Christmas Bonus

I'm told you should never go back. I made this mistake in the autumn when I was shooting some architecture for a client in Gloucester. I had three great years at the art college in Gloucester in the early eighties and had never been back. With the shoot over and time on my hands I thought I would pay the old college a visit. The college is now derelict with trees growing out of the roof, graffiti on the walls, smashed windows and scorch marks on the walls where an attempt has been made to burn the place down. All very sad.

Yesterday I made another trip into my past. I met up with one of the London advertising photographers I assisted when I left college some 26 years ago. We met at mid day and we were still talking about clients, characters, shoots, 10x8 film and certain models by the time I had to get my train at six. It was fun to catch up and compare notes.

As we went our separate ways I reminded my old boss that I'm sure he still owed me a Christmas bonus from my last year with him ( the interest must be piling up. ) He smiled and then asked if I could lend him the bus fare home as he had no loose change, just typical.

A Big Day Out.

I left the comfort zone of sleepy Dorset for a day out in the big city, all very scary but I survived. My visit to London was two fold, I had to get the sensor on my Nikon D3x scrubbed and cleaned and I was meeting clients/friends to go and listen to a talk by 'THE' landscape photographer Charlie Waite.

Charlie did his talk at the National Theatre and it was excellent ( one expects nothing less. ) Charlie is also the leading light behind the Landscape Photographer of the Year and the exhibition of the winning entries is also on at the National Theatre. The exhibition is free, well worth a visit and stays open until 11 p.m.

London is a great city but I have to admit that I like being back in sleepy Dorset where a horse and three sheep constitute a traffic jam.

Speed of Light.

Light travels at 186 000 miles per second. Turning up 1 hour late for a sunrise shoot therefore does not bode well as that lovely rich golden light has already travelled half way across the universe turned up on time, done it's stuff and gone for breakfast. My poor client was sat in a traffic jam ( or did he over sleep ? ) I was sat in a car park, waiting.

It has been a week of private one to one, dawn to dusk workshops here in Dorset. My second client of the week brought me a prezzy ( to be encouraged ) of ground coffee. Not any old coffee but some of the most expensive coffee on the planet grown on the remote island of St. Helena ( a useful place for locking up European dictators ) where my client was from. Yes it is a long way to come just for a workshop and for the record they grow only about 12 tons of coffee a year.

My third client didn't bring me any prezzies but we did spend a lot of time doing  research into the best tea room in the area. Tea room of the day was Clavell's in Kimmeridge, good tea and excellent Victoria sponge, oh yes, we did go and take pictures as well.

Talking of workshops my Dorset weekend workshop is now up on the site and I'm taking bookings and after a successful autumnal  Lake District workshop I am planning another one at The Waterhead Hotel on the shores of Windermere for next autumn. It will go up on the site soon.

Men in Black.

Just finished my third weekend workshop in three weeks and it didn't rain once, must be global warming.
It has to be said the weather was not at it's best for the most recent workshop, high winds and plenty of mid tone grey to meter from but it was all good fun and images were created. Thank god for the LEE Big Stopper.  Five blokes dressed in black driving around Swanage in the early hours of Sunday morning probably looked a bit dodgy though.

The HumanTraffic Light

I'm in the middle of what appears to be workshop season. I finished a workshop last weekend in The Lake District, based at the superb Waterhead Hotel in Ambleside. It was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. Much whisky was consumed, images shot of misty lakes and old people having picnics upset and I'm sure orders for LEE Filters mist stripes will be winging their way to Holland and Germany.

I'm now in Dorset running the annual LEE Filters one day workshops, a great introduction to the system. The one draw back is that today I was wearing a red jumper, an orange fleece and a green coat. Apparently I looked like a huge mobile traffic light.

Cakes and Moving Home.

I had to visit Robert White Photographic today. Always a friendly welcome and if I behave myself a cup of tea. Today was no different, an excellent cuppa and a chit chat about the up coming Jeremy Walker/ Robert White workshop in February.

Bonus.  The Nikon man turned up with a huge bag of cream buns ( I only had one, honest .)

The main reason for visiting Robert White was to return a huge box of LEE Filters to the LEE man, ( I could have sold them on e-bay and then bought my own tropical island, I didn't. ) I have to point out these weren't faulty filters, but the ones we used on  the LEE Snowdonia workshop being returned for cleaning.

As I left my house a huge spider fell ( or was he pushed ? ) into the box of filters. This spider was massive, huge. Anyhow, he now has a new home and friends somewhere in a warm factory unit in Andover.

If Andover is being over run by arachnids this evening it's nothing to do with me.

A New Dawn.

 I have finally hauled myself into the 21st century and started a blog although the truth be known I have been bullied into it ( those responsible know who you are . )

 This will be the occasional thoughts and ramblings of a landscape photographer for the handful of you who wish to know what is happening in my world, workshops, location shoots and updates on the latest tea rooms visited.

 Any thoughts and comments are welcome, just e-mail me at  info@jeremywalker.co.uk  but be kind to me, I'm new at this.

 Welcome to my world.