Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/10

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3
From: sdp35 <sdp35@cwazy.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 19:46:04 -0500
References: <b02010202-1032-A62BD38672F011D8B236000A95C4E7A0@[10.0.2.3]>

Adam, I didn't know you cared...

XOXOXO

:)

On Mar 10, 2004, at 7:11 PM, Adam Bridge wrote:

> 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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In reply to: Message from Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com> (Re: [Leica] Olympus with a tenuous link to a Leica M3)