World Photography Day

I couldn't let World Photography Day pass by without a blip so I hauled myself out of the bottomless armchair and steered the limousine down to the canal. On the way I stopped at the duckpond at Rowde Field Farm for a few shots, which will doubtless turn up in my Flickr set of the day, and at Foxhangers to see if the Caen Hill Marina was wet yet (it wasn't).

I parked by the canal bridge on the splendidly named Spout Lane and, joining the canal towpath, set off in the direction of Seend Cleeve. It was a beautiful afternoon and there were loads of boats going along the canal and through the locks, and walkers and cyclists on the towpath.

I encountered a woman I assumed was walking her dog, waiting at a swing-bridge  until a boatman in a narrow-boat had gone past and then swinging the bridge back across the canal crossed it to join the towpath. From where I stood I saw the dog continue straight along the path and the woman turning to find it apparently vanished, and I gestured that it was by now hurtling back to catch up. When I reached the next lock near Bollands Hill bridge I caught up with the boat that had passed and saw that the woman and dog were now on board. Unless the boatman was a very fast worker she had been a crew member all along,

I spent some time at the next lock taking in the scenes before turning back. Some alpacas were grazing in a field higher up on the far side and a handful of cattle had come across to the canal to drink from it.

And how often do you chance upon Grommit, on holiday without Wallace?

Earlier on a couple had asked if I had seen anything unusual and they mentioned having seen a swan and some cygnets at Honeystreet, and an obliging heron taking a photo call at Bradford on Avon. I hadn't seen either in a long while, but when I had almost got back to the car at Sells Green I did encounter a group of people feeding bread to some birds between two narrow-boats, and as I approached I was rewarded with the sight of a mute swan and her sole surviving cygnet - a fitting end to my walk, and my image for World Photography Day.

As the site says, "World Photography Day originates from the invention of the Daguerreotype, a photographic processes developed by Louis Daguerre. On January 9, 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype process. A few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French government announced the invention as a gift "free to the world"."

Although the technique was "free to the world", in England a patent was taken out and licenses were sold. Daguerre's process didn't take off and instead William Fox-Talbot's negative/positive system was adopted.

L.
20.8.2011

Blip #507
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #512

Alternatives:  
Canal Scene
Skyscape
Swan Close-up
Backlit Swan

World Photography Day, 19 August 2011 (Flickr set)

Lenses: Pentax 12-24mm and Sigma 70-300mm

1 year ago: Allington (another swing-bridge on the canal)