Wednesday 25^th January 2017.

Ventured further up Upper Wharfedale this morning to visit Kettlewell churchyard.

Who knew gravestones could be so much fun?

At the invitation of Pete Reynolds from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, we were to demonstrate RTI photography to him and his colleague, Rebecca Cadbury-Simmons.

The subject for the photography was a listed 17thC gravestone which lays on the ground near the church building. The inscription is mostly fairly legible, but several vital words are badly worn, so we are hoping the RTI will reveal it all.

Essential kit - kitchen towel to wipe wet gravestones dry

It was, of course, a gloriously sunny day – so 4 of us had to huddle up to throw an even shadow over the gravestone – once we had taken the shine off the wet surface which had been caused by the dew. 

Setting up the horizontal bar proved a little tricky as it needed to be very high to get the whole memorial within the frame, and Alan was too short to look into the viewfinder. Thank goodness we had Tony with us, as he was tall enough to check the test shots for composition and the correct exposure. 

Setting up the tripod is the easy bit....

A small incident – the snooker ball rolled off halfway through the first set – meant we had to start all over again, but apart from that, it all went smoothly. Tried to upload the photos to my laptop so we could demonstrate the software, but my laptop wouldn’t recognise Alan’s camera, so that had to be abandoned.

After Pete and Rebecca left, the rest of us wandered around for about an hour, exploring the churchyard and the gravestones, before having a good, hearty lunch and general natter at the Racehorses pub.

Jane Lunnon.