Blowing out the Candles...

As per my Blip of yesterday, was the celebration of the centenary of death of Edwin Young, a local Salisbury painter who left a whole body of work as a legacy.

Now, the galleries attached to Salisbury Library have been renamed after him and in these days of changes and budget cuts, a plan has been in operation that his works that were bequeathed to the public domain should be on a (semi?) permanent display.

So, with big event upon us, I didn't think you'd want to see amusing/grimacing eavesdropping pics, or happy, jokey shots of my intended Mrs TimPix but who doesn't seem to want to play ball, citing that her getting her fine arts degree that she was studying in Bath being her goal in life. Well, delighted to say that she has now got her degree but it was really good to see her and have a bit of a laugh...

Then, there were the staged photoshots concocted by the local paper, involving the dignataries holding up the three numbers of the '100' here, with a background of paintings. This one is a stunt, true but a more homely one, involving Lord Benson on the left, Peter Riley, the curator and organiser, for whom I've worked as freelance snapper for a few years and the Mayor of New Sarum, as he's called.

With this, the idea was that the youngest person (Peter's youngest daughter) represented the youth of tomorrow, with Lord B as the oldest (his admission - he's a wily chap with an engaging eye and refreshing humour) and the Mayor, well, when the Mayor's there, he's just 'there'! I've snapped him a number of times now and he's good fun, too. Instead of a cake there's a hundred hand-made cup-cakes, made by Peter's daughters (keeps it in the family, that man!)

After some use with the 17-35mm f2.8, which was great and almost distortionless for the general views of the gallery layout and big groups, I settled on my oldish Nikkor 24-120mm, not the new 'good' constant f4 one but the often cited crap f3.5-5.6 VR, which you can get for little more than a couple of hundred quid secondhand now. I've never had too much of a problem with it, as long as you stop down a bit and it gives better performance on a DX cropped camera, giving an equivalent 36-180mm. It's what I used here - looks quite OK!

This gave quite good far reach for grab shots and still adequate coverage at its widest. Most pics were around 45-65mm. I used AF throughout but always moved the AF sensor around the screen to the part I wanted sharpest. Flash was bounced from the (white) ceiling for all shots and softened by built-in fresnel wideangle adaptor, which flips down. The top range Sigma unit I used also has an inbuilt white card (OK, plastic flap) and I used this too. Settings were for rear-curtain flash and standard under exposed by 2/3rds stops. This is so that the ambient light has more emphasis than many photographers choose.

Reasons for saying all this - well, you may find yourself in this situation and if you've no idea, then any pointers are helpful - I know! Before I did 'stuff' for the local rag I hated flash so much I didn't use it. I've found my only preferences, which are different to what I was told but I prefer my pics to his and so that's it!

So, after the hyping up of the event I hope this isn't too much of a let-down. I'm truly knackered now and invites to gigs (a couple I really want to go to, and free) I may just curl up and do nothing. As it was, I nipped to the Arts Centre to snap a superb sounding acoustic young folk singer Declan Millar from Somerset. I grabbed about a dozen of him then rushed to the gallery after. One of them is already up on facebook.

So, apologies in advance I don't get to commenting, or very much, this evening. As Peter emailed me back (after I realised that I'd left my hat there) because the library was still open and we couldn't actually stop any Saturday afternoon passers-through, my presence meant I was actually another member of staff, keeping an eye out for people with ill-intent!