Sunday 6 March 2016

Flashback

The sun was shining and I was stuck for ideas. When in doubt I hit the sandplant. It never fails to surprise. Andrew and Fergie? I must have entered a time warp!


I continue to be intrigued by the 'landscape' in the sandplant. Although it's entirely artificial the way the weather acts on it makes it look almost natural. The rain in particular acts on the sand to create a sort of speeded up geological erosion. Channels and landslips all in miniature.

After lunch I went to look at the remaining flooded lands. Some is still under water but other parts are drying. One reason the process has taken so long is that a couple of the automatic pumps burned out. It looked like ditches and culverts had got blocked too. Two portable pumps are in place here to deal with the water the permanent one should have been shifting.


 Here is the same place when the flood was almost at it's highest.

An evening wander down the lane gave me a chance to have a word with the owner of the rescue hens. Apparently they survived the mass M62 chicken accident a year or so back and are now healthy and happy. They certainly know who feeds them! All being well they'll be having a proper photo-shoot at some time in the future.

Once more I've been thinking (eek!) that engineering types should be barred from taking up photography as a creative outlet. They seem to get obsessed with knowing how everything works and striving for technical perfection. Then my mind wandered, as it does. Some people pick up a guitar in order to copy their heroes. Most probably start that way. Then there's a split. One group remain content to play other people's music perfectly. They listen to music to analyse the technique of the players. Another gets bored with that and wants to make their own music. They listen to the songs, not the performance. There's something similar goes on with photography. 

There is a large tranche of photographers who look at photographs on a technical level. They obsess over the shape of a catch light in a sitter's eyes. They drool over the tonality of a platinum print. It seems like comparatively few look at photographs to see the pictures. It's no wonder I feel out of step...

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