Saturday Sanddancer Scene #29

Carlo

This week’s picture chosen from those submitted by the members of Curly’s Corner Shop Message Board comes from David Smith of Chester-le-Street who was born and brought up in South Shields. Dave married an Italian girl and often they visit her home town together for holidays and to meet the rest of her family.

I was particularly impressed with Dave’s portrait of “Carlo” which shows an underlying indomitable spirit and reflects the hardship of a life lived and earned from the land. Mr. Smith told me:

Carlo is a comparatively young man whose face reflects the hardships of the life which he has had to endure. Badly burned and mangled in a serious car accident, suffering from kidney failure and on regular dialysis. Undaunted he struggles on without complaint and working hard on the land in Italy.

You can keep up to date with my daily photographic postings at South Shields Daily Pictures.

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Saturday Sanddancer Scene #28

Loch Shiel

The latest submissions from the members of Curly’s Corner Shop Message Board have been of a very high standard and I’m delighted to be able to present three pictures from the latest challenge which I set them. Today’s picture is of Loch Shiel which is situated 20 Km west of Fort William, Lochaber, Scotland, and it was submitted by South Shields man Brian Paget, I liked it’s strong composition with the eye being led along the rope to the boat on the loch, also his good sense in using a tripod for the longer exposure.

Brian had this to say about his picture:

I’m chuffed my shot got chosen.   I took it early-ish morning looking North across Loch Shiel from the Loch Shiel Hotel’s landing in Acharacle (pronounced Ah-harra-cul).  I took a series of shots mostly just to try out my new Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens, experimenting with different combinations of aperture and exposure settings.  Although I had set up with a tripod and remote shutter release I didn’t expect the mirror effect as there was a slight breeze.  This shot was pure luck just a couple of minutes after the wind suddenly dropped, turning a lightly rippled black surface to a mixture of still mirror blending to window to the loch bed.  I didn’t really appreciate the shot until I’d loaded it onto my laptop.

The greatest feeling I recall were the midge bites; they were swarming around me, oblivious to the lashings of repellent I’d applied.

I’m sure you will agree it is a terrific shot.

To stay up to date with my personal pictorial postings please go to South Shields Daily Pictures.

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