on Monday Believe me, my pictures aren’t perfect
WI can’t take photographs. If you don’t believe me the picture on this page is me trying to take a selfie...
OULD you like your head or legs in shot?... That is my usual response when a stranger passes me a camera that looks like they’ve re-mortgaged their house in order to buy it.
For some reason they always choose me. Big mistake. I am a hopeless photographer. No, seriously, at my age I know, and can admit, my limitations.
I can’t take photographs. If you don’t believe me the photo on this page is me trying to take a selfie! Don’t ask me how it happened or what I did, or didn’t, do, but it is part of a long history of bad photographs I have taken.
These include shots of the inside of my handbag, and worryingly, one of my legs up my skirt which if anyone else had taken would likely incur a prison sentence.
So when this popped up on my Facebook page, ‘Get to grips with your camera in the gardens of Powderham Castle’ I reckoned it was right up my strasse. A 2.5-3 hour photowalk around beautiful Powderham Castle for beginners to intermediate photographers .... perfect.
Firstly I know the photographer, Matt Round, who has taken some lovely shots of me in the past.
Secondly, I love Powderham Castle. For those who don’t know, it is set in stunning parkland on the west
side of the Exe estuary, just a few miles from Exeter city centre.
As a child, whenever we went by train from Plymouth to London I always used to make sure we sat on the left hand side of the train because it passes alongside Powderham and you’d be more than likely to see hundreds of deer feeding in the grounds.
By the way, this lack of ability with a camera runs in the family. They say that if you are lucky you meet a partner in life who makes up for your shortcomings. The yin to your yang, if you will. The Morecambe to your Wise or the Wood to your Walters.
I have no such partner. True, whilst I can make a bed with sheets and duvet, it will be the bed itself that he made with his own fair hands out of solid wood.
But his photographs are worse than mine. He is known among our friends as the creator of a series of what I like to call ‘finger print photographs’.
Wherever we have been around the world from Bodmin to Bermuda, Swindon to Sweden, he has managed to capture his finger partly obliterating my image. These pictures are now eagerly awaited when we return from our holidays.
So signing up with Matt was a no -brainer. It was a beautiful day in a great setting and even though I only had a phone camera, I picked up some good advice.
Things like paying attention to my composition and not just pointing the camera and hitting the button, letting the camera make all the decisions and hoping somewhere there is a good photo.
Which is exactly what I do. But as easy as Matt made it look, never doubt it is definitely an art.
There’s a great story, which illustrates this, which has been told many times. Here’s the gist of it.
A photographer goes to a socialite party in New York. When he gets there the hostess says to him: “I love your photographs, they’re wonderful. You must have a fantastic camera?” He says nothing until after dinner then remarks: “That was a wonderful dinner. You must have a terrific stove.”
If you are a keen amateur or a total novice and you fancy joining Matt he’s taking more photowalks as part of Art Month at Powderham Castle from May 19 to June 16.
To get more details and book a place go to mattroundphotography. com