STILL LIFE 215 – SHADOW OF A BUS SHELTER (MONO + COLOUR)

 

 

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Hard winter sunlight producing shadows as it shines through a bus shelter.

The image has been rotated 90 degrees clockwise, so that the shelter’s supports are at the top of the frame, while the shadows of its structures are thrown out across the now vertical, rectangular slabs of a pale pavement.  The image has quite high contrast, and a thick black border has been added to provide a firm container that separates the strident patterns of the image from this blog’s plain white background.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 150mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset, adding a thick black border, and selectively restoring colour; rotated 90 degrees clockwise; Broad Quay, central Bristol; 15 Dec 2017.
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STILL LIFE 214 – BUS SHELTER, BACKLIT

 

 

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Bus shelter, shot against the light; underexposed.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm; 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Broad Quay, Bristol; 15 Dec 2017.
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STILL LIFE 213 – LOOKING AT CHAIRS 18

 

 

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Public seating, after rain.

The first post in this series on chairs, which contains context and an image, can be found here.  Subsequent posts are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  9  10  11 12 13 14 15 16 17 .  Each will open in a new window.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Bristol Waterside; 15 Dec 2017.

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STILL LIFE 212 – THREE CARS

 

 

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Three parked cars.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 320 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film preset; rotated; Bedminster, Bristol; 8 Nov 2017.
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STILL LIFE 211 – LOOKING AT CHAIRS 17 (MONO)

 

 

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Roadside seat, in the rain; Bath, Somerset; 4 Sept 2009.

Wet metal – hard and without warmth – about as inviting as selling cold fish, straight from the fridge, on a raw day.

The FATman Guide to the contents of this picture (don’t say you don’t get value for money on this blog … OK, so it doesn’t cost you anything … yes, well … there is that … 😦 …)  anyway, the left hand half of the shot is the bit of the seat that you actually sit on; and this curls up to upper right, which is the seat’s back, the bit you lean on; in the lower right corner is the end of another seat with the same design; and over on the right the pale areas seen through the black bars of the seats show the faint outlines of paving stones.

An image from my last days of using film.  Not long previously I’d bought a really good DSLR, one that I still use and treasure (the Nikon D700), but back then digital black and white just wasn’t doing it for me.  And so here I was, out in Bath with a top flight Olympus film camera and a wide lens, looking for grain and atmosphere.  Trouble was, I hadn’t yet realised that by far the best way of achieving good digital black and white is by starting with a full colour digital raw file.  So here is that long ago jpeg, given the recent benefit of SEP2 and a cyanotype tone.

The first post in this series on chairs, which contains context and an image, can be found here.  Subsequent posts are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  9  10  11 12 13 14 15 16 .  Each will open in a new window.

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

Technique: OM-4 Ti with 21mm Zuiko lens; Ilford HP5 black and white film, rated at 1600 ISO; commercially scanned; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Dynamic Smooth preset and adding a heavy cyanotype tone.

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STILL LIFE 210 – LOOKING AT CHAIRS 16 (MONO)

 

 

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Two chairs outside The Hole in the Wall pub, at Bristol’s Harbourside; 5 August 2016.

The two curving and tapering shapes advancing out towards the camera – apparently for a closer look at it – are the exception here.  Almost everything else is either coated by hard, precise, rectilinear patterns, or in shadow.

At last I’m starting to use the X-T1’s tilting LCD screen a little more.  Its already proved very useful in getting an extreme wide angle lens down to ground level, as in this shot.

And now, as I approached these chairs, it was much easier to get the camera down to their level by looking down into the screen – that is, much easier than it would be getting me down to their level to look at them horizontally though the viewfinder ->>> its an age thing 😦 !!!

And this pub’s strange name?  Its due to a spy hole in the pub’s wall, where centuries ago smugglers might keep a look out for customs and excise men – and any man might keep a look out for the press gangs that roved this busy port, snatching men for the harsh and dangerous life endured by sailors on the Royal Navy’s warships.

The first post in this series on chairs, which contains context and an image, can be found here.  Subsequent posts are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  9  10  11 12 13 14 15 .  Each will open in a new window.

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

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 96mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Silver Efex Pro2.

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PEOPLE 320 – GOING TO WORK 53

 

 

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The upper deck of a bus at the railway station.  Misty, almost abstract, inbound.

Earlier images from this series can be found here: 1, 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 40 41 42 43 44 45  46 47 48 49 50 51 52 . Each will open in a separate window.

Clicking onto this image will open a larger version in a separate window, and clicking onto that will further enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 6400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Temple Gate, central Bristol; 2 Feb 2018.

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STILL LIFE 195 – PHOTOS FROM A DRENCHED CAR: 2

 

 

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Photos taken through the streaming windows of my car during a torrential rainstorm – context and further images can be found here.

The upper image is very easy to decipher – assuming that you feel the need when faced with anything at all abstract, to know what you’re looking at – which most people do.  Its a car parked on the other side of the road with its headlights reflecting off the wet tarmac.

The lower image is a little more obscure.  Its a row of houses with – in the lower right hand corner – a woman walking under an umbrella.  Can you see her???

Click onto each image to open a larger version in a separate window.  You can click onto this larger image to enlarge it still further, but these images are very grainy.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 15 Jan 2018.
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ARCHIVE 339 – DRIVING IN TOWN

 

 

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Early morning Bristol, seen from the upper deck of a double-decker bus; 0650 15 Dec 2011.

This dates back to the time – not so very long ago – before my retirement.  In those days, come rain or shine, five days of every week saw me taking the 6.30am bus to work from the bottom of our road.  Many of our buses are huge double-deckers and, still being something of a little boy, my favourite seat is upstairs, at the front, where there is a wonderful view out ahead.

The little Canon fitted easily into the rucksack containing my lunchtime apple and sandwiches, and my brolly and security pass, etc., and up there in the front seat, looking down into this camera’s bright screen gave a good view of the road ahead, even early on dark December mornings.

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

Technique: Canon PowerShot G11; 3200 ISO.

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STILL LIFE 189 – PHOTOS FROM A DRENCHED CAR: 1

 

We had a worse than usual weather forecast recently – oodles of rain and wind, maybe with hail, thunder and snow thrown in too – oh joy!  And, leaving the house, I knew that I was going to have to wait around in the car for sometime at some point.  So I popped the TG-5 TOUGH camera into my pocket, just I case.  This little camera is distinctly useful – very handy indeed to carry around, extremely sturdy, waterproof and difficult to damage, and it shoots RAW and has image stabilisation.  The only real minuses for me are the lack of a viewfinder and the fact that the screen is fixed ie non-articulated – but you can’t have everything!  Reviews put it in a class of its own, out in front of other TOUGH cameras.

Anyway,  sure enough, as I sat waiting in my car later in the day, the winds shrieked and the heavens opened.  A deluge clattered across the car’s roof and writhed in torrents down the windows.  And suddenly, looking at those windows, I was encased in a clattering, swirling, flowing and very misty world.  Surreal patterns and images were flowing, forming and re-forming all around me.  I pulled out the TG-5 and started looking into its screen.

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

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The rainstorm, viewed through my car’s windscreen, just after using the wipers: a white car is parked in front of a row of Victorian houses built of honey-coloured Bath Stone.
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The same scene, taken before using the windscreen wipers.  The car is breaking up , becoming ever more abstract, as rainwater pours across the glass.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3,200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 15 Jan 2018.
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