The Mart, Birds and Other Stuff

One of King’s Lynn’s greatest traditions, The Mart, kicks off this Saturday. I saw some of their advertising today, and I have to acknowledge that it is quite impressive, as is the fact that this is the 811th King’s Lynn Mart (the first of a series of annual fairs that closes with the Nottingham Goose Fair)…

Advertising for the Mart.
Advertising for the Mart.

I was at the river front at the right time to catch this image a fishing boat…

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There were plenty of opportunities to photograph sea birds, including when my main targets were actually other things (check out pic 1 in this series for an example)…??????????

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As usual I spotted various architectural features that I deemed camera worthy…

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The birds were their usual exuberant selves, starting with a mallard drake and ending with a large bird I could not quite identify (had the colouring of a swan but the neck was too short)…

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Before sharing my final images, I came across this today on CosmosUp, @cosmossup:

http://www.cosmosup.com/earths-inner-core-has-an-inner-core-of-its-own. I thought of a title for this idea: Russian Doll Earth!

One of this final selection of images is there because my twitter account is approaching the milestone of 1,700 followers…?????????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????????

Some Interesting Lots From Yesterday

All the items featured in this post will go under the hammer on February 25th at Fakenham Racecourse, sale to commence at 10AM. In each case bar one they warranted more than one image, and in each case I am including the whole gallery.

I will go in number order, so here is lot 761:

Lot 761 (all items)
Lot 761 (all items)
A close up of the watch and the two mini plaques.
A close up of the watch and the two mini plaques.

Next up comes lot 794, a ships wheel with clock set into the centre and accompanied by a brass anchor…

The full lot 794
The full lot 794
The clockface
The clockface
The wheel in full without the anchor.
The wheel in full without the anchor.

Lot 797 was also a wheel of sorts, a Cinderella style spinning wheel…

The spinning wheel in all its glory.
The spinning wheel in all its glory.
A close up of the wheel itself!
A close up of the wheel itself!

Lot 798, is certainly a striking piece…

The whole of lot 798
The whole of lot 798
A close up of one of the handles.
A close up of one of the handles.

Lot 875 only got the one image, and no prizes are awarded to anyone who knows anything about me for guessing why I considered it of particular interest!

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Finally, a couple of potential posters based on the toys I imaged yesterday…

The first composite image
The first composite image
The second composite image.
The second composite image.
The central part of my first composite image.
The central part of my first composite image.

Toy Poster 1 Toy Poster 2

Pictures for the Cover of James and Sons Next Catalogue

After a morning spent editing and transferring images from last week, I spent the afternoon imaging new stuff for our February auction, including producing some images for the cover of our catalogue, which will be available be early next week (sale date is Feb 25th, Fakenham Racecourse, first item goes under hammer at 10AM). I will deal with the non cover images in a subsequent post.

The first item I imaged for the cover was a set of coins:

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Big coin lots can be tough to image - especially if there is a strip light anywhere near them! - hence six pics in this gallery.
Big coin lots can be tough to image – especially if there is a strip light anywhere near them! – hence six pics in this gallery.

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These were followed by some vey fine old toys…

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Birds, Buildings and Quilts

Some historic buildings, a quilt and some birds plus a notice from the Environment Agency.

The title is a reference to what I have been photographing over the weekend. To start with some of the buildings:

1)Greyfriars Tower, all that remains above ground of the Franciscan priory…

This is a montage created for putting up on twitter, the rest of the gallery follows...
This is a montage created for putting up on twitter, the rest of the gallery follows…

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2) King’s Lynn Public Library…

Once again, we start with a montage...
Once again, we start with a montage…

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3)Custom House…

This is the last multiple image
This is the last multiple image

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4)The Red Mount Chapel, Guanock Gate and various interesting bits of buildings…

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West Lynn Church
West Lynn Church

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I chose to include this with the buildings, although it also features birds!
I chose to include this with the buildings, although it also features birds!

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The quilt reference is to a very elaborate quilt that my aunt made and will be submitting to a competition, for which she required photographs of it. I have provided two versions of each picture, one with very little editing, and one with much more editing….

The first five images of this quilt are the fully edited ones.
The first five images of this quilt are the fully edited ones.

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These next five images have been cropped but not fully edited.
These next five images have been cropped but not fully edited.

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Now we have some bird images…

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To finish, a notice from the Environment Agency…

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Two Hectic Days at James and Sons

Thursday and yesterday were two busy days at James and Sons, imaging for the February auction. The new Nikon Coolpix P530 proved its worth in spades, as the pictures I shall be sharing with you through this post will make obvious. Here is the (likely) front cover lot from two different angles:

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The bulk of the imaging I did over these two days was of coin lots, some of which I shall now share with you…

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Next a shout out, already provided on twitter, to Norfolk Libraries for having this magnificent book in stock, and of course to Ben Goldacre for writing it….

