MEET NATHAN - STATION VOLUNTEER AT SWINDON 105.5

I was due to meet Nathan at the Radio Station this afternoon so that he could interview me and as I had text him on Sunday to check he would be there, was surprised to find when I got there that he was nowhere to be seen.  However, he arrived about twenty minutes later, still smiling, as he always is, but said that he had walked over from the other side of town as he had lost his bus pass.  

Everyone at the Station is very welcoming, so whilst waiting for Nathan, I chatted with several of the presenters and also Keith, who said that he had been pleased to play a request for me last week.  Better not ring in too often though, or people will think we are "in cahoots" with each other!

After he had made us a drink, Nathan asked Dan if there was a free studio, but as there wasn’t, he found a zoom microphone and we went into the library, which is next door, to do the recording.  Fortunately, the library was very quiet - so there was no problem doing the recording in there.  

Nathan asked me what I wanted to speak about, but I told him that he was “the boss” and I would be guided by him.  We chatted for a while and then decided that he would ask me how I got into photography.  I mentioned that it was much more frustrating years ago, because we didn’t have digital cameras, so we had to wait for our photographs to be developed.  I told Nathan that I first got into taking photographs when we had our first child and wanted to take photographs of him, but of course, couldn’t really afford to take that many, because it was quite expensive not only to buy the film but also to have them developed.  I said that many times, after waiting for two weeks for the pack of photographs to be delivered, and getting quite excited, we were often disappointed because sometimes only a few were any good and the rest were often blurry and over-exposed and of course, if we had forgotten to wind the film on, we also had photographs that were double exposures.  We never liked seeing those, so it’s amazing now that there are Apps to make this happen! 

Nathan said that he couldn’t remember that from his childhood, but I did tell him it was almost fifty years ago, so I wouldn’t expect him to remember because he’s not that old!  He also said that nowadays, if he wants prints of the photographs he takes on his phone, he just goes into a shop, plugs in the phone and gets the prints he wants and the bad shots can just be deleted.  Things are very different now - and we chatted for a while about what a difference technology has made.  

I chatted to Nathan about Blipfoto and read some of my poems - he did ask if I could talk about some of my favourite Blips - but I said I would need more time to think about that, so he suggested that perhaps I could sort out my favourite Blips for, say, the past year, and then go back and chat about them, so that’s my next task - but no pressure!  

I did ask Nathan if I could take a photograph of him for today’s Blip and he was quite happy so here he is holding the zoom mike. I have to say that I rarely see Nathan without a smile on his face and today was no exception.  Even after walking almost five miles, with a heavy backpack, he came in smiling!

All in all a good afternoon - just need to sort out some poems for tomorrow morning’s programme, Girls About Town - as I said to someone earlier today, not quite sure if I am still a girl - well I am in my mind, but perhaps not in my body!

“It’s one thing to make a picture 
     of what a person looks like, 
          it’s another thing to make a portrait 
               of who they are.”
Paul Caponigro