An Afternoon With Tom Hanks

For all that he is renowned, I have never felt the urge to watch any particular Tom Hanks film except The Streets of Philadelphia which was delicately politicised and personally meaningful. I have not seen Big or Forrest Gump and, until this afternoon, when I happened to become embroiled with Sky Movies' Tom Hanks season, I had seen neither Splash nor Castaway. Although my viewing was interrupted, I saw most of both today. Both are quite engaging but neither made me more of a Tom Hanks fan.

The weather was not as promising as I had hoped but it did not actually rain. We went to Bursledon Brickworks for our third visit of the year and today's WWII themed open day. It was the busiest event we have seen there and I enjoyed the exhibits as shown now on my photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/johnoram . I left though with an unexpectedly heavy heart and a lesson learned. I had gone to great lengths to exclude people from or minimise their effect upon my photographs. I shot appropriate subjects in sepia and formed one potentially brilliant composition as we were leaving. I became so preoccupied with the background - and making sure people were not in it - that I failed to observe my own knuckles reflected in the mirror I was using as part of the shot. I have been able to publish only a heavily cropped version of what I intended. The day ended in Southampton with a more successful shot of a prominent building.

Capital House, Southampton