Looking at – and seeing – the world
December 4, 2018 8 Comments
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Reflection in the river at Bristol Bridge.
Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 290mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom; rotated; Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
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November 9, 2018 9 Comments
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Table and seats outside a fast food café in Newquay, Cornwall; 11 Sept 2013.
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Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 135mm; 800 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2’s High Contrast Smooth preset.
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November 7, 2018 6 Comments
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The tide coming in, seen from the end of Western Pier at St Ives, Cornwall; 27 Sept 2012.
This is a picture of the shallow wavelets of the incoming tide moving over the clean sand in St Ives Harbour – it was taken at the same time as another(!) The Tide Coming In.
I like the dark purple-blues here, the black lines of the incoming wavelets, and golden brown of the submerged sand. The picture is starting to look more like a painting and, as always, I’m happy with that.
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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 400 ISO; manipulated in Capture NX2.
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October 14, 2018 8 Comments
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Interior of a rowing boat on The Cobb, at Lyme Regis, Dorset; 3 Nov 2004.
The sunlit seat of the boat makes a powerfully gleaming, rectilinear shape on the left, which contrasts with its curved shadow further right.
The boat’s scratched and battered floor provides an abstract background – with a small but darkly gleaming sprig of wet seaweed adding the sole touch of recogniseable reality. There is another rectangular shape on the right of the frame.
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Technique: Olympus OM-4 with 21mm Zuiko lens; Fuji Provia 400 colour slide rated at 1600 ISO; rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise.
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October 7, 2018 6 Comments
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The camouflaged upperparts of a Ray, lying on the bottom of its tank in Newquay Aquarium, Cornwall; 6 Nov 2007.
This picture is not completely sharp because it was taken looking down through moving water. But with this wonderful colouration and patterning, I don’t think that matters at all – in fact the whole hazy blueness of the image adds to its atmosphere.
Technique: F6 with 24mm-85mm Nikkor lens; Fuji Provia 400X colour slide, rated at 1600 ISO.
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September 16, 2018 8 Comments
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Something colourful, lying shattered, on the road
There is an earlier Modern Life post here: 1 .
The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 . Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 . Each will open in a separate window.
Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.
Technique: TG-5 at 57mm (equiv); 1,000 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 3 Sept 2018.
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September 8, 2018 6 Comments
I’m very much feeling my way forwards with this new Outer Suburbs project. There seems to be the distinct opportunity to become totally immersed in moody black and white, but I want to do some (at times very saturated) colour too. The project may be stretching me a bit, or at least making me think about things in different ways, which has to be a plus. One or two things about the actual photography are mentioned below.
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Early morning shower
Much of this photography looks at details, and for this reason I am at the moment favouring the flat and dull light of overcast days, days when the only shadows are those underneath parked cars. This is very different from my usual photography, where I often look for dramatic, directional lighting and then decide what to do with it. The TG-5’s metering works well with this type of overcast light shot, and I’m getting more used to using the non-articulated screen. Also this little camera remains completely out of sight on my trouser pocket, and is eminently easy to carry around. The 25mm-100mm (equivalent) zoom range works very well with the types of subject I’m looking at here – though I have to admit to missing my habitual 300mm at times!
Most of my current subjects are static; I’m not sure how well the TG-5 will handle movement – but this may simply reflect my lack of expertise with the camera.
Also (OMG!!!) I’m using Lightroom instead of Silver Efex Pro 2 for some of the black and white! That this would not long ago have been heresy probably reflects a certain snobbishness on my part, but if I can achieve something workable with LR, I’ll sometimes use it. I’m using LR in a slightly more radical / extreme way, and with the mono I’m conscious of time-saving, which may not be a good attitude to cultivate.
The first image in this series, with context, is here: 1 . Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 . Each 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.
Technique: TG-5 at 38mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 18 Aug 2018.
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August 22, 2018 4 Comments
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A little while back, I decided to bring down the curtain on a series of images that I was doing called Looking At Chairs. These were mainly more or less graphic studies – because, as with cars, chairs are often visually interesting, depending upon the directions from which they are viewed, in combination with the direction and nature of the light that is falling upon them. Some said that they’d like to see more such images and, weak-willed pawn that I am, I agreed to further posts, as and when such images surfaced. Here is one; one or two more are in the pipeline.
Silhouette of a chair on a dirty window.
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 18 19 20 21 22 . Each will open in a new window.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – recommended.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 212mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom; Welsh Back, central Bristol; 5 Aug 2016.
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August 21, 2018 4 Comments
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Tag on the wall of a bar.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 223mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Little King Street, central Bristol; 19 July 2016.
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August 17, 2018 9 Comments
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White van with stickers and grime? Has FATman finally lost it? And, if this is the case, how can he have lost what he’s never found in the first place?
Ah, an uncertain world, a world of questions >>> but this image does exactly what it says on the tin – its a grimy van (that’s the trouble with white), with two stickers.
And its been rotated, to give a it a different look, to push it a little towards some sort of graphic design. And, also, its almost black and white, apart from the stickers.
The black/dark areas at upper right and lower left balance each other to some extent, and the bodywork of the van introduces vertical elements ranging from black to almost pure white, which contrast with the curved elements at upper right. Finally, the stickers provide small, unique, focal points of bright colour.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in another window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 111mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; rotated; Little King Street, central Bristol; 19 July 2018.
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