Darcy badly needed to stretch her legs before bedtime so my daughter and I headed up to Mow Cop, the castle folly that sits high looking over the Cheshire Plain. For some reason it attracts weirdos as the sun settles towards the horizon, ourselves not included. We had just arrived when a tall, slim man, clearly a photographer with his gear, rushed up and clambered on top of the rocks, setting up his tripod quickly. My daughter said, "Are you going to talk to him?" in a manner that suggested she thought it would be a nice thing to do. I'll talk to anyone, and who know's we might have something in common and get on like the best of friends.................. So in due course we walked over to those rocks and I clambered up to take some shots too. The sunset hadn't really materialised into much but I opened with, "Have you come to get a sunset shot?" It was the way he said, "No!" that surprised me, abrupt, very negative.....rude. I tried another line....no response as if he wanted to completely blank me out. It's not often I can't open someone up to be a bit friendly, so I tried a little more. No joy. OK, that's not a problem to me: I accept some people are unsociable. So I moved to the far side of my rock, lower down. Surveying the scene I noticed the quiet photographer was skylined with tripod shooting away at Mow Cop. It was the classic photographer silhouette....no details you could recognise him by but the outline of a man at work with triangular tripod and lens high on a rock against the sky, which had a tiny bit of interesting form in it. He heard the shutter and rounded on me. Using a strong and firm tone he said, "Delete that now. I'm serious!" . I was somewhat surprised and taken aback. Was a photographer who takes photos upset by someone taking photos? I said, "Sorry, what's your problem?" And with an edgy and very firm tone he said things like "role reversal", "permission" and "how would I like it if he took a shot of me?" Well it was a wide angle shot (16mm), from a low 4 o'clock position to him, in silhouette with him taking up about 1/8th of the frame, nothing that would make him identifiable. Further conversation was extreemly abrupt and didn't go well! It's not often I'm lost for words but worrying about people taking pictures of me is so far out of my personal conscience, and against my attitude to life and intermingling with other human beings I could only stand and utter, "What?!"
I was staggered at a fellow photographer with this attitude. Does he never take photos with people in them? Well, I know he does. And he didn't ask their permission either as my daughter and I climbed down and invited ourselves into his shot by standing directly in front of Mow Cop, moving about taking the odd photo and chatting about that obnoxious man on the rock, lingering for the next fifteen minutes as the light faded. We stood there as long as we could, all the time hoping that the three of us, me with my bright red coat, stood out well in his shot. Some people can bring out the Devil in me.
Tags: mow cop photographer serious rude cheshire staffordshire folly castle biddulph congleton dark side
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I had said I was going to Brereton. But I went to Mow Cop. It was a complicated sky! But what a difference it made to look out over the world and smile at the end of a day. Now I know I will start tomorrow with a smile too.
Tags: mow cop sunset cliche rocks silhouette photographer cheshire sky clouds no filters
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At boarding school I was delighted when they came up with a new sport called "throwing the ball". It was about seeing how far you could throw a cricket ball. It didn't matter what direction you threw it in, it was distance that counted. And I was good at it. And it was useful for being able to launch model aeroplanes and throw stones at my brothers. Tonight I excelled at spinning the wire wool. It didn't matter where: it was distance that counted again. So whilst I wasn't over enamoured with the composition of the shot I was chuffed I managed to throw some of the sparks out of the frame.
Tags: mow cop staffordshire spinning wire wool
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I think the moon is affecting me. I seem to be in silly mode. For days I have anticipated taking a picture of the super moon, hopefully directly behind Mow Cop as I did last year, but thick cloud meant there was no chance of that today. So I was disappointed and my daughter, in the shower, was even more disappointed to discover that the pilot light on the boiler had mysteriously gone out and the water falling on her was freezing cold. She was still cursing like a witch after I had switched the boiler back on and told her the water would be warm in about ten minutes. Suggesting that in the meantime she could help me make an imaginery picture of the supermoon didn't brighten her mood and I had to bribe her by promising to make a cup of tea, However my idea of a supermoon didn't impress her either. I said all she needed to do was slip my freshly washed dressing gown on and step outside and hold a metal cake tin base up against the sky where the supermoon would be. This provoked even more expletives but she relented provided she didn't have to stand outside for more than ten f---ing seconds. Well, she held it up for around ten seconds and then, apparently, her arms started hurting. I'm sure that given more time to perfect the set up I could have created a stunning shot, but the reality is it didn't quite cut the mustard. I thought these modern phones were supposed to take perfect pictures every time, and all I got was this impressionist blur (although, if I'm honest, I quite like it).
Last year the pilot light hadn't blown out and my last supermoon picture, below, was more successful. This time I had wanted to go one better, to get some people stood in the archway of the 'castle' (You have to bear in mind I have to stand about a mile away with a long lens to get castle and moon together like this). I guess I will just have to wait patiently for the next opportunity in about 84 years.
Tags: supermoon cake tin base daughter swearing clouds no f---ing chance of seeing the moon phone camera anticipation disappointment blood moon
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The moon rises through a misty veil behind Mow Cop
I'm kicking myself I didn't make a better job of this
Having said that, being in the right place at the right time was one achievement. Getting it sharp and in focus would have been the next. And matching the brilliance of the moon with the darkness of Mow Cop would have been great but you can have detail in one without having none in the other. It was also a shame that the three people sat in the archway decided to go home just before the moon came up. But I was about a mile away to get this perspective. One thing you learn is that being so far from Mow Cop and the moon being so utterly distant on the other side is that the alignment changes so fast
Tags: moon supermoon mow cop biddulph congleton scholar green full
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