Rainbow Journeyman’s diary

Twas at the crack of midnight clear; we wandered far we wandered near. The sun was bright the sky was clear.

Well not exactly. We managed to drag ourselves from the warmth of the Duvet around seven thirty and by eightish we were on the Bay at Widmouth with cameras at the ready. Ah ha you asked yourselves what prompted this little Rainbow expedition. Were there midnight ‘phone calls advising that an important deadline had to be met?
Nope!
Did the Prime minister place another order for a picture to grace the lounge at No 10. (He hasn’t managed to order the first one yet. But that’s because no one has told him where the site is. www.rjsw.co.uk)
No, no, she cried.
Sorry, wrong story!
No, the logic was based on last nights weather forecast. Twas simple really. The little man with the seaweed told us that is was to be sort of grottical day this PM, with some nice bits of cloud and that shiny stuff, sun, around earlier. But with the horizontal wet stuff to follow.
Now if your grey stuff follows itself in thinking the way I do, you think, Hm we’re on the Atlantic coast. Rain coming in. Should be a good cloud base with some good light to follow or preceed itself.

And it twas.
You’ll see the pictures in good time. Some of the beach shots, mainly because of the defraction of water through the cloud base has made the sand look like moonlight. Clever really.

Winter is a time when lots of us hang up our cameras in the cupboard or poke them under the bed until the first spring budgie pokes his head over the horizon and tweets in our ear; puntuated by the cry of the lesser spotted daffodil singing to its self, Tr la, I wandered lonely as a cloud!

My Question here is, why! No, not the daffy dill bit or the budgie. The Camera.

Cameras benefit from being used. And with the flat winter light that washes everything in interesting tonal shades you can get some spectacular shots that will make your friends go wow with envy.
(Mostly at the ijeot with the Camera.) But Hey, seriously, nothing ventured nothing gained. Some of the best shots that come from Rainbow Journeying are done in the winter. You’d be amazed at what is still active and how the light treats the landscape to different effects. Sometimes, more dramatic than summer time.
Try Dartmoor for example. The Moors moods are wonderful. (Try saying that after a pint of scrumpy) Ask Lucy. No, not about the scrumpy. About the Moor. She wandered her way all over the lower moor below Foggingtaw Quarry looking for ways to cross the river and get up onto the Tor.
It was only after a boggy piece of what looked like firm grass et her welly did she decide that the moor has some bad habits. Some of which involve the process of not giving wellies back even when you plead on bended sock. We had to laugh. But to be fair. Dartmoor does yield some dramatic scenery. Long flowing idyllic hills with craggy piles of scree punctuating the downward slopes. Under cut water ways. (Dangerous for the unwary.)
Then you will find a crag or a Tor where nature and the weather have contrived together to stack a pile of stones cleverly on each other, so, looking at them you think, they didn’t oughter be there like that. But they are.

Oh and before I cease my rambling. Just one point that may be of of interest, don’t forget to increase the ISO setting on your camera. 200 should do it. On the nice days you can probably drop it back to 100 if the weathers offering to show sunshine and promises. If you are a film user you can do the same but with more difficulty especially if you want to change mid roll, as you have to count the film back into the container and then change it for a faster speed.

Now to one of my Fans. One of two. No Greg. That doesn’t mean that you have to take the digital CCD out of your camera and sandpaper it to make the grain finer. Poor chap, still hasn’t got his eyebrows back since I mentioned to him about flash Photography. The black powder wasn’t easy to get either. Cost him his eyebrows and spent ages up the chimney did our Greg.

Another day…closes and it’s time for supper. The breads gone a bit hard and the mice have had the cheese. The water company cut us off years ago. All say Ahh!

Oh and a message for Shirly and Tony.

Give Patch his bone back. Neither of you is that hungry!

See you all around

Mike Tyrrel for www.rainbowjourneyman-southwest.co.uk