Reef Before You Need To Reef!

I went to deliver a plan to the chartered surveyors who are working on a farm business tenancy for my sisters and me this morning. The offices are in a converted barn in the Essex countryside. I had a big cuddle with Beau the beagle and then we got down to business. I was taken into a room where there was a huge computer screen on a bench. At the other end of the bench were some objets, including a vintage TLR Yashica camera with a beautiful plaited leather strap. I was told it was found when the barn was being converted.

I have recently read that Diane Arbus used a TLR. Her tutor Lisette Model taught her to walk around without film in her camera to practise seeing. She started using a TLR Rolleiflex in 1962. One looks down onto the viewfinder of cameras like this which are held at waist level. Diane liked that her face wasn't covered when shooting and that she could make eye contact with her subjects. Others would say that they like these cameras because it is much easier to get candid shots with them.

I drove home through The Rodings and photographed White Roding or Roothing windmill. It was built in 1877 to replace a post mill. The main post of this original mill was broken in a gale when the miller failed to reef the sails in time. As with sailing, always reef before you need to!  Michael Redgrave the actor bought the mill in 1937. By the 1950s it was derelict. It got a new cap in the 1970s. The walls are 26 inches thick at the base. I've been trying to find out what sort of bricks it is constructed from. They look like Cambridge stocks to me.