I’m a professional filmmaker with autism. I’m also a full-time equality and disability rights campaigner who is passionate about making the world a better place for everyone. I am currently running a crowdfunding campaign and was wondering if you, the reader, could help me spread the word and help with my project.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a powerful story to tell about my life and after a year of planning and developing ideas, I came up with the idea for ‘My Life On Camera‘ – a unique look into the world through the eyes of a creative person with autism. As well as making my voice heard, I hope to inspire other people to make positive social changes worldwide.
I have produced many successful short films over the course of the last decade…
Some of you may remember that a while back I wrote about having been assigned a project involving a ridiculously large amount of photographic kit in a post called Emails and Cameras. Since then I have completed the process of sorting through the stuff, describing, photographing etc. and this post is about that.
THE INITIAL DESCRIPTIONS
My initial listing ran to 65 lots, but I subsequently condensed it down to 21 lots. I decided that all the bags, flashbulbs etc that were not connected to particular cameras could go as one huge lot, while the bulk of the cameras were combined to make just four lots. Here are a few pictures to help tell the story…
A bulk lot of box cameras.This lot consists mainly of Kodak cameras.Folding cameras are usually worth selling as individual items.
One of the Bencini Korolls in the sale – these cameras will sell as indvidual items.
THE REST OF THE STORY
All that now remains is for these cameras to go under the hammer, hopefully on October 28th.
Today was our usual Thursday afternoon outside the Jobcentre. The rain kept off and everyone was still in a fairly good mood. It had been a good weekend at the Manchester demonstrations and our visit from Natalie Bennett had given everyone a good morale boost. And quite rightly so, they deserved it. The team are amazing.
Not long after most of our regular attendees had arrived I received a telephone call. It was from a claimant at Ashton Jobcentre. They were panicking and I could hear them crying. I asked what was wrong and they said that they had received a letter stating that they had to attend a work programme course in a different town too far away to walk and they didn’t have enough bus fare to get there. They didn’t know how to get there.
I asked them if they could meet me outside the Jobcentre which…
This is the story of Lot 51 at our last auction. I was immediately struck by it when imaging – no great surprise since I am an avid fan of both maps and railwayana.
IMAGING
This item was one of a number of railway themed lots that I imaged that day, but apart from lot 52, which also appealed none of the others caused me much pause. Here is the original image that I took then…
PUTTING A BID IN
When I checked the valuation of this and lot 52 I saw that both had a minimum estimate of £25, and realised that therefore I had to concentrate my attentions on just one of them, so went for lot 51. My parents are now registered with Air B and B, and a couple who had previously stayed there to house hunt were staying there again to view a property that they were particularly keen on. My mother arranged for the night’s rent to be paid to me in cash so that I would have the benefit of it (for which I am very grateful). Fortified by this knowledge I duly placed a bid of up to £30 on lot 51 (£30 plus Buyers Premium at 15% = £34.50 actual cost – and the nights rent was £35).
DISPLAYING AT THE VENUE
Although I had a personal interest as shown above, I was determined that this item should be on full view for all, and I believe that I positioned it well.
When it came to time for this lot to go under the hammer auctioneer David started the bidding at £25, and that was where it finished.
GETTING IT HOME
I looked after it with due care and attention, and when i got home I spread it out on the sitting room floor, anchoring the bottom end with a couple of weighty tomes…
THE FINAL LOCATION
I had decided that this item needed to be out on display, and this is how I chose to display it…
MORE ABOUT THE MAP
The map was created by John Bartholomew of the Edinburgh Geographical Institute, and the company whose advertisement appears at the top was incorporated in 1877. I also know from studying the London & Suburbs close up section that this particular map must be from before 1910 as it shows a connection that ceased operating that year. Don’t forget that in the not too distant future I will be launching the website londontu.be which will feature many pictures of maps and schematic disgrams. I end this post with a few more pics from the map…
This is my personal account of our auction which took place yesterday at The Prince of Wales Stand, Fakenham Racecourse. This story features two days worth of action, the setup on Monday and the auction itself yesterday.
SETUP
Three of us were involved in loading the van up with everything we needed to take down to the racecourse for the auction, and once we had unloaded at the racecourse the other two then headed to the silo in the village of Syderstone that James and Sons use for storage to retrieve the rostrum and the stools that the two of us who are on the rostrum occupy while I endeavoured to lay the stuff out to best advantage. My efforts were largely successful – when I arrived the following morning very little of what had done was changed. I noticed a new decoration behind the bar while setting up…
I am certain given the high moral and ethical standards of the people who run the Racecourse that the turtle to whom this shell previously belonged would have died before 1947.
