It's nearly midnight here in the UK, so just a few lines to let anyone who's interested know that Dave Mann has popped by in his travels to deepest Oxfordshire. Accompanied by a K2, a small collection of lenses, and no vices I can find, I picked him up from the coach station and we descended on a warm and humid Northmoor.
After a brief respite, a trip to the local town for sundry food supplies, a quick glance in the local camera shop window (closed, half a shelf of PKA lenses, nothing notable), and a trot into Woolies in search of sandwich bags - don't ask - we managed to get a walk in to a lake a few hundred yards from our house. David was much taken with my Tokina 300 f/2.8 and duly aquisitioned it and the monopod. Then he goes and sticks on a real dog of a K2. What a tank! I'm shouldering my landscape hardware: Bronica ETRSi and 40 mil with some slow Ilford monochrome aboard. My 8 yr old son Stefan, never one to miss out on the crowd, relieves me of the guest-cam: Olympus XA-2. Perfect for him. Spouse Alma remains behind for a deserved catnap, but has been worryingly eying up Dave's 35mm 2.8 - I think Dave was worried too when she announced she have to 'try it out', as a timescale was not offered, and Dave's flight back to NZ is less than 2 weeks away. To keep the peace, I may be looking for a 35mm bottle... Around the lake we went, I grabbed a few frames of Dave waving the 300 mil around, he looked like he knew what he was doing but who am I to tell? He was loaded with colour, dunno what - and made satisfied noises when various water fowl hove into view. I was in full Ansel mode, so waited til we walked right around the other side where I knew of a fresh pit being dug (sand quarrying with resultant hole later filled in by water to produce wetland sanctuary). The dried up sides of the pit provided some fascinating studies of surface cracks and gullies. Dave parried with the 300 finding the odd frame. I devoured a roll of Pan F. Stefan pocketed the Olympus and contented himself with leaving his mark in the mud, sigh. 90 minutes later the BBQ was lit and we were in relaxation mode. A nice day. Tomorrow it's Queen's Jubilee celebrations in the village. The kid's tea party will give me ideal opportunity to get some great pics. I think Dave is less comfortable here, but it will do him good to fill the frame with some faces for a change! Cheers, Cotty _______________________________________________________ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
