... and hired a local outfit with a remote controlled camera on a pole ...
As this thread indicates, Richard has been engaged in an almighty tussle trying to achieve a clean exterior shot of his property that will reduce as a thumbnail. In that context, these new ones still don't work for me. Sometimes, you can become obsessed with shooting a particular image and sometimes, however much imagination, effort and time/money you expend, it continues to evade you - and here (short of sending in a chainsaw gang) maybe it always will.
I've been there. Many years back, I became obsessed with achieving a particular shot at a ram sale in Wales. Before the rams were led singly into the sales ring, they were confined in a shed with a hole in the roof. The sunlight blasted down from the hole and - occasionally - just picked out one ram whilst the others were in shadow. It was an absolutely drop-dead stunning image but despite hours and hours of my best efforts (and to the considerable amusement of the watching farmers), I just couldn't make it work.
When I told the story to a experienced photojournalist (thinking he'd have a solution), he told me that I was crazy to waste so much time (and, by implication, money) on something that I didn't have the expertise to make work. 'How many other shots did you miss', he said, 'whilst you were messing about with this duffer'. From a professional point of view, I'm sure that he was right but it still makes me sad when I think about it now, 30 years on. The shot has always existed in my head - but, unfortunately, not on film.
Jim
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