[LargeFormat] Reptiles on the bus

[philip.lambert]

>
>      All this said, there are some local fauna that are charming. We get a
> fat lizard around the place that eats insects and waddles across the road
> occasionally. Its official name is a Bob-tail Goanna but I like to think
of
> it as Liz, after one of my wife's neices.
I was enjoying the sun and trying out my "new" Speed Graphic taking photos
of an 18th century stone country house and its lake in splendid Surrey
countryside and got as far as exposure number three when I saw this great
silverback rear up in the long grass. As I thought it might be the Mark IV
longhorn wallaby I stood well back and, extending my Linhof tripod to the
full, encouraged a small child to go and pat the creature. It must have
already fed because it sneered at her and lolloped off.  Nasty shock though,
quite put me off. However we chanced to visit the house on the day when
there was a country crafts fair (!) whose best feature was Morris dancing
(I have my doubts about that Morris)  but the food to my surprise was really
good with meat you could recognise, not just a macwhatever is it burger.

I tried out a new Linhof Rapid Rollex which fits any 6x9 technical that uses
a standard 6x9 double dark slide but only used three frames and a 65mm, 90mm
and 105mm. This took quite a while and used up my wife's patience a little
(she is good at carrying equipment, tripod, food, water) so we wandered
round the fair.  I don't like to say this but it was really enjoyable. The
best bit was the ferret racing.   Whippets weren't seen- I saw an Irish
wolfhound eying the wallabies nervously.  I must finish the film. Philip