THE DAY OF THE AUCTION
A seriously early start was necessary, since I had to catch the 6:50AM bus. Fortunately the bus ran smoothly (there is no excuse for not doing so at that time of the morning!), and I was at the racecourse significantly before 8AM – and as it happened the first James and Sons employee to get there on the day. In between doing the IT setup and assisting customers I was able to take some photographs before the day started…
This lot is going to be the subject of a blog post all to itself – for the moment suffice to say that it sold to the photographer for £25.
Lot 435 was the subject of a last minute query. The pictures of the front side of the item were online right from the moment the catalogue was put up, but someone wanted images of the back……and my briefcase was the only available dark background I had against which to image it!
Lot 612 – an antique folding camera – there are many more cameras due to feature in our next auction, including at least ten of the folding type.
This barometer with thermometer sold first time, unlike the other barometer in this auction, lot 24, which is a seasoned veteran of the auction room.
THE AUCTION
The auction started quietly, until lot 7, an Indian bronze figurine which stood 13cm high and was slightly damaged. The estimate was a moderate £15-20, but the final hammer price was an eye-popping £120.
Note that no attempt had been made to hide the damage to the base of this figurine.The back of the figurine.The front side only.
Apart from lot 51 finding a good home, the next significant highlight was lot 222, a set of three challenge coins which were estimated at £5-10 but ended up making £22.
The stamps (generally a strong area at a James and Sons auction) started at lot 251, and lot 274, an album page of Chinese stamps with an estimate of £10-15 sold for £75. Lots 298 and 301, achieving £180 and £55 against top estimates of £100 and £15 respectively also generated considerable excitement, while in percentage terms lot 295, in selling for £170 against a top estimate of £20 was the star lot of the whole auction. Lot 364, an album of GB stamps, was estimated at £40-50 and actually went for £95. The coins and banknotes later in the auction also sold well, with lots 507-9, lot 519 and lots 569 and 570 among the coins doing especially well, and the banknote albums that were lots 590-8 inclusive all selling for good prices. An additional plus about the coin lots specifically was that a lot of the bulk coin lots were sold in the room to one of our regular large buyers, which meant that apart from assisting him to carry them to his car we were done with them. I have no pictures available here at home of the coin or banknote lots, but here are those of the stamps I do have…
Lot 295, in percentage terms the star lot of the auction.
THE CLEAR UP OPERATION
Once all the customers had departed with their purchases we had to load up the van, get everything back to the shop, return to the racecourse to pick up the rostrum and stools and drop those off at the silo and finally return to the shop to load up the van ready for travel to the collectors fair that will just about be under way as I write this. I was able to get the 17:38 bus home, meaning that I got back to my flat a mere 12 hours after departure, thoroughly exhausted. It is not just the heavy lifting, of which there was a large amount. Also, I find being on the rostrum, as I was for the first 470 of the 650 lots draining, and though I handle it fairly well these days I still find the direct customer service work involved on auction days hard.
Yesterday morning I set a little observation test (borrowing the idea from whyevolutionistrue) using this picture which features some magpies…
Three of the magpies were very easy to identify, but I wonder whether all of you spotted the fourth – here is the big reveal – red rings highlighting each magpie…
Taking my cue from the folks at whyevolutionistrue I offer you this teaser: how many magpies can you see in the following picture, taken yesterday at Harding’s Pits?
This one is not especially difficult, and I will reveal the answer in my next post…
You are probably familiar with the usual definition of Socialism as:
‘a social and economic system characterised by social ownership and/or social control of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy, as well as a political theory and movement that aims at the establishment of such a system‘
But for most people, I think, it is a much more personal business. For me, equality is a core belief and this is what motivates me as a Trade Unionist, as well as influencing how I analyse and react to both world/national events, and my relationships with those around me.
I have always been on the left politically and have always voted Labour, with varying degrees of enthusiasm through the years. My political beliefs and values haven’t changed all that much since I was in my twenties but I think…
The American government is culpable for every innocent civilian (euphemistically described as “collateral damage”) killed accidentally in airstrikes or dronestrikes in the Middle East. Every such person killed has others who love them, and values their life as much as any other human, and in that sense each person is intrinsically valuable. But those who devote their efforts to saving the lives of others have a special value, for the deaths of such workers implicitly entail the deaths of others—what might be called “second-order collateral damage.”
And so so, once again, the U.S. has slaughtered a bunch of innocent civilians, this time including nine members of Doctors Without Borders (or MSF, for Médecins Sans Frontières) ,an organization near and dear to my heart, as its members help the suffering in time of disaster regardless of the victims’ ethnicity, religion, or “side” in a war. (It’s our Official Website Charity™).
As reported by CNN, in an airstrike Saturday morning on a hospital in the…
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