Was going to go to Worcester today on the train. Then I thought I'd drive, then I thought I might go to Hereford instead. Then I finally decided not to bother with any long distance sightseeing and just walk around some parts of Cheltenham that I haven't been to yet. So I walked east along the edge of the town to a café called Whiskers in a patch of parkland. It turned out to be on the edge of a football pitch attached to the clubhouse and had a distinctly unappealing look to it, to me that is
So I consulted Osmand~ and plotted a circuitous course to Montpellier Gardens on the opposite side of town.
On the way I found a pleasant little café called Rainbowls where I'm having a mocha and a slice cake
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Now I'm at Montpellier, as usual I'm entering from the end opposite the main entrance
The pavilion is actually an art gallery. The works on display today are photograph's by Martin Fry
I had a brief conversation with Martin Fry about his pictures. I was especially drawn to them because half of the display was of pictures of parts of Cornwall, many of which I frequently visited as a child (my mother was Cornish). The other half were mostly of Gloucestershire with a few of Cheltenham itself.
I was especially struck by a picture of Pittville Pump Rooms so i decided to buy a small print, it 6x8" card for 2.50 GBP whereas the print on display was closer to a metre across and printed on archival paper. Still a not too desperate a price, I think it was 200 GBP.
When I went to pay for it the man at the table with the payment card said "I'm the snapper." I said to him that i had been considering a trip to Cornwall but that now I had seen his photographs I don't think I need go because they are so memorable and of so many of the places familiar to me. I said how impressed I was with how he had captured the light. I told him I was staying near the Pittville Pump Rooms and must have passed it a dozen times and it had never looked as good as his photograph. I was also impressed by how he captured the waves and spray in the seascapes. I said he must have a very fast camera and he said it was a Nikon ZX I think. He must have had a huge lens to get some of the shots.
Here's a picture of the card I bought and also my attempt at recreating it.
The print is still in the plastic envelope to it's not a very good picture of the picture
Here's mine. I managed to find roughly the spot that Martin must have taken it from and zoomed in to get everything about the same size
Of course even if i had his skill and camera I still wouldn't be able replicate the picture because mine was taken in mid afternoon light in late summer whereas his was taken in early morning light in early summer
I took about a dozen shots in the shifting light as the clouds came and went. This seemed to be one of the best. My camera is a Sony DSC-HX50V ultra-zoom compact, exposure time 1/160, F number 6.3, image size 5090x3817 (but SW resizes).
Martin mentioned another picture and said I would be able to see the tree from the Pump Rooms when I got there. I'm not sure if i remembered the picture correctly but if I did then it's at the very limit of the 30 x optical zoom on my camera. Here it is:
Not bad considering the light and lack of tripod I suppose but definitely not likely to win any awards.
I'll go back tomorrow and see if the exhibition is still there to check which picture it was, I've probably misremembered .
