MONO MONDAY - STORYTELLING

I knew Mr. HCB must be feeling better because on this grey, cold and drizzly morning he suggested we went out for coffee before we did our shopping - of course, it wasn’t the weather to be out in the garden, so I guess he had a hidden agenda - but I wasn’t too bothered about that - it was just good to go out.

When we got to Jack’s, our usual coffee stop at the moment, we were happy to see our friend, Trevor, and also some friends we hadn’t seen for sometime, John and Noreen - so it was good to catch up with them, and of course, to put the world to rights.  

Sitting at the next table was Pete, someone I mentioned in my Blip dated 3rd May, and I said at the time that “professional photographers don’t have a special look” - but I changed my mind this morning when a man walked into Jack’s with two Canon cameras over his shoulder with very big lenses.  When Pete went off to order coffee, I took my chance and spoke to the man and before we knew it, we were swapping cards and chatting.  

I found out his name is Stuart Harrison, and that he was a press photographer for our local “rag” for almost 18 years and, incidentally, knew my best friend, who worked on Reception until she died a few years ago.  I told him about Blip and asked if I could take a photograph of his cameras - he raised his eyebrows and told me I could if I really wanted to - so here is my offering for Mono Monday - and the story behind it.  I guess it would have been more interesting to have photographed Stuart, but that would have seem rather “forward” at our first meeting.

When Pete came back from ordering, Stuart and I were deep in discussion about the fact that people view photographs very differently these days, particularly as they are, more often than not, viewed online and because of that are shown off in their “best light”.  I told him about my Street Challenge and promised to send him a link to all my entries and explained how I had gone about doing that particular challenge.  

I only had my iPhone with me, and took several photographs, moving the cameras so that they were in the best light.  However, later, just before we left, I asked if I could take some more photographs and did so using Portrait mode, so that it blurred out the background - even waiting until one of the waitresses had finished wiping a table, so that she wasn’t in it!  Stuart remarked that modern phones had this ability, so I was able to tell him that I had used it this morning - Pete just nodded wisely!

So a dull and grey morning turned out to be something quite different and as we drove home, Mr. HCB said that he had really enjoyed going out.  It was a joy to meet up with our friends, and also to meet a new friend - isn’t that what retirement is all about?  It’s certainly never boring - so thanks to you all for making our day brighter!

“No matter how sophisticated 
     the camera, 
          the photographer is still the one 
               that makes the picture.” 
Doug Bartlow

P.S.  Thank you for all your lovely comments, stars and hearts for yesterday’s Blip.  I’m feeling much better now and hope to be back commenting before too long - I have started on the Metatone, so hope that very soon, this dreadful tiredness will be a thing of the past.