I had nowhere in mind to go with the camera, which is why I returned with next to nothing worth saving. What little did catch my eye was once more effects of light and shade. While photographs aren't always about the light, sometimes they are.
As the week went on I was hoping that Saturday would at least be dry, if not sunny, as it was the day of the Todmorden Show. While it wasn't red hot as I drove to the show ground it was getting warmer by the mile, and it was dry.At the gate disaster struck. I couldn't get the gear lever out of first gear. I managed to park up and with the engine off jiggled the lever free. Try the car again, call the AA, or go photograph sheep? The car wasn't going anywhere, so I went to look for the sheep pens!
It was quiet when I got there, most pens still being empty.
When they had filled it was Gritstones to be judged first followed by Lonks. The Grits were judged near the end of the aisle between the pens, which made getting photographs relatively easy from outside the pens.
Gearwise I was in a two fast zoom mood. I felt like doing it the way it's 'supposed' to be done, and at wider apertures than I usually use.Some pictures were even taken at f2.8...
When it was time for the lovely Lonks to be appraised I found myself wishing I'd stuck in a longer lens. Either my trusty do-it-all superzoom or the 'consumer' telephoto zoom. I couldn't get myself close to the action either for general shots or details. 200mm just isn't enough at times like that.
In advance of the show I'd told myself I'd take more 'character' shots this time. Much as I try not to take this sort of picture they do have a part to play. I think interaction pictures are stronger than isolated individuals.
Detail pictures are always on my agenda, but finding them can prove problematic. It's worth putting the camera down for a while and just looking at what's going on for a while. I was doing that when I noticed a lot of the hurdles used to make the sheep pens had TAS (Todmorden Agricultural Society) painted on them. Then I started to look for how I could incorporate that in a picture. I'm not sure I succeeded, but I did try.
I also remembered that I have a mini-project of pictures of baler twine and its many uses in farming on a slow heat. Yet I'd never photographed it at an agricultural show. Some yellow twine and a matching ear tag changed that.
Time was getting on as I wanted to catch the sheep dog display at 12. The Lonk judging was almost over by then so I went to see the waterfowl being herded. I'd met Elaine earlier and she'd said the geese were in a funny mood as they were still laying, and the ducks weren't her best squad so things might go a little awry. As I got to the arena the geese were in flight back to their trailer!
Not knowing what the plan was, and there being a goodly crowd around the side, I expected my chances of getting any decent pictures were slim. I was right. I did get one or two that were okayish. If I'd waited for the 3pm display I might have improved on them, but I didn't want to hang around until then in case my car was still immobile and there would be a wait for the AA.
As it turned out the car went into all gears as if there'd never been an issue. I did drive through rain on my way home, so I might not have got any decent sheep dog pictures in any case.
Back home and the day of mishaps continued. For some unaccountable reason one of my cameras had been set to shoot small jpegs. How that happened I have no idea. Luckily there weren't any earth shattering pictures amongst the files. I only noticed this cock up when the pics were on my PC. And only when I happened to spot the file info. I had wondered why there wasn't much highlight recovery in one file though. What did surprise me was how little processing the jpegs needed. The camera's settings had done a pretty good job. Although they did look a little over-sharpened to my eyes. More like everyone else's pictures tend to look!
Whatever the case, I know from past experience that a 3 megapixel file will print nicely enough to make a double page magazine spread. As that's how I tend to judge 'image quality' they'll do for most uses I'm ever likely to put them to. On this blog, where pictures appear much smaller than that, I doubt anyone could tell which started life as full size raw files or tiny jpegs!
A rather short selection of pictures from the sheep show can be seen here. Short because I left early, couldn't get a good position for the Lonk judging, and because I was feeling jaded. The latter might have been because I was concerned how the day would pan out with the car.
Unless I go to the first day of the Cheshire show on Tuesday I don't expect to be doing any show photography for three weeks. There might be some sheep dog stuff, but I'm not sure if I can face any more of that. of course I might be bored out of my tree and even sheep dogs will seem like a good reason to get a camera out!
The Cheshire show isn't too appealing. It's expensive for one thing, there don't appear to be any sheep breeds of interest to me for another, and it's in Cheshire. However, I am kind of keen to try photographing a show with just one, or maybe, two focal lengths. All right, three... The gates open at eight. Can I face the M6 on a Tuesday morning?
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