The weather was a great shame for the show's organisers as it kept away a lot of casual visitors. The farming folk were undeterred. They spend half their lives in raingear anyway. The sheep shook it off. Although I'm pretty sure this one was taking shelter under an umbrella. Who says sheep are stupid?
The rain was a challenge as I wasn't sure how weatherproof my cameras are. I'd taken the precaution of fitting my 'pro' lenses and ensuring they had hoods on them. The hoods do a good job of keeping rain of the front of the lenses. Because I didn't want to take too many chances on camera stayed in the bag (which I now know isn't waterproof) while I spent most of the morning using the dreaded 70-200.
I must be getting used to this previously despised lens as I didn't find myself wishing I had something else. I didn't even miss my superzoom. That was at home because I know it can take on water, and because I thought faster lenses would be more useful on a day likely to be dull.
The show features an adjacent sheep dog trial, which I was looking forward to. Unfortunately it was on the other side of a beck, which I didn't fancy paddling through, or taking the long way round. I still managed a couple of shots from across the beck, which give a feel for the conditions.
Despite my intentions being to concentrate on the sheep I don't turn up a chance to take a snap of anything else which catches my eye.
For those prepared to put up with it rain can make for good photographs. For me it gave me pictures which might be of the same activities but with a different look. There's something about the way even dull light plays on wet surfaces which is photogenic.
When it comes to sheep preparation rain can put people in unusual situations. And unsual situations make for good pictures.
Just as I was struggling to stay dry the stewards were having trouble keeping the rosettes and prize envelopes dry.
I persisted in my low angle shots using the flippy screen. It's not ideal as there's quite a lag between each frame even in burst mode. Focusing can be a bit haphazard too. That resulted in a 'nearly' shot. Generally speaking foreground objects ought to be in focus. That's the way we see the world.
I kept my finger on teh shutter release and somehow fluked a somewhat better picture. Not only is the focus improved, there's more going on in the frame. Still not perfect though.
Despite my reservations about using this approach through the rails of the pens I think it might actually result in better pictures than being on the same side of the hurdles. I'm certainly less likely to end up with four or five sheep on top of me! Previously I'd used a wider angle, but I was restricted to 24mm because of the lens I was using. I'd put the 70-200 away by this stage as an enforced change of viewing angle. I much prefer pictures of people taken from close in.
The compression and subject isolation which telephotos bring to pictures has its place, but it visually implies distance. For people it's more important to imply connection. Which is what moderately wide to 'normal' focal lengths do.They also don't distort figures at the edges of the frame like ultrawides will. I see that a lot in news and editorial pictures and it frustrates me. Ultrawides can also be used as a cheap trick to give pictures impact. I don't think such pictures stand the test of time.
I wonder if phonepics will stand that test?
Photographing in the rain was like photographing a new subject. I think that's why the album I compiled has a lot more photographs in it than usual. No doubt I could make a tighter edit once my initial enthusiasm for the 'new look' dies down. See the pics here.
Show season is almost over, but even if rain is forecast I'm hoping to be making it to at least one, maybe two or three, more before the month is out. Then what?
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