Mellow Yellow

It's Sunday afternoon as I am writing this, and I can still hear rain rattling on the conservatory roof. It started late morning, and hasn't stopped since. I was planning to go out on a photoshoot, but the bad weather has put paid to that.

So here's a more sunnier shot from yesterday's exploration of some local allotments, in the form of a sunflower.  This particular allotment had two quite big ones that seemed to be growing randomly. Instead of taking a straightforward shot, I've gone for a more artistic view.

Boy And His Bird

Some of you may remember reading a book, or seeing a film called Kes. It was about a small boy that was bullied at home and in school, so his only friend was a young kestrel he captured and trained.

This photo that I took today at an open day at a local allotments. Besides showing off their allotments, they also had invited a group called Falconry Experience, with some of their birds including this rather splendid barn owl.

Quite a few people were keen to make friends with the owl, as it flew back and forth between different people, who were all wearing a gauntlet on their hand. The guys who brought the birds along kept giving them titbits as a reward for performing so well.

Scaring The Storm Away

I took this shot whilst having a walk around some local allotments.

I like to think that the scarecrow is doing its job right and is chasing away the stormclouds.

Up Town, Top Rankin

Gail and I have had a very busy day today, but not doing our usual jobs.

Firstly some friends of ours asked us to shoot their wedding. This took place at the Council House, in one of the rooms that the councillors use for meetings. It went well, then it was off to a local pub for some refreshments.

We then had to break off to drive to St Anns where we were hopefully going to meet the famous celebrity photographer Rankin. He was there to take photos of gardeners at this big allotment site that is the oldest in England, if not Europe, as part of the Museums at Night festival.

Some months ago people were asked to vote in a competition for which place Rankin should visit. Fortunately Nottingham won. And so him, a team of helpers and a TV crew all descended on this quiet oasis in the middle of a busy city and about twenty gardeners were photographed, and the shots were then printed and displayed in an awning for everyone to see.

All the visitors had timed slots, and ours was at 7.30. There was still lots of people milling around. I noticed that there was a queue, and there he was, signing autographs and having his photo taken. We joined the queue and took each others photos posing with him and had a little chat.  We then went to have a look around the vast green space, with all the different sized sheds and high hedging. As St Anns is on a hill, we got a good view of the surrounding area as well. We then went back to the wedding celebrations and I took some more photos, while Gail looked after our pop up photo booth.