Stonor Park show and Trip to Alps

Stonor was a good show for us. Friday was quiet but the other 3 days were busy. Heavy rain on Friday probably didn't help. Expect we will do again next year. We were home by 11pm Monday.

Been very busy last couple of weeks pulling calendar together for American company (Cities of the World), preparing for shows, sent order to Ilford for prints sold at Stonor as well as some others, 17 new prints and some reprints. Included a couple of 1m x 0.5m prints to show what we can offer. Was also talking to agent in America and have an agreement now. Fingers crossed it works well for both of us.

We are now on route to the Alps via Frankfurt where we have a meeting with a possible agent. Should be some good city shots there. Then down to Bavaria for a few days, followed by a night in Innsbruck. Then 4 nights in the Dolomites, several nights around lakes Yards and Como (and a side trip to Verona). Then its time to head home via Villars in Swiss Alps and Strasbourg. Hope the weather helps me out for the photos.

We left a few hours late and will not reach hotel before 1.30am. After about 3 hours sleep we get up to catch the Eurotunnel before 6am. Not the best way to start a trip but I'm sure it will calm down in a day or so.

Stonor Park - Day 3

A busier day than previous 2 days. Lots of interest and lots of sales. The good weather seemed to help too.

A pint of Bombardier at the end of the day rounded it all off. Then it was down the pub, the Kings Head at Bourne End, for something to eat. I decided to try the local beer; Rebellion Smugglers. It was a good pint so I had a second just to make sure.

Last day tomorrow. Fingers crossed we sell out so we have little to pack down! Expect to be home about midnight.

Stonor Park - Day 2

Quite a steady day at Stonor Park. More sales than yesterday. More sun than rain. Spoke to lots of nice people.

London Pride in beer tent at show reasonable but found Grouse & Ale pub in Lane End with a local bitter whose name I have forgotten and Adnams Broadside in good nick. Food was good too.

Show open between 9.30am and 5.30pm tomorrow, Sunday.

Stonor Park - day 1

It was a wet first day at the show at Stonor Park near Henley on Thames. Heavy rain showers through the day. Good turnout though and reasonable sales.

Open from 9.30am to 5.30pm if you are thinking of coming. We are stand G3 (turn right from main entrance, 2nd marquee on right).

Managing to try the odd new pub here and there. Last night was the Queens Head in Little Marlow and Fullers London Pride. Tonight was the Hare & Hounds in Marlow and Rebellion Mutiny, a local beer in fine form. Also managed a Yates Undercliff at the show. I didn't know there were 2 Yates breweries until today. This was from the Isle of Wight but the Yates beers I know are from Cumbria.

Stonor Park show - travel & setup

Just travelling down south to setup for a 4 day show near Henley on Thames. The venue is Stonor Park and it's one we haven't done before; they only let photography in for first time last year.

Quite a warm day, hope it stays dry for the weekend as we are in a marquee. Satnav says another hour and 40 minutes to go. Fingers crossed it's a good one.

Snecklifter Walk

Just finishing 13 mile walk for 2 pints of Snecklifter. Thought I'd better check it was still on fine form as it is a week since I last checked in to Shepherd's Arms pub in Whaley Bridge. I Jeremy have worried it was on fine form.

Our walk took us over Ladder Hill, Taxal Edge, Kettleshulme, Bowstones before dropping down to Whaley. It's a good day for walking too. Home soon.

Gallery Almost Finished

At long last the gallery mods are close to being finished. The main entrance hall is pretty much done but the side corridor still needs some hanging rails fitting before any pictures can be displayed there.

Today I hung 50 framed photographs in the part you see as you come to the door. Maybe room for another 20-odd pictures when remaining hanging rails are fitted. That's a total of around 100 framed pictures and another 600 in browsers in the 3 gallery areas.

Also building up stocks of small prints using Ilford Lab Direct printing onto traditional silver paper from my digital files. Now have around 70 images printed this way ready for the show season that's fast approaching. Stonor Park, near Henley on Thames, over August Bank Holiday is next.

Buxton Gallery Day

It's my last gallery day until mid-October. Dry as I walked the 6 miles here this morning but jolly heavy showers this afternoon.

Hope the walk home is dry.

Tomorrow is a computer day preparing images for a US 2013 calendar.

Fingers crossed the builders and electrician finished the gallery refurbishment today! Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Gallery Mods at Briarwood Continue

The electrician went on holiday this week so the gallery refurbishment is still not finished. Hopefully it will be done by Tuesday, assuming he comes back as promised! It will be 4 weeks on Tuesday since they started and almost 4 weeks without lights in part of the house. Not sure why they disconnected so much when they knew it would be weeks before they could reconnect them.

One of the last jobs to be done will be the new gallery hanging system (rails and cables as used in first part of refurb last year). Hanging pictures will be much easier and will give a cleaner look to the gallery.

New Images Coming Soon

Today I sent the last few images from the mega scanning session of a few months ago for loading onto my web site. Around 30 new images in total, including Colorado, Paris and Christchurch.

Storey Exhibition End

We went up to Lancaster today to take down my Lake Light exhibition. It had been up for several weeks and we made some sales. Took a lot longer to put up than take down!

Our next exhibition is the ICHF Chilterns Craft Show at Stonor Park near Henley on Thames over the August Bank Holiday.

Buxton Gallery Day

It's a cold, wet and windy day in the Peak District. More like autumn than summer.

I am in the Gallery in the Gardens in Buxton until 6pm. Bit quiet in spite of it being in the middle of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera festival. On with Sarah who has been driven to have several lots of cake and coffee because of the boredom. I just stick to water and a cereal bar for the day!

I marked up all of the new contact prints last night and pulled together a scan list. Lots of new images. Now just need to make the time for the scanning!

Contact Prints

I finished printing and cleared up by 4pm. I now have another 70 contact prints to work from. We are on our way south for a family bash tomorrow and I have them with me so that I can mark them up with my trusty red Chinagraph pencil. Once I have done this It's easy to pull together the scanning list.

They give me new shots of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Newbury. Just need to find some time to do the scanning and Photoshop editing to get them on the web site. Will try and have some as prints for next show; Stonor Park near Henley on Thames.

Darkroom Day 2

Another darkroom day today to try and print the 60-odd contact prints that have built up over the last few months. Just 45 to go now, I have reached May in the Yorkshire Sales and just printed Norwich and Norfolk Broads.

Doing in batches of 4 in big dishes to save time. Thankfully washing only takes a few minutes and my Ilford 1250 dryer gives me dry prints in about 10 seconds after taking out of the Nova washer.

Gallery Mods at Briarwood

The conversion of the hall at Briarwood into part of the gallery is going really slowly. Should have been finished last week, looks like it will now go into next week. At least the power stayed on all day while I was printing in the darkroom. Electrician may be back tomorrow though. It's now over 2 weeks without lights or power in this part of the house.

Darkroom Day

I am working in my darkroom today, printing customer orders. Yosemite prints at the moment. When I have finished these I have dozens of contact prints to do from recently exposed film. I'm a little behind, as they say.