Misrepresentation.

I’ve made much of late as to how ‘Facebook’ defines me as a ‘visual storyteller’ and I often consider myself more a ‘liar with a lens’ in as much as I rarely manage to photograph anything that doesn’t need a little TLC in the aftermath of my attempts to capture the scene. Today’s efforts have been a point in question, though in my defence I would point to the damp and dismal Bank Holiday weather as something that really warranted a helping hand in the visual stakes. After yesterday’s wonderful warmth and sunshine today has been a woeful, although entirely British, Bank Holiday Sunday and even the thought of spending time in the beautiful parkland at Stourhead paled in the miserable conditions that presented themselves on arrival there this morning. So much so that the wet conditions meant that we didn’t wander the lakeside or the parkland and restricted ourselves to the walled garden, not to mention coffee and cake ( which I often do ) as a reward for our stellar efforts. The rain wasn’t your usual full on deluge type of rain, no, it was more the insidious, cloying mist that chills and envelopes everything and everybody, lowering the temperature and covering your camera lens in droplets that you don’t notice in the viewfinder but become extremely evident in your photo. Which brings me back nicely to the title of this piece, believe me, what you are about to see is entirely a misrepresentation of the scene captured on my memory card. A little warmth and romanticism go an awfully long way in some circumstances and no artist worth his or her salt hasn’t exploited that fact to their advantage at some stage. From John Constable and his reworking of ‘The Haywain’ painting to the skillful manipulations employed by Ansel Adams, the photographic genius, in exposure, development and printing every exponent of art has sought to make the most of their subject by whatever means possible.