St George's Day...

Allow Professor Crump to serenade you...

I always get lots of good pics of The Professor (OBE, MBE, CBE - or so he claims) at St George's Day's. He's on stilts, and the fisheye lens helps exaggerate this.

For the previous 5 years I have officially photographed this event in Salisbury and been paid a modest amount to do so. Last year, the City Council largely took it over but the old organiser who I do all his photography for had enough say on the organising committee for me to still be employed.

So, I was not asked to cover it this year - and neither did I offer. I did just what I wanted, mainly for you lovely guys and gals on Blip. Of course, I chatted an snapped all the old faces and contacts I had made from previous years. Including the Prof, here. I did quite a few of Morris dancers Sarum Morris, who I Blipped for last year's St George's Day as the leader I know well and I did a few for that old organiser, Gary, who has become quite a friend over the years and who will be employing me to cover his Wilton Carnival in July. He's does the Punch and Judy and that was absolutely heaving and VERY popular.

Generally the event isn't a patch on what it used to be. The Dragon no longer gets slain, - there's almost NO dragon, for that matter - and most of what's outside are commercial stalls and kiddy rides. The great shots I used to get just aren't there any more.

I took along the new Samyang fisheye, partly for the odd quirky shot such as this. It was useful also in the old courtrooms of the Guildhall, which are only open to visitors on public days such as this. See backdated Blip from St George's Day two years ago.

But mostly it was a great couple of hours as I met up with dear old Roger, the chief photographer with Salisbury Journal. He did take me on as a freelancer several years ago and we get on well. We never talk about the technicalities or the equipment. But we talk like colleagues and that includes a lot of him moaning! We exchange tips on the best positions, what's happening where and who, what when and such. I got some good shots of the posed Mayoral and dignitary opportunities that he will use for the paper. To him - he's been in that job for almost as long as I've been alive - if you are passionate about photography, you will snap anything and look for that opportunity, whether it is used, or paid, or not. He knows I post a picture online every single day and he thoroughly approves. He had covered 16 jobs yesterday, had done 2 already this morning and had two more later this afternoon. He will photograph the Countess of Wessex, on his day off, later in the week.

Anyways, I used my much neglected flashgun of late for many, just to keep the practice of using it up. The other lens I took and used most was the Nikkor 18-200mm.

Having a blast of the rock opera Tommy on DVD to unwind, so will catch up with you all later!