Re: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3

["lea" <lea@whinydogpress.com>]

Graham,

Yours is a great story and one of the best reasons for being a
photographer...the opportunity to share the 'gift' with others at the
most unobvious of times.

Blessings,
Lea

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Graham Battison" <graham@geebeephoto.com>
To: "LUG" <Leica-Users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 4:58 PM
Subject: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3


> I am sitting in the churchyard at Flore eating my lunch. The service
has
> been over for some time, a few stragglers are leaving the church after
> spending some time chatting. The sky is a typical English mix of blue
with
> white clouds in some parts and black as thunder in others.
>
> I watch what I take to be worshipper set out on a footpath across a
field in
> front of the church and think to myself that she must be very devout
to walk
> from the next village to attend services. The path although fairly dry
today
> can be
> very messy. I take a shot, my usual stuff, landscape with lone figure.
>
> When I look again the lone figure is on the far side of the field and
turns
> to come back toward the church. She is walking slowly, head
occasionally
> bowed, obviously lost in thought as if reluctant to complete the field
> crossing.
> I toy with the idea of another shot but my sandwiches are good and I
let the
> moment pass.  I have since found out that her late father used to walk
his
> dog on that footpath.
>
> Eventually she returns to the churchyard and stands over a grave for a
time
> then approaches me. She stops a distance from where I am sitting (very
> English) and asks if she might ask a favour of me (decidedly
un-English).
> She explains that she used to live locally and had been visiting her
mother
> in nearby Daventry and that the grave she had been looking at was that
of
> her father. She was on her way back to Devon, where she now lives
after
> returning from several years in America and had stopped by the church
to
> take a photograph of the grave (she pays someone local to tend it).
>
> Finding that the camera she thought was in the car was not there she
was
> considering where she might buy a disposable on a winters Sunday in
the UK
> when she saw me take a shot of her walking across the field. She asks,
"Was
> I a photographer?" and "would I take a photograph for her of her
fathers'
> grave?". "In the loosest possible sense" and "yes I would" I replied.
>
> I took a couple of shots, she thanked me profusely and with her
emotions
> running high and my web address in her purse she left at about 1:30pm.
I
> finished my lunch and as insurance against looking an idiot I took a
few
> extra shots of the grave before I left.
>
> Devon is quite a drive from Flore but at 7pm I got an email (maybe she
has a
> Lear jet) and she tells me that she has been smiling "about life's
little
> co-incidences". Not only does she "meet a chap with a camera but
> a real photographer" (she has by this time visited my web site)
> and "you just never know your luck, do you?".
>
> She closes her email with a post script:
> "I wonder if you know the work of James Ravilious? I think you would
> appreciate it. I had a small hand in the last published book of his
> photographs with text by Peter Beacham called 'Down the Deep Lanes'
> published by Devon Books. I'll give you further details if your
> interested."
>
> I checked him out. He was born 1939, died 1999 and wandered around
Devon
> shooting local stuff with a Leica M3. It's a small world.
>
> http://www.geebeephoto.com/temp/Flore/Flore.html
>
>
> Graham
> http://geebeephoto.com
>
>
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>
>


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