AV News 178 - November 2009
AV tribute to the Apple Man
Margaret Salisbury FRPS
There is nothing quite like "mentoring" to open up the world and allow you to
meet some wonderful people.
I first met Doreen Dunkley and her husband Jim, online, when Doreen was
aiming for an LRPS. From New Zealand, email allowed an opportunity to
communicate quickly and easily discussing pictures and getting to know
these amazing people. Many emails, prints received in the post and phone
calls later, Doreen was successful and gained her "L".
Not being content with that and feeling time was short as she was already
over eighty she decided she would aim for Associateship! There followed a
frustrating few months getting and receiving help for her, but despite her hard
work and dedication the gulf between the "fashion" in portraiture here in the
UK and that which she was used to in NZ, was just too great.
So her ambition thwarted and hearing my tales of my recently renewed
interest in and involvement with AV, she decided "an old dog can learn new
tricks", so she would have a go at a new and totally different discipline.
Months passed and much work resulted in a sequence taken locally on "A
Chinese Garden" but sadly this was technically below standard and we felt
she needed something to show her personality, maybe a "different" theme
demonstrating "photographer input".
This is where Doreen's dear husband, Jim, whom she adored, literally
came into the picture,
when I suggested she
record through a year's
cycle, his work as one
of the few, if not the
only "Apple identifier" in
New Zealand.
At 87, Jim every
year spends many
months
"identifying
apples" of which there
are
nearly
three
hundred types in New
Zealand and he is
considered to be one of
the, or the, leading
authority on this huge
task.
Eventually Doreen was persuaded to record this wonderful work and an
AV called "The Apple Story" was the result. I was fascinated and moved by
this very different and personal record of a subject with wide appeal, but as
she had not yet learned "voice over" she still needed improvements in
technique if she was to "go for A".
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