'There's No Place like Frome...'

So says this sleepy Mendip town's website punchline...

...but I don't think that the beautiful, arts-orientated and historical town (pronounced 'Froom') that made me feel so welcome, earlier today, would approve of my choice for a blip...

Just 5 miles west of Warminster and on the Bristol to Weymouth branch trainline, I had never been there before - had often considered it, though with services only dropping off two hourly, one has to pre-plan a visit. As I said to the volunteer at the excellent Black Swans Art Gallery, you don't exactly drop here by accident if you travel by public transport.

So, hundreds of images, the sun out, the sun trying to come, as here, it was decided on quickly that I desperately needed to get out of both flat and Salisbury, after a long sleep last night. A headache had come on, bordering on another migraine and so after meds for that, I was in Frome by 7 a.m. This was taken about an hour later and I kind of knew it was the smart-arse clever-dick pic I wanted! I haven't even looked through the subsequent ones, partly as I didn't want to be torn between this and another/s; I know that at least a dozen could be contenders, from the screen at the time of taking.

Yes, the flat lighting has been wacked up a fair bit! and a few layers of heightened contrast and colour. To those who are told that the tiny pop-up flash can do no earthly good whatsoever on a 10mm ultrawideangle lens should note that here it made all the difference - in that I persisted with the shot at all. It ran to a bit of a series, as each passing vehicle either made, or broke the pic. The tiny burst of flash on the reflective red 'no entry' signs made them 'zing' out, though you do have to remove the lenshood, so the flash can 'see' over the top edge of the lens.

I also took the new Sigma 17-70mm out on its first proper day-trip along with the Tamron SP 70-300mm. This is going to be my regular exploring a new town/walkabout kit, as well as this 10-24mm, as I had always hoped to have for a lightweight, good quality and versatile bagful. To think that between just three lenses, that the equivalent of 15-450mm can be achieved, without any one lens being SO stretched that image quality is compromised.

I know that some ultra-modern bridge cameras and compacts approach the focal width, at least at the top end but for those of us who started out, in the film SLR days, even a zoom was a luxury, and that might be limited to an 80-200mm. 28-80's were just emerging and they were poor. My first SLR kit in the 1980's was a Nikkormat FT3 (bought secondhand in London) and two brand new Tamron Adaptall fixed focals; the 24mm f2.5 and Tamron 90mm macro f2.5, (the precursor to their excellent, now life-size - that was half-lifesize). But as I needed a lens for theatrical performance shots that I was involved in getting on the stage, then that was a major consideration, plus the macro, of course.

Of course, writing all this hasn't helped me comment on anything much for over 24 hours - I won't apologise too much for that but you know I will at some point very soon!

Music is a bit urban but still a bit summery to suit the respite from the winter, erm, poor Spring and a pretty fine song, one that you probably wouldn't have heard at the time.

Don't forget the large 'L' key