These photos were taken during a visit to 

the Black Country Museum in Dudley last August.

The first shot was taken in the pub there where I spotted this couple.

The second shot was in one of the back to back houses. 

She was showing us carbolic soap.

Above in the gentleman's outfitters the man
was pushing his hats. 

This gentleman waving his stick told us how
we lived in the Art Deco period
[see the wallpaper and the moquette settee]

From inside the Cobblers shop

Oil can in a trap workshop.

Trading

Selling at a Salisbury Market stall

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Misc

Kingstone Lacey House

Violinist in Bath

Lillipution Photos

We have recently been showing our U3A members how to make a photo look like a model. Here are a couple of examples of mine.

St Pancras Station Passengers

Staithes, Yorkshire

The Glass Engraver

The Dispenser

The Leather Worker

These three photographs were taken in places like Ironbridge or the Black Country Museums where folk act the workers of the past.
They have all been processed in Photoshop to a sketch form using filters such as graphite pen and poster edges. Some colour has been brought back from underlying layers.

Meal Out

We had a meal out with our wee gang. Here I illustrate the first course viz goats cheese on ciabatta dealt with in 2 ways. The jig saw puzzle version is specially for Joan.

Here is the gang ready to order and below that two interpretations of this picture.


Below this I have added a small video of the chattering classes.

A day of catching up. The morning was spent gardening - mainly pruning.
Then a quick trip out to take some photos. Met Maggie and Fiona. Managed to persuade Maggie to pose. I removed some graffiti from the wall.

In the churchyard I thought that the 2 gravestones were picturesque with their fresh daffodils.

Sunday 16th March 2008

A day at an RPS talk from Will Cheung and Brian Beaney. Excellent stuff. At lunch I went out briefly and grabbed 2 shots before the battery ran out of a dog and his owner.

Canal Confusion in Cheshire and not a cat in sight.

The top image is a surreal version of the happenings on the Cheshire canal system.
A combination of 3 pictures blended together.

The middle image is another montage of two photos of the Anderton boat lift with a man for scale.

A rare sight of a lock-keeper

This image is an amalgam of three photos taken on Cheshire earlier this year. These were all canal based. So you can see the lock keeper opening the lock gate and the end elevation of a building by the lock and a bridge with some text painted thereon many years before. Also another image of a narrow boat that was passing through. Whether this type of montage is to your liking it is quite enjoyable making them. It may do well in camera club competitions but that is not paramount in my mind. That is the enjoyment of making an image that satisfies.

Saturday walk into the city

A beautiful day and everyone we meet is happy. We meet quite a few people - a man painting his house, Margaret Younge a new member of the Camera club & the Spire U3A who had just bought herself a digital camera. Her daughter Sheila with her 2 daughters Lily and oh I have forgotten the other one. Drat. Met Evelyn and Maureen outside M&S too. Here too Sheila found a strange device. A small blue plastic thing. Maybe it was someones car opening device. So in a jeweler's shop, where we tried to buy some of those tiny silver batteries and the old ones were perfectly OK, we inquired if they knew. But no.
Sheila was interested in buying a new lens for her camera and we looked in 3 camera shops ending with Castle Cameras. Booked to see one on Tuesday but Sheila saw yet another Camera bag that took her fancy. She is always trying to find the perfect one. We took it with us on appro. Later Sheila decided that it was not built for women!
Onto to the Farmers Market to buy smoked trout terrine for lunch and then home wards. We saw a Security guy but he was no help over the wee plastic key. However in the Close the man in the hut who takes money for car parking was able to pass it on to City Security. Well let us hope that someone is not stranded in a car park.
On the way back I took a picture of Margaret's daughter and family and more of the man painting [really spraying hence the newspapers over the windows].