And much appreciated it is too, Martyn! You wouldn't believe how much I've learnt from this thread from direct (always constructive) criticism, or from reading past posts.
However, I shall never be a photographer in the sense that all of you contributing to this thread seem to be: to me, taking photographs is almost exclusively an
aide-memoire for the other activities I get involved in. The upshot is I take very few photos; try to make each as good as I can at the time, and very occasionally get lucky. But I just can't get artisitic with the camera in a way marvellously exemplified by recent postings.
This mundane batch makes my point, and starts by yesterday being a lovely day, and me needing exercise. In my mind is fishing, and a wish to show Dave so-called "Priddy Pool" relevant to our 'illicit' discussion on crucian carp! Hence, I found myself in the Mendip village of Priddy, and walking up Nine Barrows Lane to check on the real Priddy Pool that only Duncan, me, and the map-maker seems to be aware of. So silted is it, that my new competition is 'Spot the water':
The real Priddy Pool by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
Putting this together, it seems to me that anyone interested might appreciate a map of the area: out came the X10, SP was selected, and "Text" chosen. Tungsten light and flash produced the same effect. I don't think this mode offers anything that can't be 'dialled-up', but it is convenient and fast, and requires little care:
Explorer map by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
Leaving the lane at the big bend, I walked up to the set of 8 tumuli marked on the map but with no name:
Not the Nine Barrows by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
For reasons I don't fully understand, I have been addicted to this walk (about one and a half hours if you take pictures) for some 20 years, but maybe it's down to those round barrows. They are arranged in a curve, clearly to follow a contour that gives maximum visibility for folk in the surrounding countryside: like "Time Team" which seems to pronounce 'fact' on the flimsiest of evidence, I can't help wondering about the bronze age people who created them, although I'm not the 'spiritual' sort. Here are six of the eight:
Tumuli by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
Looking through two of these barrows to the south, another line of tumuli labelled on the map "Priddy Nine Barrows" (only 7 seem to have survived) appears on the skyline of the adjacent hillock:
Nine Barrows on distant North Hill by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
From the highest point of the walk, "Alfred's Tower" some 20 miles away, was visible, but too distant to be recorded adequately with the X10. Descending, the pool adjacent to the road became visible:
walking down from hill to pool by
wylyeangler, on Flickr
This is the "Waldegrave Pool" which everyone erroneously calls "Priddy Pool".
To be continued.
Pete