Goldacre

Before sharing some final images of quirky items, an update on the camera situation. Sine January 26th, a.k.a Dies Irae I have mad three attempts to contact the people from the Norfolk Camera Centre regarding the Nikon Coolpix P520 I took in for repairs on October 27th and have not seen since – for further details click here, concluding with an email sent on Thursday giving them details of where and when i would be working those two days and a warning that if by the end of work on Friday the camera was not back in my possession I would go back to the police. The camera not being in my possession I have duly recontacted the police with this information. Meantime, courtesy of the generosity of my parents I now have a Nikon Coolpix P530, which is well and truly proving its worth. Now for those final images…

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The First Fruits of My New Camera

My new camera was ready for collection today, and since picking it up I have been enjoying myself testing it out. For comparison purposes before going into the main set of pictures here are the images for Lot 723 in our February auction, the last set of pictures I took with the Samsung…

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For the rest: Camera Nova Ipse Loquatur (Let the new camera speak for itself)!

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This panel is quite attractive. Pity about the building it belongs to - £1.2 billion tax dodger B**ts
This panel is quite attractive. Pity about the building it belongs to – £1.2 billion tax dodger B**ts
Effective and appropriate restoration.
Effective and appropriate restoration.
Stage one of sorting out this disaster should involve the use of a wrecking ball!
Stage one of sorting out this disaster should involve the use of a wrecking ball!

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Imaging and Describing at James and Sons

Today has been a physically and mentally demanding day, and all the better for the latter of those two being the case. As well as imaging some very interesting lots, as you will see, I got to try my hand at describing. The most interesting lot for me was lot 720:

Lot 720

Wall Plaques – collection of seven by “Ivorex” – nice. Four of these are rectangular, 11ins  by 7ins (28 by 18cm): Westminster Abber, Conway Castle & Bridge, Royal Naval College Greenwich and Tower Bridge. One plaque measures 8 ins by 3.5 ins (20 by 8cms), with an arched top piece which at the centre increases the height by approx 0.5 ins (1.5cms) – this is of the Capitol, Washington DC. Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral are both 5 ins by  3.5 ins (13 by 8cms).

Est £20-30

This is all seven plaques
This is all seven plaques
And this is a close up of the star of the collection (at least in my opinion)
And this is a close up of the star of the collection (at least in my opinion)

Also quite interesting was lot 719, a small table, the top of which hinges up to reveal a full set of cutlery:

???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????There were also several large dinner/ tea services in various extremely fragile materials which therefore needed very careful handling.

Another very interesting lot from an imaging and describing perspective, which I am not ready to share in full yet, consists of four boxes of wooden printers blocks of varying sizes, all fairly large.

Wednesday’s Auction and Today at James and Sons

I have already made mention of the January auction of James and Sons, which took place on Wednesday, but I am briefly revisiting it because at that time m y photos from the day itself were unedited. The number of people actually present at the racecourse was small, partly because it was very cold that day, but large numbers of people were bidding online via www.the-saleroom.com.

James and Sons next auction will be on February 25th, once again at the racecourse. Information about James and Sons activities can be found on their website , facebook and twitter pages.

Now for some pics from the auction before moving on…

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Much of the last couple of days have been spent publicising the Great Centenary Charity Auction. More information about this event can be found at:

www.greatcharity.org
facebook: www.facebook.com/GreatAuction
twitter: www.twitter.com/great_auction

My personal twitter, @aspitweets has over 1600 followers.

This week has been a particularly stressful one in many ways, but I am pleased with the progress I have made in all the areas mentioned in this post.

An Important Press Release, A Successgul Auction and Some Other Stuff

An important press release, a brief mention of yesterday’s auction and some other stuff

Starting with the biggest news: The Great Centenary Charity Auction will now have its first instalment at The Prince of Wales Stand, Fakenham Racecourse on June 28th, sale commencing at 10AM. A full press release is reproduced below:

AUCTION FOR BLAST INJURY RESEARCH BOOSTED BY 100 OLD UNIFORM AND HEAD-DRESS DONATION

The Great Charity Auction for The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London has received a valuable collection of uniforms and head-dresses. The collection, from an anonymous donor, includes uniforms from the Crimean War through to World War I and World War II, National Service and later. It covers Royal Navy,  British Army and Royal Air Force.

