In the Cells

During June, 2017, I visited Lacock Abbey to try out a few old M42 screw-mount lenses on a Canon EOS 40D DSLR. I got some nice pictures of bees and insects feasting on the flowers in the garden, and an especially satisfactory result photographing a lavender bush using a Cosinon 135mm telephoto in the abbey yard - the place where Fox Talbot did his photo of a fellow up a ladder.
Later I took a walk around the inside of the big house built on top of the abbey, just to prolong the visit really. And from an upstairs window I observed a party of girls arriving under the supervision of a harrassed-looking teacher-type of woman. They were probably there for the Harry Potter experience in the cloisters, because that was where they were about to enter. I had a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 on the camera and clearly no time to change it, so I shot a few speculative shots of the melee beneath the upstairs window. I might have done better with a longer focal length, but as it turned out one of these pictures included this girl swerving in a right angle to enter the cloisters. She had the perfect expression of a young person in high spirits on a summer outing, bringing back all sorts of buried memories of joy and freedom. She makes a good subject for experimental photography in which I am currently indulging.