Welcome to my blog. It may seem strangely named but `tog is actually an abbreviation of photographer which occasionally gets bandied about in newsrooms up and down the country, while “owd” is the Yorkshire pronunciation of “old”. Not that I feel old but I was stuck for a title and “An owd ‘togs blog” just seemed to have a nice ring to it. So there you go….
Lytham 1940s War Weekend
Lytham held the first of what could turn out to be a very good annual event on the weekend of 21st and 22nd August 2010. The 1940s war weekend was a celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and to help raise funds for a memorial to the members of the RAFs Fighter and Bomber Command which, when erected, will stand on Lytham Green where the event took place. The weekend which kicked of on Friday evening with a 1940s dance held in the park pavilion, included Re-enactors from The Northern World War Two Association who put on excellent living history displays and a battle re-enactment. There was also full size replica spitfire complete with aircrew waiting for the call to scramble, period military vehicles including a German Sd.Kfz. 251 Auf C half-track and a mini assault course for the kids. The period atmosphere was helped along by re-enactors from the North West Military Colletors group, live 1940s music and dancing all in period costume during the Saturday and Sunday bringing in crowds of sightseers. The whole weekend was topped by a flypast on the Saturday by a Dakota of the type that would have dropped allied paratroops into France on D-day and Arnhem later in the war. Sundays fly past was by the last Hurricane ever built, PZ865 was finished in summer 1944, there were 14,533 of them built throughout the war. She bares the inscription ‘The Last of the Many’ on her port and starboard sides.
1940s War weekend Lytham 2010 – Images by Paul Drabble
There is also a video report here from the weekend from Blackpool TV
Lost Ansel Adams Negatives – Was it Uncle Earl?
It now seems there are some possible doubts about whether the Ansel Adams glass negatives are actually by the great photographer or not. An 87 year old lady from Oakland California saw the story on a TV news show and spotted that one of the images is almost identical to a photograph hanging on her wall. That particular photograph she believes was shot by her Uncle Earl, who was an amateur photographer living in the Fresno, California, area around the time experts say the glass negatives were made.
This turns the story into a real world example of images becoming “Orphaned” (a situation where the creator of an image or images cant be identified) to some degree an extreme example of how orphaning can effect the perceived value of a photograph. If they are by Ansel Adams they’re worth an estimated $200 Million Dollars if they are by Uncle Earl they’re worth….. well your guess is as good as mine but you can bet good money its significantly less than $200 million, yet they are still exactly the same photographs as they were when I posted on the 27th of July.
Funeral of Trooper Leverett at Sheffield Chatedral
The funeral of Trooper James Anthony Leverett from Rawmarsh in South Yorkshire took place at at Sheffield Cathedral on Thursday 29th of July.
Trooper Leverett of D (The Green Horse) Squadron, The Viking Group, The Royal Dragoon Guards Killed in in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province of Afghanistan when the vehicle he was travelling was hit by an IED explosion on July 5th 2010.
On-line book publishing
I’m just testing the water with this idea, trying to find multiple income streams seems to be the key to survival in todays photography business. So here is a small very niche market first attempt. Please take a look and tell me what you think…
Doncaster Lottery Winners
I met two very nice guys yesterday Alan Stringer and Wally Jinks, Doncasters newest Millionaires they scooped a cheque for £2 Million pounds from the National lottery Jackpot for June 19th 2010. The pair didn’t discover they had won until six days after Wally and his wife Dawn returned from a five day Holiday on Jersey.
