William Shakespeare, Act 3, scene 1, Julius Caesar
Mounted archery demonstration. 2023 York Medieval Fayre.
It’s always a bit surreal when the Medieval Fayre is on – things like people in Medieval costume buying drinks in the local supermarket. Even the whole idea of Australians dressing up in Medieval costume and doing re-enactments is a bit of a strange notion when you consider that Australia had no European history prior to the Seventeenth Century. I go most years just for the spectacle, I always like watching the mounted archery demonstration. Amazing skills in hitting a target while at a full gallop. It makes for great photos as well.
Just lately I’ve been on a bit of historical journey – over the last 8 weeks I’ve watched all the Time Team episodes on YouTube. It’s been quite an education and it was a very fun way to find out more about where I’m from. I particularly liked the episodes about the Saxon period just because up to recently very little has been known about that time. Another connection is that I spent part of my childhood in Hastings in East Sussex and growing up there you’re very aware of the fate of the last Saxon King of England – Harold Godwinson – at the Battle of Hastings. So when I walked into the Medieval Fayre I was quite delighted to see the Grey Company putting on a display re-enacting that period.
The Grey Company focuses primarily on the so called “Dark Ages” period of history (600-1100 AD).
A Norman knight waits for the start of the demonstration.
Rushing into the fray with a blood curdling cry.
The clash of swords on shields.
A Saxon shield wall prepares to engage Norman invaders.
A few insults and banging shields with swords gets the blood up.
Engaging the enemy.
A well earned breather.
Photographically it was a case of using my Canon 6d, the EF24-70mm f4 and EF 70-200mm f2.8. Processing was all done in Lightroom and Exposure X7. I felt a black and white treatment would be the most sympathetic.
Last weekend you could be forgiven in thinking that the War of The Roses had broken out afresh in the Western Australian town of York. There were lots of grim looking men glad in chain mail and armour brandishing an assortment of fearsome looking weapons while women wafted around wearing hose, kirtles, gowns, surcoats, girdles, and bonnets while listening to bards strum away on lutes.
A grim looking man in chain mail with a fearsome looking axe.
The images were shot with an Olympus OMD EM-1, an OMD EM-10 with Olympus m.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 and 40-150mm f2.8 lenses. The files were processed in Adobe Lightroom and Alienskin Exposure X.
Sorry for the absence of a post last weekend – my trusty laptop had pass away and gone to Silicon Heaven. It may come as a shock to many people that there is an afterlife for electric and electronic appliances.
So I had to get myself another computer, this time I bought myself a desktop. All very swish looking with lots of brushed aluminium and shiny glass. The OS interface is all very futuristic looking in that sleek modern shiny way. Of course it wasn’t just a straight forward turn the thing on and then install my apps – no my last machine was a little on the ancient side and things had moved on and I had to search for updates, patches and firmware revisions. It’s amazing what a time sink a computer can be, I first started working with them in the mid 1980’s and we were promised a lot of things like they’d make us more efficient and we’d have a paperless office. Well thirty years on the paperless office still hasn’t arrived and anything involving a computer still takes longer than it did without one. In 1985 2013 sounded so futuristic and full of possibilities, yet now we’re here it is all a bit of an anticlimax. Whatever happened to the 3 day working week we were promised? I distinctly remember watching a TV program aired on the BBC called Tomorrow’s World which said that we’d all have flying cars. I suppose somethings did change – if you’d have told me thirty years ago I’d be taking photos with a phone I’d have thought that:
you’re nutty as squirrel pooh
I’d need a jolly long cable just get the phone out of the house
Well here I am and although it is possible to take photos with a phone I’m not actually doing it because a smart phone would be pretty pointless as there’s no 3G coverage where I live. I suppose I could get one just to take photos with, then it would become a camera with an optional phone built in.
Talking about all things “timey-whimey”, as Doctor Who might say (you can see from this post that I spend too much time watching sci-fi from the BBC) the town of York in Western Australia suffered a huge temporal disturbance and was transported back to the middle ages, and more to the point it wasn’t Medieval Australia but Medieval Europe. I walked down to the park besides the River and there were all manner of people walking about in suits of armour, there were jesters hey nony no-ing and all manner of other Olde Worlde frippery. I quickly came to my senses and realised that it wasn’t a temporal disturbance after all but the 2013 York Medieval Fayre. There was a Medieval market where you could get the latest in Long Bows, armour, heraldic devices and even toys. I avoided the stall selling Medieval German sausages as they were probably past their sell by date – I know I know that was the wurst joke ever!!! 🙂 There were the good people of the Grey Company who put on displays of historical re-enactment focusing on the Dark Ages and Medieval times. Then there was the The Free Company who’re a group of biffologists who dress up in armour and give each other a serious belting as the YouTube clip below shows.
I fear that at this point in time I must make a confession – I strayed from the micro four thirds path and returned to full frame goodness. I broke out the 5d and the 70-200 f2.8 IS L because I knew that it would be difficult to isolate subjects from crap distracting backgrounds with the smaller format but easy to do with the larger format and fast glass. Does this mean that I will stop using m4/3? No, I’m just using the appropriate tools for the job. If anyone would like to see the stills outside of the video clip they can be seen here.
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