“This collection, added to the many uniforms, medals and militaria already received takes the number of lots to 600 and we have brought forward the auction date to June 28th” said the delighted auctioneer, Colonel David James. “We have also moved the venue to accommodate the large volume of lots to the Prince of Wales Stand at Fakenham Racecourse.”

“Viewing will be held on Saturday 27th June from 3pm to 7pm and from 8am to 11am on the morning of the auction” he added.

The auction will include live internet bidding worldwide on the-saleroom.com.

“We are pleased to announce that the-saleroom.com has joined the Eastern Daily Press and I-Post as sponsors.”

I-Post will, through The Royal British Legion collect and deliver cartons of donated items to Fakenham virtually free of charge from United Kingdom donors. Details are available from the auction website, www.greatcharity.org

Catalogues for the first Centenary Auction will be available from June 5th post free for a donation of £10.

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The original document and a full image gallery can be viewed here:

AUCTION FOR BLAST INJURY RESEARCH BOOSTED BY 100 LD UNIFORM AND HEAD Combo 1 Helmet ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????Yesterday’s auction at the Racecourse (a regular James and Sons affair) was overall very successful. A combination of a matchday brochure, team sheet and ticket from a Spurs v Chelsea match of the early 1900s (in which the legendary Vivian Woodward appeared for Chelsea) fetched a credulity-stretching £600. There were many other notable successes, fuelled by a substantial number of people registering for online bidding via http://www.the-saleroom.com

SDC18154One of my favourite Autistic Spectrum Condition related bloggers is Autism Mom, and one of her recent posts, which I have already tweeted to my followers I found particularly impressive:

http://blog.autism-mom.com/2015/01/dinosaurs-to-the-rescue

The Case of the Crooked Camera Repairers

The story that is the raison d’etre for this post is already in the hands of Adam Lazzari, the EDPs chief reporter for Fakenham and Dereham. It concerns the situation with my Nikon Coolpix P520, and the plain text version is here:

THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CAMERA REPAIRERS

This is the story of the fate of my Nikon Coolpix P520 up to today, when I uncovered evidence that admits of no interpretation other than serious criminality on the part of Messrs Christopher Robert Simpson and Mark Gregory formerly of The Camera Repair Company, Dereham.

The significant milestones are as follows:

  • October 27th took camera in for repairs, handed over a deposit and was told I would be contacted as soon as they had identified the fault.
  • A week and a half later I was told that the fault was a damaged USB port and associated damage to the motherboard. I was assured that they could fix it in approximately ten working days, so although I was going to have to pay for the privilege I agreed to the deal.
  • Three full weeks (i.e 15 working days, since there were no public holidays in the period concerned) later I phoned them to ask what was going on and was told that they just needed to perform quality checks and would then be able to return the repaired camera to me.
  • On the Saturday following having mean time heard nothing I phoned them to find out what was going on, and was told it should be ready by Monday.
  • Thus on the Monday following that I went to Dereham expecting to pick up the camera and was told that one of them was doing a job in King’s Lynn the following evening and that they would return the camera to me then.
  • That following evening no one showed up, so…
  • On the Wednesday I made another trip to Dereham expecting to return with a functioning Coolpix P520. I was then told that the replacement board had malfunctioned and that they needed another which they were waiting for. They also said that as soon as it was ready they would deliver it to me. So I waited, and waited and waited some more, hearing nothing until…
  • I decided that today, with them having had three full working weeks since Christmas to get things sorted I was going over to Dereham one more time and come hell or high water would return with a camera, which brings us to what I as a classical music lover call…

DIES IRAE

I arrived at the shop to find it shut and locked, and with a notice from Brown & Co Estate Agents attached to the door, explaining that the shop had been repossessed and that more information could be obtained from them. Therefore, I travelled on to Norwich (no extra cost – on First Eastern Counties one gets a day pass rather than a return ticket) to find the branch indicated (I wanted to do this face to face, not over the phone). There I found out that I was far from being the only person in this situation and that the repossession had been because they owed the estate agents a large amount of money. Additionally, I was informed that when the agents went to repossess the shop and change the locks they found it already stripped bare, and they have not been able to make contact with the individuals who ran it.

Additionally to what is mentioned above in the word document (attached below), the website is still active, but I have not bothered to attempt to contact them by that means as I do not consider it worthwhile.

Article ???????????????????????? THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CAMERA REPAIRERS

This major issue apart, I am in decent fettle, and I will finish by sharing some of my more usual type of picture (taken with older and lesser camera, a Samsung) with you…

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Here for your information is a photo of the repossession notice taken with old Samsung…