Looking at – and seeing – the world
August 4, 2020 2 Comments
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There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 . Each will open in a separate window.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 28 July 2020.
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August 1, 2020 4 Comments
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One of my shirts, hanging up to dry; 20 July 2013.
The room in which FATman Photos undergoes its awful gestation faces due east and is regularly seared by the blazing light of the rising sun – and this has particularly been the case during our current heatwave. And I’m an early morning person, usually tapping away in here just when the solar assault is at its peak. Seeing my PC’s monitor gets difficult, and so I move various things around the room, trying to block both the sunlight and its reflections off the room’s pale walls.
Yesterday a rack of drying washing did the job, keeping the screen nicely visible. And as the morning progressed and I walked back and fore past these drying clothes, ferrying in cold drinks to counteract the heat, this shirt kept catching my eye – until at last I stopped and had a good, long look at it. What was there? Well, first, it was back lit and that’s always a nice thing. And then there was this dark seam, looking like a road that momentarily disappears as it climbs a hill, before re-emerging on the summit. And there were pale, back lit stripes going all over the place.
I’ve just acquired a super-light tripod and ballhead, and thought to try it out. It worked well – its certainly something to carry around, quite compact and very portable – whereas my other tripod is built like a tank and getting quite awkward to lift, let alone carry around! And I moved the clothes drier out of the sun’s harsh rays, to get a softer lighting effect.
And processing? I immediately visualised something light and airy, something reflecting the soft backlighting – so trending towards higher key, rather than dense and gloomy.
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Technique: tripod-mounted D800 with 105mm Nikkor lens; 200 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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July 25, 2020 13 Comments
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Windblown poppy; Newquay, Cornwall; 11 Sept 2013.
I like Newquay. It is cheap, tatty and unpretentious, and there are so many establishments offering Full English Breakfasts that I could probably stay there for a whole month and eat in a different one each day. That said, I have the strong suspicion that most of these repasts would be of the pallid and rather tasteless variety but, still, anywhere with this number of breakfasts on offer can’t be all bad.
And, with its famous Fistral Beach facing out into the Atlantic’s rollers, this little town is a mecca for UK surfers – as well as being the pub, nightclub and “booze / drug yourself silly” capital of the west for youngsters intent upon a good time that they may not remember too much about.
We had a couple of dry days on our short break, but the westerly wind blew throughout and the great white waves smashed into the cliffs and headlands – not that we are in any way surfers, mind! For a start I can’t swim, and neither of us are at all into such energetic activities.
There was a ragged flowerbed in front of some kind of religious building sandwiched in between the Houses Of Hedonism along the main drag, and the gusting westerly was sending the flowers in all directions. The waving poppies stood out from the rest, and a quarter of a second at F29 gave this pale and Impressionistic result.
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Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 400 ISO.
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July 24, 2020 15 Comments
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The prow of a small boat in Mevagissey harbour, in Cornwall, on a still morning; 24 Oct 2012.
I think this must be the most perfect reflection photo I’ve ever taken. Conditions were ideal – an overcast morning with barely a whiff of breeze. This boat was moored at the quay, and the rusting chain is its mooring line.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 240mm; 5000 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2.
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July 12, 2020 6 Comments
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Crumpled table cloth in the Cottage Cafe, Burnham-On-Sea, Somerset; 29 Aug 2011.
Whenever we go down to Burnham we never miss visiting the Cottage Cafe, which continues to serve up good food. This time, as we were demolishing toasted teacakes and a pot of tea, my eyes were drawn to window light flowing down over a discarded table cloth – and the Nikkor telezoom, that most useful of lenses, reached out and got the image.
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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 3200 ISO.
UPDATE: now, nine years later, the Cottage Cafe has long since closed down – what a loss! 😦
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July 8, 2020 8 Comments
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Looking through a parked car’s dew-soaked windscreen towards the rectangular silhouette of the rear view mirror; the rising sun provides backlighting and purple lens flare.
There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 . Each 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 100mm (equiv); 250 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 07 profile; south Bristol; 22 Apr 2020.
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July 3, 2020 8 Comments
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The corner of a block, flanked by security shutters.
Other images in the Bristol Street Scenes series are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 . Searching on the “street” tag (below here) will also find these posts.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – highly recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; Bedminster, south Bristol; 21 Jan 2020.
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June 26, 2020 4 Comments
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Walking in the lockdown, and photographing the long shadows thrown across a main road by the rising sun. A shadow photographer – in both senses of the phrase – caught up in a world of stark diagonals.
There are three types of lines here. Those running from lower right towards upper left are the shadows of roadside trees and utility poles. The strong black and white lines running up from the lower middle of the frame towards the top right corner are the road’s pale kerb and gutter and, between the two, the black shadow of the kerb on the gutter. And finally there are the road markings, a thin, dashed white line along the middle of the road at upper left, and other dashed lines, at a bus stop, towards upper right.
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 65mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Antique Plate 1 preset; south Bristol; 22 June 2020.
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June 19, 2020 7 Comments
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Snow falling in our back garden; Bristol; 5 Jan 2010.
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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 1600 ISO; converted to mono in Alien Skin’s Exposure 2, and given the look of Fuji Neopan 1600 black and white film.
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June 16, 2020 10 Comments
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Facade inside Bristol’s Cabot Circus; 24 Apr 2013.
This is Bristol’s newest shopping centre, set in the large Broadmead shopping area. I’m not into shopping too much but my wife knows her way around (and woe betide the shop that tangles with her!), but neither of us gets too excited by Cabot Circus.
Like the Cribbs Causeway mall on the city’s northern outskirts, this “inner city mall” has too many designer shops and chains, whereas we’d rather visit lots of interesting little shops, each with their own personality and interest – I remember shopping in York as a much more enjoyable and interesting experience.
Old Fogey? Probably, but who really cares about the labels others bestow? And anyway its always good to have aspirations.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equiv); 200 ISO.
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