Jess - An Experience that Worked!

Normally I don't get involved with work experience placements as they can often be far too time consuming for a small business to have to cope with. By the time you've explained things to some school kids you would have been quicker doing things yourself and with a lot less bother!

However, Jess White, a 15 year old pupil at Friar's School Bangor, has turned out to be quite the opposite, a real boon to the business and a VERY quick learner. She even looks 'arty' :-)

We do have a bit of history between us though! :-) She was at my wedding, as the 11 year old daughter of a close friend of Carol's. What's more, she's from Penzance which basically swings the situation anyway, as we can discuss beach parties, pasties and cream teas at the same time as framing !

Just had her school representative here today, for the usual form-filling session, and I decided to add an excellent column to the good, OK and atrocious columns already tabled! Anyway, in contrast to some of the negatives about other photographers this week, this wannabe barrister has made the week VERY productive, very busy and great fun. I will miss her company but wish her all the best for what I'm sure will be a very successful career!

Just hope she realises that being a barrister in London will never be as good as being a beach bum at St Ives :-))

MORE selfish photographers!

MORE selfish photographers!
"Untitled" Work in progress
© Copyright Glyn Davies 2009
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Last night Carol and I went out to catch the last few rays of evening sun at Rhosneigr. The banks of cloud, as during the rest of this week were always hanging around, but a nice gap was appearing on the horizon and it was only a matter of time before the sun would blast through. The coast became more and more orange as the sun dropped lower.

Initially I was gutted to see a guy walking THREE collies right onto the pristine sand surrounding the unusual rocks I wanted to photograph, throwing balls for them and so on. Nevertheless I'm sure he wasn't doing it to annoy me, so I found another spot where the sea had washed away the hundreds of paw prints.

BUT hey presto! Another couple, armed with monopods and digi cams watched me set up the tripod and decided to walk right into my shot, looking across at me every so often. They meandered around the beach just 50 feet in front of me, and even walked directly TOWARDS me before turning around in front of me once more and taking even more shots of the same scene!

Dog walkers are one thing, they are usually blatantly indifferent to the needs of photographers :-) but other togs should know better, even if they are amateurs! This was like a bloody re-run of the Cornish experience. Today, I refused to stand in silence and instead chose to be proactive! I sussed out another composition (see pic) from were I stood, and marched straight out and in front of them, set up my tripod and got the shot I wanted. I could sense them flabbergasted that I should dare to get in their way - after spending 15 minutes knowingly doing it to me!

Petty ? It's now war on selfish photographers ! :-)