It's grim

...weather again, which suited me for photographic purposes, and of course it was the funeral day of a certain former Prime Minister, one who was not as popular in the North of England, or Scotland, as she was in Southern England.

When I moved to Stroud, 20 years ago, I didn't know exactly where I was. Edge of the West Midlands, or start of the South-West? Cotswolds, yes, but not the parts that everyone has heard of, like Chipping Campden or the Slaughters. South Cotswolds, but not South Glos, for that is a separate county. And the Gloucester accent, which has a touch of the West Country about it, is so different from Stroud's, which is a
gentle Wiltshire burr! I got so confused I just thought, in the end, 'in case of doubt, refer to Cardiff!' Then someone told me the weather in Cardiff could never be the same as in Stroud, so I stopped looking at the weather maps for that area. Shortly afterwards, I qualified in Playwork and found that Wales led the way in many areas pertaining to play. It may be that one day, rather than returning to Scotland, I gently sidle over the border into Wales. New linguistic challenge and all that...

I returned this morning to the scene of the crime blip for Monday, as I wanted to capture the scudding skies and the water this time, as well as the buildings. My camera has a cheat called 'dramatic filter' which I stuck on, as it shakes up the skies and bleaches away bright colours.It makes everything a bit grungy, and it's fair to say I am fond of it.

College ... Hmm,well, unorthodox approach to tuition, but I am learning. I did not bring Steve's D50, so I got to borrow the tutor's Canon G12, which was a good weight for me. He also lent me a monpod, and supplied us liberally with biscuits. We did mot look at the homework, which was a SP using the self timer. Mine was terrible, so that was ok! My overall learning expectation for the course remains low, but at least we will get off auto completely. Problem is, my actual camera has no Manual setting, only Program! Yup, that is right. You can drop it, take umderwater pics, take 'dog face recognition' shots in Scene mode, but there is no way you can alter all the settings yourself. I have learned quite a lot, however, about features I never knew I had! Cameras are only as good as the person operating them.