Final List of Characters

Here's a list of the people of Lyme that I have asked and the results:

1. Artist (completed)
2. Museum curator (completed)
3. Fossil hunter (completed)
4. Harbour master (completed)
5. Town Mayor (completed)
6. Photographer (completed)
7. Boots shop assistant (completed)
8. Local winemaker (completed)

-- ooOoo --

1. Student (abandoned)
2. Local town councillor (abandoned as unwell)
3. Name (?) Potter, Town Mill (abandoned)
4. Name (?) Best fish and chip shop owner (abandoned as never available in his shop)
5. Adrian Grey, stone balancer (abandoned as hasn't been seen on the beach yet this year)

A good day's work, I think. I have eight strong portraits and think my tutor, will be pleased with them. Now just to write up about them and how I took the pictures and any processing I did using Photoshop.

Nearly finished all the pictures

I've been working hard to get the photography done for this assignment. I've photographed the mayor putting on her official robes, the harbour master looking out of his window and John, a retired shepherd, in his shed drinking his home made wine.

Here's a couple of the shots of the mayor in her robes:

John, the winemaker, enjoying a tipple:

And the Harbour Master, surveying his domain:

Graeme is a bit small in this picture because the original was 21 inches wide. I used the panorma view to take three images and the camera then stitched it all together making each image a bit quirky which I really liked.

I have given up on several subjects as either I have been unable to contact them or, as in a small town like Lyme Regis with people wearing so many different hats, it's been too difficult to visualise them in one particular role. The other suggestions I have abandoned were the best fish and chip shop owner, Adrian Grey the beach stone balancer and the Potter at the Town Mill.

So far I have photographed - in no particular order - an artist, a photographer, a fossil collector, the mayor, the harbour master, a well-known shop assistant, the curator of the local museum, my dyslexic IT student and a local home made wine maker.  Now comes the hard bit - writing up about all of them and, what is even harder, getting them to write a few words about themselves.

My timetable to complete this module is to get the photography done by the end of March, complete the write ups and support stuff and post it to my tutor by Easter (Good Friday is April 22nd) then send in the whole People & Place module for the window of May 15th - June 15th for the July assessment at Bucks University.

Wow, can it be done? Yes, it can, fingers crossed and a following wind!

Moving on

11.3.2011

Well, I've completed three more character photo shoots over the past week; the photographic historian John, Colin the fossil hunter and my IT student MIchael. I'd like to try for a few more pictures with Michael as he plays the drums, but it was very difficult to get the address of the garage where his drums are stored, so I gave up on it last week. Hope to get more info when I see him again next week. All my subjects couldn't be more helpful and posed as requested after they overcame their slight self-consciousness at being photographed.

John had his own studio with an attic room, not small and cramped as you might imagine an attic room, but a large, well lit room 3 floors up. He has the most amazing collection of everything to do with photographic history and over 300 cameras. Here's a couple of possible shots to include in my portfolio. The close up image, taken with a Nikon D700 and an 18mm fish eye lens turned out okay, but I don't think it will be the defining image of John.

Colin, the fossil hunter, is a well know character around Lyme and has such a collection of memorabelia from his seaching in and around Lyme that he has devoted a whole floor in his flat to store it all. His collection ranges from fossils (of course) through bullets, belt and shoe buckles, bullets, coins, maps, old books and whatever else you can think of. He knows precisely where everything is and can go straight to the cupboard/cabinet and find what he is looking for.  He was a great subject to photograph:

My IT student, Michael, is a 20-year old lad who tries very hard. He left school with no qualifications not helped by the fact that he is dyslexic, and wants desperately to get a permanent job. With no qualifications and being dyslexic as well the outcome is poor but he keeps trying. He spends his spare time in the local internet centre working on his literacy, numeracy and IT skills and I thought he deserved a mention here. His main interests are cars and music.

Valerie from Boots

Starting the morning

Took pictures of one of Lyme's real characters yesterday. Valerie, shop assistant in Boots the Chemist, couldn't have been more helpful and wanted to play act several scenarios for me. Valerie is well known in the town for her very helpful nature and how she takes the trouble to ask seaching questions when needing help when choosing products available to buy over the counter.

After creating havoc in the window by dislodging the poster in the main window, Valerie and Matt, the manager, had to organise it back into position before any customers came into the shop.

What's happened here then?