Editor's note - this week was a training session for many of the NCVs. Tony has written the entry for this. Those who didn't attend were otherwise engaged in the NCVs' workshop and Ruth has provided an account of what they got up to.
The training session
Twelve people signed up for the course and arrived at the
Council Chambers in Pateley Bridge on a morning of heavy rain and greyish
misery. The first item on the agenda – should we abandon the course in view of
the weather and reschedule for another day - was roundly condemned as a bad
idea so the course began. Paul Harris, local resident, professional landscape
and portrait photographer, started by outlining the pattern of the day and
checking the wide variety of cameras brought to the session. The first section of
the three part training programme (working very correctly to the rule of
thirds) involved Paul chatting to us for two hours about cameras and
photography while showing us photographs. Sleep inducing? Boring? Forget it.
Paul talks clearly and enthusiastically about his subject, involved all us
students and answered the questions thrown at him. Then we had a break for lunch. (Many thanks to Sue for the cake - Happy Birthday!)
Practice shots taken during the lunch break by Tony (Ros E. responsible for the captions):
What on earth do you think you are
doing with that camera boy?
I am simply not amused by your tendency to
photograph people in the middle of their dinner.
Now - what was it Paul said about that histogram
thing you have to check before you take a shot?
And so to the second third.
Get out there and take photographs of Pateley Bridge – its bridge and
High Street, shops, people at work, and make sure you get wide angle shots,
medium and close ups. Talk to people and
ask if you can take their pictures. All very daunting for a bunch of shy and
retiring people like us. It was noticeable that there seemed to be more
photographers on the High Street than other pedestrians. Camera shy, or did
they dislike the weather?
Photography school out and about.
Judith - pay attention!
Pateley Bridge itself - not a soul in sight!
It was the same in the High Street.
We were going to struggle to meet the brief Paul had set us!!
Anita tried to follow Paul's instructions with the material she had available
(captions provided by Anita):
Four eyed Graham looks on in admiration
as Tony takes a shot with his monster
Ros E. checks her teeth in the window
Ros K makes a dash for the cakes
We took quite a long time over this, then returned to the
Council Chambers for the third part of the course. Everyone’s photos were
downloaded onto the Lightroom software on Paul’s computer and the best five or
six photos from each set were highlighted by Paul in consultation with the
whole group, with an explanation about what made each
photo special. Each five- or-six picture group told a story about Pateley, its
people and shops.
(These 'stories' are to be loaded onto a disk and sent by Paul to the AONB office for possible use in their publications.)
During the selection procedure Paul also showed us some of
the editing possibilities of the software. During this phase of the work we
learned more about how professional photographers, magazine and newspaper
editors make selections. All use different criteria.
It’s not often that you find us working through to 6
o’clock, but although some people had to leave before this, most of us stayed
until the threat of being locked in persuaded us to leave.
Thanks in particular to Paul, and also to the AONB for one
of the most enjoyable and instructive training courses
they have arranged.
(Editor's note - Paul is going to send a pdf file of the key information from the training session. A link to this will be created here as soon as it is available.)
Tony K
Meanwhile - down at the barn....
Six diligent NCVs immediately got cold feet at the prospect of getting wet feet fencing at Sparrowhawk Farm in the rain so adjourned to their barn. Here Jan and his apprentices set about making up 15 bird box kits in preparation for next week’s AONB bird box event. Sides, lids, bases, backs and fronts were carefully measured out and sawn from an assorted pile of old timber. Inner tubing was cut for the seals and holes drilled for drainage and fixings. In addition the outside of the barn and its surroundings were spruced up, weeded and cleared. The rain didn’t stop. A large supply of old laminated shelving was gradually sawn up for firewood until the operators could no longer lift a saw.
These jobs done we turned our attention to the presentation of the barn for the public. Shelves were tidied up and tools placed in their correct positions. Broken things were actually thrown out along with an ugly collection of perished, pongy and putrifying work gloves. We did remark on the excess number of left gloves and shortage of right ones - even in new packs. Brooms were wielded to clear the covering of dust and sawdust which had smothered the floor. The local mouse scurried down a hole in the flagstones in fear of its life. Paul will not be able to find anything now that the barn is tidy, so we made good our escape.
Ruth
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