Ladies and Gentleman

Andrew stood out a mile on Market Square today. It's not often you seen anyone around here dressed in a suit and tie. Indeed, he was impeccably turned out and I felt compelled to tell him so. It was, of course, a natural lead into a conversation that I expected to be interesting. There was definitely something about him. I think I'm developing a bit of a radar for the characters of Shipley!

We played the guess my age game and I was pretty close with the figure I had in my head (eighty) but, naturally, I was way out with the answer I actually gave. Andrew was born in 1933 and was very proud to tell me so. He then started to tell me a few stories. Each one turned out to be an outrageously funny joke. He literally had me laughing out loud. I'm not really a great one for jokes but these were completely hilarious. It was all in the telling. His whole body and especially his face got involved. He said that he's applied for "Britain's Got Talent" and is such a natural entertainer that I think he'd go far. Seriously. Watch out for him! He has some real fire in his belly this one!!

These ordinary folk on Market Square never actually turn out to be ordinary at all. I'm continually amazed by the depths of interest and talent that surface in just a few minutes of conversation. I'm taking my portraiture a bit further with these special people (like with Elsa the other day) by trying to take some candid shots after I've asked for a more formal portrait. I wouldn't be comfortable doing this without having first got their consent to take pictures. I think I'm getting better at it, holding the camera at waist level and shooting blind while not losing eye contact with the subject. With my first attempts I mostly missed my target altogether but today the majority of the shots had Andrew framed quite well. It's actually been hard to choose which to blip. I think this one portrays the showman in him quite well.

It's been a long week back in the office but it finished today in a productive fashion, finding myself getting more done than I expected for once. On my own now (with youngest son well into the swing of things in London and eldest son just landed in New Zealand and probably in his whites getting ready to play cricket at this very moment), I decided to indulge myself with a movie as a reward. I'd read a lot about "Gone Girl", both the book and the film, and have long been intrigued. I now know what all the fuss is about. No spoilers here. The central conceit is very clever and the production extremely well done. Both Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are quite brilliant. Go see it before the spoilers reach you!