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

["Ted Bayer" <tedbayer@wavecable.com>]

Love you, too, Adam.

Hon  <Big Grin>


- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Bridge" <abridge@mac.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3


> Hi Hon,
>
> This was posted on the Leica list. You have liked Graham's photography. I
think
> you'll find this moving.
>
> Love you! Only 24 hours!!!!!
>
> Adam
>
> On Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Graham Battison thoughtfully wrote:
>
> >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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