Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Graham, Yours is a great story and one of the best reasons for being a photographer...the opportunity to share the 'gift' with others at the most unobvious of times. Blessings, Lea - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Graham Battison" <graham@geebeephoto.com> To: "LUG" <Leica-Users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 4:58 PM Subject: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3 > I am sitting in the churchyard at Flore eating my lunch. The service has > been over for some time, a few stragglers are leaving the church after > spending some time chatting. The sky is a typical English mix of blue with > white clouds in some parts and black as thunder in others. > > I watch what I take to be worshipper set out on a footpath across a field in > front of the church and think to myself that she must be very devout to walk > from the next village to attend services. The path although fairly dry today > can be > very messy. I take a shot, my usual stuff, landscape with lone figure. > > When I look again the lone figure is on the far side of the field and turns > to come back toward the church. She is walking slowly, head occasionally > bowed, obviously lost in thought as if reluctant to complete the field > crossing. > I toy with the idea of another shot but my sandwiches are good and I let the > moment pass. I have since found out that her late father used to walk his > dog on that footpath. > > Eventually she returns to the churchyard and stands over a grave for a time > then approaches me. She stops a distance from where I am sitting (very > English) and asks if she might ask a favour of me (decidedly un-English). > She explains that she used to live locally and had been visiting her mother > in nearby Daventry and that the grave she had been looking at was that of > her father. She was on her way back to Devon, where she now lives after > returning from several years in America and had stopped by the church to > take a photograph of the grave (she pays someone local to tend it). > > Finding that the camera she thought was in the car was not there she was > considering where she might buy a disposable on a winters Sunday in the UK > when she saw me take a shot of her walking across the field. She asks, "Was > I a photographer?" and "would I take a photograph for her of her fathers' > grave?". "In the loosest possible sense" and "yes I would" I replied. > > I took a couple of shots, she thanked me profusely and with her emotions > running high and my web address in her purse she left at about 1:30pm. I > finished my lunch and as insurance against looking an idiot I took a few > extra shots of the grave before I left. > > Devon is quite a drive from Flore but at 7pm I got an email (maybe she has a > Lear jet) and she tells me that she has been smiling "about life's little > co-incidences". Not only does she "meet a chap with a camera but > a real photographer" (she has by this time visited my web site) > and "you just never know your luck, do you?". > > She closes her email with a post script: > "I wonder if you know the work of James Ravilious? I think you would > appreciate it. I had a small hand in the last published book of his > photographs with text by Peter Beacham called 'Down the Deep Lanes' > published by Devon Books. I'll give you further details if your > interested." > > I checked him out. He was born 1939, died 1999 and wandered around Devon > shooting local stuff with a Leica M3. It's a small world. > > http://www.geebeephoto.com/temp/Flore/Flore.html > > > Graham > http://geebeephoto.com > > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html