Folk on the Green

“Your best camera is the one you have with you”. 

I often use that saying. It turns out it’s not true!! I’m changing it to “the best camera you have is the one you left sitting on your desk at home because you didn’t think you’d need it and now you’ll just have to do the best you can with an iPhone and pretend that because you think you’re a photographer the shots will turn out ok”.

We were dropping Dan, Kelly and Kelly’s friend Alysia off in Stony Stratford for ‘Folk on the Green’. It’s an annual event where local musicians play in and around Stony for a week culminating in a mini festival on the village green. We weren’t going to stay but we spotted a friend of Igor’s carrying his mandolin. Apparently he on his way to a session in one of the local bars. We had to go and listen.

We got a drink and we watched the ensemble grew. Eventually there were two fiddles, two guitars, a mandolin, a penny whistle, a couple of singers, various bits of percussion and a dulcima. It looked and sounded for all the world like they’ve spent hours practising and perfecting the numbers but Igor tells me they’re all just sitting down together for the first time and it all just falls into place. Impressive!

After a little while a guy in a straw hat turns up carrying bits of equipment. We think it’s another musician but we’re wrong. As the equipment unfolds it turns out to be a kind of mobile artist’s studio. He gets out his brushes and paint and starts to paint the scene in front of him. Sadly we couldn’t stay to see his finished work. 

His best camera was his paint brush and his eye!! I bet his results are much better than the ones I got with my iPhone.