There was a local poultry show back in September which I'd intended to go to,
not so much to take photos, more to hand over a couple of books to someone.
Unfortunately I felt dog rough and couldn't face even the ten minute drive let
alone being cheerful and taking photos. The next show, and last for this year,
was on Saturday gone and I went along there, making a late start through
idleness. I didn't have a burning ambition to take more poultry pics to be
honest. By the time I arrived most of the birds had been penned. I'd only have
been repeating the usual pre-penning rituals any way
The only interesting thing was that since my last visit to the club's
exhibition hall it had been extended. That at least gave me something new to
record. Albeit in a fairly meaningless way unless the photos are put alongside
'before' pictures. The join can be made out in the outside shot.
Inside a store room and an office had been constructed.
The old photo 'studio' had been retained and mounted on the office wall. There's still no dedicated photographer to take 'professional' photos though. I'm not volunteering, even if my lighting skills have improved!
On the subject of lighting, I'd forgotten how awful the strip lights are in the hall. It took me a while to get back in the groove of keeping my shutter speed below 1/100th of a second to avoid the strobing colour changes. A shutter speed that isn't quick enough to freeze chicken twitches!
After a a short while fruitlessly trying to find a fresh angle on the judging I came home to await delivery of a new-to-me lens.
This interlude gave me a chance to change lenses on my cameras as
something else I'd forgotten was how cramped the space is between the rows of
pens. I put on a wider zoom as my main lens and pocketed the handy 20mm just
in case. Then when the new lens arrived I stuck that on the second body to
take it for a play.
Judging was almost over when I got back to the show but there was still nothing fresh to get me interested. I amused myself by seeing how the new lens performed. It's the first macro lens I've used which focuses quickly enough to use as a non-macro. And at 90mm it's a little bit more to my taste than the loathed 85mm I'd traded in for it. Even if I don't use it much as a non-macro I've got the close up facility back after parting with my previous macro lens. Not something I use much for 'serious' photography but it is useful for product type shots for my business. It worked OK on the chooks.
And outside.
Post show it was another case of the same old pictures of people putting chickens in boxes and carrying boxes.
The best I could manage was to get a slightly different angle. I'd actually
taken a photo of the drinking cups because I'd not seen any old metal ones
before, then I noticed birds being put in a box and went a bit wider hoping to
time something right. I nearly managed it.
As a test for getting to know some new gear the outing was worthwhile. That's about all I can say though.
There won't be any more poultry shows, or auctions, for some time now. Avian
flu has entered the UK for the winter and all poultry gatherings were to be
banned until further notice two days after this show. This is hitting the show
world hard with these bans becoming an annual occurrence as the two biggest
national shows, and many big regional shows, take place at this time of
year.
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