ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 40

 

 

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Old tyres at Tyning’s Gate Barns, southeast of Shipham, on the Mendip Hills; 17 Oct 2004.  This is a picture with very little colour, and hence the colour version is good.  But I’ve chosen the mono version as Silver Efex Pro makes it look rougher and more contrasty, which suits the subject.

And this is a photo from quite long ago – when I was wedded to hauling a really quite weighty 300mm telephoto and tripod around, and to using a colour slide film – Fuji Velvia 50 – that was a must for all “serious” photographers.  And it wasn’t until I got into Nikon film cameras, notably the F6, a little later, and then bought the absolutely wonderful 70-300 Nikkor zoom ( still an absolutely favourite lens, in later incarnations, right up to the present day), that photography suddenly became a far less weighty and more mobile and versatile, image-stabilised affair.  I still used Velvia 50 sometimes but then – another revolution – got into other emulsions like Fuji Provia 400X, which could be push-processed to 3200 ISO and more, and also Agfa Scala black and white slide film. 

Sitting here now, with the Z 6, X-T2 and TG-5 – and Capture NX2 (still useful!), Silver Efex Pro 2 and Color Efex Pro 4,  and of course Lightroom –  all of that film photography seems so long ago.  And, having shot film and used wet darkrooms since the late 1950s, I feel so very fortunate now to still be photographing during the time when the advent of digital has given photography so much more creative potential.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: OM-4 with 300mm Zuiko lens; tripod; Fuji Velvia 50 colour slide film; rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise; Silver Efex Pro.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 39 – WHITE GLOVE

 

 

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Chaos, close in, with a wide angle lens: raindrops on the bonnet, blown highlights, saturated colours and a cavalier disregard for the horizontal.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 36mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Color Efex Pro 4; Capture NX2; outside Hart’s Bakery, Temple Meads, Bristol; 28 Apr 2017.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 38 – RUSH HOUR (MONO)

 

 

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Morning rush hour:  alone amongst a torrent of temporarily stationary metal.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Cool Tones 2 preset, giving the image the look of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 black and white film, and adding a strong selenium tone; Victoria Street, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 37 – MISTY MORNING

 

 

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Misty early morning in the street, the people sleeping and the cars silent, dark and still >>> LOL! which is a very poor attempt at Dylan Thomas!!!  What about something from The Master himself then, from Under Milk Wood, very certainly one of my most favourite books in this whole world, and an endless source of both awe and inspiration:

Time passes.  Listen.  Time passes.

Come closer now.

Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep and silent black, bandaged night.

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Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 80mm (equiv); 6400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 30 Nov 2020.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 36

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 12 profile; south Bristol; 13 Oct 2020.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 35 – CAR DOOR

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Bristol harbourside; 14 July 2016.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 34 – MOMENTS OF UNEASE

 

 

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Driving eastwards on Hearty Moor on the Somerset Levels, driving towards the rising sun.  A farmer in a huge 4×4 stopped, looked down at my little car and me, and announced that his cows were on their way down the road towards me, but “just pull over to the side and you’ll be fine!”.

Well, a narrow – in fact single track – road, there was nowhere else to go.  And so to really large, living things moving slowly down the road past me, to huge faces brushing up against the car windows and, catching sight of me within, shying away in panic; and in one unnerving instance, one of their significant bulks trying to squeeze through the little gap between the car and the hedge …

Well, you say, they were only cows, but I have two takes on this.

First, and on the positive side, I used to take paying guests on safari in Kenya, and often used to stop my vehicle in front of an advancing column of elephants, telling everyone to be very quiet and to keep still, and to let the elephants bear down upon us and flow around the vehicle like water around an island in a stream – once, one took even some greenery that had become entangled in our front bumper and ate it.   These were truly wonderful experiences, the great beasts moving slowly past us, the noises, the smells – it was said that an elephant can smell each individual occupant of a vehicle and remember the smell too!  BUT I was younger and less sensible then >>> although my hand was always on the vehicle’s ignition key, and I was in a larger, safari vehicle rather than my little car!  And having been studied for many years, the elephants of Amboseli Game Reserve were very used to people.  Although, even then, getting too near a big bull was really not a good idea.

But second, on the negative side – and much nearer home too – a cow broke out of its field near Bristol a few years back, panicked and ran off down the road.  And when confronted by a small car like mine, it ran up over the bonnet and roof in its panic, killing the driver.  And so to moments of unease on Hearty Moor, though still managing to fire off a few frames.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-25 Fujinon lens at 36mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Provia/Standard profile; Hearty Moor, east of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels; 24 May 2019.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 33 – MAIN ROAD, DAWN (MONO)

 

 

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Driving at dawn, in autumn: bare trees, mist, darkness and – rather unsettlingly – a fat, disheveled old man, with far more hair than is immediately apparent, photographing your passing car …

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 03 profile; south Bristol; 22 Nov 2020.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 32 – CAR PARK (MONO + COLOUR)

 

 

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Looking up at Trenchard Street Car Park in central Bristol; 16 Sept 2016.

Tilted (at capture) to produce a strong diagonal, a dynamic that I prefer to leaving things staidly horizontal.  Then processed to give an almost pure black and white look – black and white,  two blank tones that reveal no detail.   While keeping in mind that, viewed against the pure white background of my blog, the white areas would show no border to the image, so that the image can be viewed as four separate images, juxtaposed.  Restoration of the rear lights’ colour provides two small focal points.

I suppose that what I’m aiming at, what I like to think, is that such an image becomes less a representation of reality, and more a piece of design.  Such an attitude may seem pretentious, but it does represent to some extent “where I am” with regard to images.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, including selective restoration of colour.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 31 – STELLA AND EUGENE SET THEIR HEARTS ON THE NICE NEW CAR OUTSIDE THE SHOP WINDOW (MONO)

 

 

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I’m trying to do different things with these Looking at Cars posts and, well, here is something different – seen while looking across Park Street, in central Bristol, on 24 Apr 2013.

A reversal of reality: the inhabitants of shop windows are now real people, looking into the shop window displays of our world and playing out their materialistic tendencies.  When reality reverses, the dummies go shopping, right?  I can only hope that, when they display me on their mantelpiece, it will be with due sensitivity and prominence, and showing my best profile too …

When I’m processing images and start to see something going right, something promising emerging in front of me, I often start to hum, whistle and even sing (try not to imagine the last of these, especially if you’re under age or have just eaten).  The volume of my ravings can increase as what I’m working on really comes together, and my wife has mentioned strange noises emanating from the FATman Photos Launch Pad … and you thought you were weird … well that makes two of us then …

Anyway, when working on this, I found myself continually humming and singing snatches from Paul Simon’s “Rene and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war”, and maybe that’s who I see these two as being.  I’ve called them Stella and Eugene because that occurred to me earlier, and I can really see him as a Eugene, but perhaps they’re really Rene and Georgette.

The tone and contrast have been added to create more of an unreal atmosphere.  I had thought about removing the small bright area near the top left corner but, because I wanted the whole diameter of the big car’s wheel, and room to spare each side, this small, pale rectangle helps balance the composition.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equiv); 400 ISO; converted to mono and toned in Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Contrast Harsh preset.

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