Day 155: facing the paparazzi

I was delighted to be able to witness my fairy goddaughter KK, receive her First Holy Communion. The ceremony was held at her school with eleven of her classmates. We were asked to refrain from taking photographs in the chapel, so the congregation somewhat descended like a flock of paparazzi when we were all outside. KK objected quite strongly to the frantic clicking. I managed to take nearly 150 pictures in the next few hours, but was aiming for a moment captured unaware. This is probably my favourite from the dozen I whittled my collection down to. It was a beautiful day, the weather was fabulous, the dozen girls in their white finery, flowered hair accessories, lacey gloves, tiaras and satin drawstring bags were certainly exuberant. To raise the volume level and excitement just a little higher, a cake studded with macaroons, sugar roses and mixed berries was presented to them. And of course, that just offered me more photographic opportunities for KK to sigh about. Ah the perils of being the centre of attention!

 

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Day 27: Those fine eyes!

I was lucky to be able to spend time with the fabulous MZ and her gorgeous Miss B a couple of days after her christening. Sadly Miss B. wasn't at her best with an eye infection and a bit of a fever but she was still well enough to fling the odd wooden toy around. I was determined to get some new photos but the light in the elegant white living room was subdued and didn't capture those stunning eyes as much as I wanted. Later we were tucking into some of Whole Food's finest cheeses in the kitchen, like a good little Italian girl she was keen to get her hands on a little morsel of bread too! I was transfixed by the wintry light pouring through the kitchen window and illuminating those fine eyes (a little Jane Austen reference there!) I fired off a few more shots whilst I could grab her attention. Despite her less than perfect health she had such a sweet look.

I had a modicum of post-processing to undertake to complete my grabbed portrait, I didn't think the eye infection needed immortalising, and her colour was a tad high causing a flush around her cute little jaw. The monochrome could deal with the too rosy a colour and some delicate spot healing could eradicate the temporary imperfections from around her perfect eyes and the delicate rosebud mouth.

I take few photographs of people, especially intimate portraits but with such a stunning subject, I could be persuaded to take more I guess.

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Those magnificent men in their flying machines!

This holiday just gets better and better as this morning we have a surprise addition to the original Happy Camera itinerary, we're taking to the skies. Well at least that's the plan. However, when we arrive at the tiny air field, our intended four-seater plane seems to be in pieces strewn across the grass. This is somewhat alarming and making me rather disinclined to take to the air strapped into this clearly not happy propeller plane. I was already a little trepidatious about the danger of flying in such a small flimsy looking plane, but it's a new experience and I keep being assured that the pilot wouldn't take off unless he was positive it was completely safe. Hmmm, this is the pilot who is swearing in French and hitting parts of the engine. Yessssss, we're in safe hands!

 

 

The final insult is that our hire car (which we've been very derogatory of already in this trip) is used to jump start the ailing plane. Be still my beating heart! I distract myself by taking photos of the flowers, the scenery and the Spiderman plane still inside the small hanger.

 

 

 

Eventually the plane us making encouraging noises so I'm strapped in the back seat before I can change my mind. Of course the plane needs jump starting a second time, eek! I take a very rare selfie of my anxious expression, wearing the headphones and the wing (thankfully still attached at this point) reflected in my sunglasses. I'm not entirely sure what this would achieve, perhaps I figured it could be retrieved from my camera, should we crash, and be used as my final ever portrait. A cheering thought!

When we finally do propel ourselves into the wide blue yonder, the ride is surprisingly smooth. I had wished we thought about reflections in the windows and persuaded HiM to wear a quieter, maybe black shirt, so every single one of my photos doesn't have plaid in the foreground to try and extricate.

 

 

We make like a vulture and glide on the thermals over the mountains. We fly over Curnier, the village where we're staying. It transpires that our landlady is out in her garden waving at us! My camera cannot pick up that sort of detail though, HiM has borrowed the big-boy lens so perhaps can. Once we're up there, it was worth the drama and we have a soft, entirely trouble-free, landing. Yay, I live to take another selfie should I be so inclined!

