We went on a walk into the Derbyshire Peak District. One of our favourite walks from Ashford in the Water, to Monsal Head, down into Upperdale , along the River Wye, under the viaduct , through the fields , across the A6 to Deepdale and then back to Ashford in the Water. My fitbit gadget told me it was almost 8 miles, which isn’t too far , but there are some serious hill climbs and descents en-route.
As we made our way up Pennyunk Lane and along the stone wall boundaries of the fields, we saw a massive Massey Ferguson tractor in a field. As we got closer there was a man fixing a stone wall and another one with a zimmer frame sat on the tractor watching.
The elderly gentleman asked us what route we were taking and we told him what I’ve just told you in the narrative. We all agreed it was a nice walk and then I mentioned the weather and asked if it was going to stay dry (we left Nottingham in lovely sunshine, but as you can see from the skyline it was quite a grey morning and all we had was T-shirts and shorts). Brian, the gentleman fixing the wall said it should do , but said he was glad it wasn’t last Friday,as that was far too hot a day (the temperatures exceeded 30C). I asked him if he was fixing the stone wall last Friday , but he was dong another job. I warned him that this Friday was going to be a really hot day too.
At that point I asked Brian if I could take a photo for my strangers project. I said it would look good against the background of the Massey Ferguson tractor. What I was aiming for was a narrow depth of field with Brian in focus and the tractor out of focus. However, Brian took my instructions literally and went and sat on the tractor and the gentleman with the zimmer frame, David (Brian’s father) pushed his frame to the side to pose for the photo. I didn’t want to ask them to move after they had both struck up a pose for me
So what you get is a father and son image, rather than the arty bokeh shot I had in my head. I think the former probably turned out better !
I took my Sony A6000 with me on the walk with the original kit lens, as the lens is small and covers a nice zoom range for a walk in the country. Brian and David are on the opposite side of the wall to me and we are also separated by some barbed wire.
Thanks for being strangers number 223 gentlemen.
To find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
https://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers
My own strangers can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57144254@N08/albums/72157657822400168
