slightly out of reach of civilisation, ergo medical assistance. Have you ever had those moments, perhaps with a screwdriver, where you think to yourself “Stop doing it like that, you’ll slip and it’ll be carnage”? Strange as it sounds we often ignore that and carry on regardless and get away with it. Other times the premonition comes true a split second after thinking it, for example “There must be a better way of putting a notch in this arrow”. I almost sliced my finger off. Good job we were only a two mile walk from home! You know how extremities bleed, fingers, toes and so forth, blood pours out. I had to get a plastic bag tie it around the bottom of my finger and walk back with my hand above my head, still bleeding profusely feeling a little dizzy. I treated it myself, decided on no need to go to hospital, although it’s just about healed there’s an area that’s dead, no feeling, I must have severed a nerve. I hoped that would be a lesson to him. “I’m staying here daddy, I want to find more sticks for arrows”. Thanks for the support son. Of course I went straight on to Amazon and attempted to order a medical grade glass eye, just in case we ever need one, that bow and arrow is an accident waiting to happen. Bizarrely they don’t stock them!
Looks as though I may have been economical with the truth when I said I’d keep the writing to a minimum. Let’s move on.
Badminton Horse Trials: I’ve been on numerous occasions over the years. Spread over four days they get around 250,000 visitors. Part of the grounds of Badminton House, the home of the Duke of Beaufort are used as a cross country horse trial, along with a showjumping arena. I say part of the grounds because he owns over 50,000 acres, including 20 farms. The village of Badminton is his too, of course. I met him very briefly many years ago, at least 30 or so. I also spoke to his wife once through a window of Badminton house. We were discussing gardens apparently, I had no idea what I was talking about. When you’re talking to nobility just nod and say “precisely, good point” or “Oh yes, absolutely beautiful” hopefully in the right places . My very good friend Chris used to rent one of his many properties. Chris had a builder repairing the drystone garden wall. Some people on horseback came past: “Excellent work, keep it up my good man” one of the ruddy faced gentleman said and trotted on. The builder turned to Chris and said “Who does he think he is? Lord of the bloody manor or something”. Chris replied “Actually he is, that was the Duke of Beaufort”. Anyway, if you ever get the opportunity to go to Badminton make it a Saturday when they have the cross-country horse trial. It really is a spectacle. The other days, Sunday for example, are showjumping, dressage and so forth, you’re unlikely to get a ticket. Therefore you’ll be lucky to see a horse. This time we went on a Sunday and it was exactly as I’ve seen before. Hundreds upon hundreds of tents selling hats, saddles, clothes and food. You may as well go shopping in Bath or Bristol and that’s bad enough. They also have a funfair, which was just as well because Louis was getting bored, so was I. In the end I managed to talk to one of the officials and explained that Louis has been walking around for four hours and hadn’t even seen a horse, she took pity and let him to the side of the arena so he could watch for two minutes. I actually did discover that the horses were around the back , warming up or cooling down with no one around. Obviously they’re quite protective of their horses, I read somewhere that on average with buying a pony and the training to this level of competition you’re talking around £125,000 plus travelling expenses. You could probably buy a unicorn for that sort of money. Here’s a few shots:
Let’s wrap it up with quick blast on the bike down to Bournemouth. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…someone should write a song! You’ve seen my work from here before and I’m boringly consistent. I stand in the same places and take the same shots as I always do. In front of the observation wheel, have an ice cream and head a couple of miles up the road to Boscombe. I need to up my game, visit some new places, do something different and daring. As the say in the SAS: Who Dares Wins. Okay, taking a few phots and being in the worlds most highly trained and skilled special force have little in common. This old soldier has seen some action and so have I, to some extent, even that’s a tenuous link. You know what I mean
There you have it. Too much writing, too many photos. I’m done. Evidently my idea of a quick blog post is a nebulous concept. I have just noticed, as you may have, that this whole post is in Black and White. I’ve been leaning away from it recently, I was learning to embrace colour. The only colour shot worth showing is of our our friend sporting the shorts, hat and sunglasses at the beginning of this rather long post. I preferred the mono, but you’ll see here that actually the colours are what caught my eye. I’m off to watch Better Call Saul…
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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