 

 

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Day 362 : 9 3/4

On the way to Titchwell I didn't have time to look around King’s Cross Station as a mysterious extra train turfed up so I thought I'd take my chances on it with all the cancellations they'd been. E(D) and LLcT were saying at dinner that the whole platform 9 3/4 has been revamped, reimagined if you will, so I was intrigued to check it out on my return journey.

Back on September 23rd 2010, and two little Leicas ago, we'd had a meal at King’s Cross Station before they headed back to Cambridge. The trolley embedded in the wall was tucked away and just led off from platform 8 or 9, just a little tiled walkway. LLcT and E(D) decided to pose with the trolley, straining to ’push’ the their luggage through the wall. You could say that my godson has a touch of a rather tall Harry Potter, bespectacled yes, but the wrong shaped glasses. His hair is slightly reminiscent but there isn't a scar. I was grabbing a few shots of both of them but several other passersby seemed particularly keen to get their own photos when LLcT was stood there. Especially a group of Japanese tourists, not sure how they explained the giant Harry when they got home with their pictures!.

I got off the train and tried to recall where the curiously mounted trolley was. The station’s been very redeveloped so nothing looked as I remembered. I wondered briefly if I should ask someone but figured immediately that they've probably made it really simple to find. And sure enough as I wheeled my case into the main part of the station I could see a fairly substantial queue of people. They've updated it and realised a way to monetarise the platform 9 3/4 experience. Now as you pose with the trolley, laden with old suitcases a ’handler’ wraps a large scarf around you, depending on which Hogwart’s house you wish to represent. He holds out the long scarf behind you to give an impression of speed and a photographer takes your commemorative photograph, for I think £8. I chose to grab my own shot whilst they were changing over would-be Harry Potters and Hermiones.

They've also built a little shop selling said photos plus memorabilia from the Harry Potter World at Watford. Ironically you can't travel by train from King’s Cross to Watford Junction for the studio tour, you have to travel from Euston Station. But at least you can get to Hogwarts from platform 9 3/4 and Paris from international platforms at the St. Pancras part of the station.

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Day 300 : people watching!

The Frui Friday challenge this week is person/people and I need to throw whatever hat into the ring I intend to throw today. I'm not really a people photographer but I do have the odd picture that could count in this genre and very few were taken with the subject’s acquiescence . I love the B&W photographs I took recently of Z, KK and little E but I thought I could look deeper in my archive. I knew I’d been ’encouraged’ to try a few environmental portraits in Almería last year. I wouldn't say strictly that this could be a portrait when I'm taking a sneaky shot without their knowledge (as per usual) but this Andalusian woman carefully selecting her peppers particularly caught my eye and she was kind enough to ignore me. Normally if a person is in my photograph it’s invariably their feet or possibly legs. Maybe I have a deep-rooted gear of model releases. This lady had a great face and if certainly made a change for me not to just shoot the peppers!

 

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Day 261 : black and white and red sauce!

Today was such a lovely late birthday treat and a catchup with old friends. My fairy goddaughter, KK, and I share a birthday and we'd yet to exchange presents. K with her two children are over from Singapore and I haven't seen K since she visited from their last home in Dubai. Z I've met once briefly three years ago but I'm sure he wouldn't remember and E, was only a couple of days old when I could have met her, but it was really late so we let her sleep. The idea was an early evening afternoon tea (as some of us work!) in the BB Bakery in Covent Garden. The children were highly entertained by amongst various delights, the animal erasers finally reaching KK and she was kind enough to donate a kangaroo and my favourite penguin to Z and E.

whilst the grown ups enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea the children licked the odd cupcake and played. Of course the moment we said it was time to pack up and leave they announced collectively that they were hungry, most likely for pasta. So we settled our bill at the bakery, gathered all the toys, bags, presents, take-home cakes, small rubber animals, ponies, drawing books and made our way to Carluccio’s. Then whilst the younger members of our group slurped their way through pasta, the older members drank a fine red wine. When as much possible mess had been made by both consuming spaghetti and colouring in the books about tomatoes (ugh!) they'd been furnished with I showed them how to make origami penguins and we took some pictures of tiny things. Even though I don't profess to be a portrait photographer I had some beautiful and willing subjects, so it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I preferred the calmness of the B&W and opted to remove the spaghetti sauce in post-processing. Well it just looks like weird dirty marks in monochrome and spoil a very rare portrait from me!

 

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