May Day Cuckoo Fair

DOWNTON CUCKOO FAIR

Last Year's Blip: www.blipfoto.com/entry/4302019

All pics much better LARGE

After missing May Day Dancing at sunrise yesterday and despite me telling a few to the contrary, I had to get my backside on the bus and down to Downton (5 miles south of Salisbury) again, this year, once the realisation that the weather probably wasn't going to be a washout, after all the forecasting said it would.

The bus company had told the local radio station that extra buses were being laid on. They did not appear, not even the scheduled bus we were waiting for, to Bournemouth. 50 minutes later, it did turn up and a whopping near seven pounds return fare, it took another 20 minutes for everybody to get on board. Pets, wheelchairs, buggies, the elderly, youngsters, everybody was going to the Cuckoo Fair.

The Fair gets bigger each year and is probably now suffering as a free event, many now won't go as it gets more commercial, more police and security and of course, more drunken behaviour. See the tens of thousands along the main B road High Street, in the extra pics folder.

From a traditional village May Day festival to now, a day out with live bands and other assorted 'entertainment', including Morris dancing, rock choirs and Samba bands, you could say that it has lost its primary purpose and appeal, but look closely and gems are still there to be found.

Learning from last year and my Blip from that, it's not sheer focal length that matters but more of the ability to throw out of focus troublesome backgrounds and crowds. So, instead of the 70-300mm f4-5.6, it was the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 that accompanied the Nikkor 16-85mm VR.

Because of the bus fiasco, we didn't get to Downton until nearly 2pm, three hours after it had started. I got a big hug from Ruth Jones, awarded Salisbury's best bassist in the Music Awards ceremony, see another pic in the Extras, and her band, Zucchinis. I snapped Sarum Morris a lot and asked how yesterday's May Day sunrise had gone. Graham, who, after my involvement and photo that was linked in my Blip of yesterday, is now a lifelong friend (when you go through these things together and share the photos, you of course make good friends). He said it had gone well, with a mackerel sky sort of glow, rather than an actual sunrise. He took snaps of it, of course. But as the leader of his Merry Men - and Women - he obviously cannot take many pictures. Another added 'extra' photo. Graham is in the middle of this unedited photo.

So, to my Blip. These displays around the Maypole are dozens of people deep. There are some seats at the front but obviously these get hogged. Last year's I had to endure standing up and shooting through and between people in front of me. This time, I spotted one chair in second row, just as the Rock Choir were finishing, was sat upon by a load of shopping. I soon had those bags removed and my backside on it instead!

Basically, I had the D7000 on 'high-drive', 6fps and the lens' HSM focusing on. I still had two people in front of me that kept talking to each other, so more of viewpoint but not a totally clear one. As the girls danced back and fore, winding and twirling these ribbons up the maypole, the lens/camera/AF often couldn't/didn't know what to focus on. So lots of duds, but in the end 9 stood out for possible for editing.

As with last year's, the in-motion ones look exciting and graceful but the expressions are of a determined concentration. They must rehearse and rehearse these moves and some of the girls can't be more than 7 years old. So, I've gone for a lighter one, where the girl shows the joy of participation, the happiness of doing something special, with her friends. But I also had to have their hands all connected with the sashes and ribbons and hence up to the Maypole.

Whilst waiting for the bus going there, got chatting to a lady I know who has Asperger's syndrome. She goes to the same Disabled Arts group that I used to attend. She always asks me lots of questions, both about myself and photography. I always deflect the former but obviously not the latter. She wants to work as a photographer and I suppose is envious of how much I was able to get into freelancing and local newspaper stuff.

She gets annoyed how many people and photographers think her stupid and not even worth talking to. She won't go to the Camera Club I used to go to, for this very reason. She was told by someone quite well known that she had previously respected that if she wanted to be taken seriously, then she had to use a Nikon or Canon, and not the Pentax she has. I assured her that it's the photographer not the equipment and something that one David Bailey had quipped, in his sardonic, wry style.

Bailey, apparently, had been invited to dinner by someone who had told him "You take very nice photos. You must have a very nice camera indeed." After the meal, Bailey said "You make a very nice meal. You must have a very nice kitchen indeed!".

Anyway, after my friend had said that she couldn't shoot RAW because the 'speed' of her card was too small (I reminded her that size was capacity, not speed) I gave her a rather nice fast 64gb SD card. I got her to put it in her camera, format it and then told her to change the settings to RAW and jpeg and not just jpeg. She didn't know how to and obviously not knowing her camera, nor did I. She then liked the big f2.8 Sigma I had just put on my camera. I tried to explain that the size was due to the fast f2.8 constant aperture. "Oh, I always have mine on 22 (f22)" she said. I told her perhaps that that was probably not the best idea and why but she then said that a nasty man at the other end of the bus had sneezed and she had to go to a pub loo (not a germ-ridden portaloo) to cleanse herself from his germs. I did feel like saying after she had gone that knowing just a little about apertures and not shooting everything at minimum aperture would help towards being taken seriously as a photographer.... And no, I didn't see her again!