Looking at – and seeing – the world
November 3, 2019 13 Comments
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Early morning supermarket. The sign is electric. And so is the fence. Well, this is south Bristol …
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Technique: TG-5 at 80mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spotmetering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 24 Oct 2019.
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October 19, 2019 7 Comments
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Due to my carelessness, this picture is most probably not sharp. Thinking of other things (Full English Breakfasts … probably …) I loosed off at 1/13th second when using a 100mm equivalent telephoto >>> and later could only hope that the camera image stabilisation would make it all right. Anyway, whether said stabilisation has done the job or not, this is my only shot of the scene and here it is!
So >>> walking beside a blaring main road and glancing eastwards, I liked the contrasts between the first faint pinks of the sunrise and the various colours of the house lights. The Outer Suburbs were awake and preparing to take on whatever the day might throw at them!
Other images in this Early Morning series – from both rural and urban settings, and from Kenya too – are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 .
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 3 Oct 2019.
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October 19, 2019 22 Comments
1: Weston’s Old Pier, falling to pieces day by day; In the background, on the far side of the Bristol Channel, is the coast of south Wales; and at upper left the island of Flat Holm, with its prominent lighthouse. This picture is best viewed enlarged – click onto it to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended. There is another recent picture of Flat Holm here.
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This is a sad story, and one that revolves surely around money, The Great God Cash. In my youth, there were two working piers at Weston-super-Mare, the larger and more modern one – the Grand Pier – on the main part of the seafront that all visitors see, and a smaller and older one – the Old Pier (aka Birnbeck Pier) – further away to the north. When I was a boy, Birnbeck was a fully working pier, with an amusement arcade and a RNLI lifeboat station (the slipway of which can be seen in the left forefront of the pier’s buildings), and Campbells pleasure steamers used to call in here, taking day trippers on voyages around the Bristol Channel and the coast of south Wales. This pier was built in Victorian times and is apparently unique in linking a small island to the mainland, whereas most piers just reach out into the sea.
But the Old Pier suffered from competition with the larger and more modern Grand Pier, while also being affected by the decrease in popularity that has affected most of Britain seaside holiday towns – the heyday of the seaside family holiday has long gone, and the Old Pier is now in a totally ruinous state.
It has been on national At Risk architectural registers for sometime and regeneration plans have been made, but so far nothing has been done. The Local Authority has now ordered the owners to repair the structure, but the case in contested – leaving the structure to continue decaying, to continue simply falling apart.
Technique (all images): Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens; 1600 or 3200 ISO and high shutter speeds, to counteract buffeting by the wind; in-camera processing of raw files using the Graphite profile, with further processing in Lightroom in some cases; the Old Pier, seen from Upper Kewstoke Road, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; 4 Oct 2019.
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2: The decaying decking on the main part of the pier – a death trap! – with a narrow corridor of maintained decking, for access by service personnel, between the white railings on the left.
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3: The whole site now cordoned off behind safety barriers.
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4: The partially collapsed North Landing Pier, at which pleasure steamers used to call for day trippers.
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October 16, 2019 9 Comments
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Sunrise glances across a trim front garden in the outer suburbs. The baby bushes, all in a row, are lit by its welcome radiance.
And there is a little fence too which, while hopefully not bereft of any hint of the ornamental, is basically the symbolic barrier between two privately owned residences. The fence casts a long shadow, as well it might in this materialistic world.
There are earlier Modern Housing posts here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . Each will open in a separate window.
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Technique: TG-5 at 49mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 03 profile; south Bristol; 18 Sept 2019.
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October 10, 2019 8 Comments
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Front gardens >>> tasteful modern Minimalism perhaps >>> or yet another example of the ongoing subjugation of All Things Green to convenience and The Age of the Car?
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 250 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 19 Aug 2019.
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October 9, 2019 16 Comments
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Parked, claustrophobically; hemmed in by the blank, looming masses of the built environment, within which – we can only hope – warm domesticity universally prevails.
There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 . Each will open in a separate window.
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 320 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 22 Aug 2019.
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October 8, 2019 6 Comments
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In hardly the most visually pleasing of surroundings, a low angle beam of autumn sunlight still manages to conjure a moment of magic as it sneaks in between the scarred walls of old garages and illuminates the single natural and visually appealing thing there.
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 400 ISO; spotmetering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 17 Sept 2019.
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October 6, 2019 9 Comments
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The wonderful exterior colour of the King William Ale House, a favourite watering hole of mine in Bristol city centre. An old pub, with good beer and comfortable seating – just the place for quiet afternoons of decadent imbibing and good conversation by those of us in the retired classes.
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Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; rotation; Capture NX2; King William Avenue, Bristol city centre; 1 Oct 2019.
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September 24, 2019 18 Comments
1: loved the plants! What do they add – patina / character / a touch of Life???
Walking down to the city centre on a sunny morning. Walking northwards, and so keeping to the right hand side of the roaring main road to watch the glare of the low angle sunlight striking the buildings opposite and also, where the view to the east is uninterrupted, to watch the glare interacting with the ground around my feet.
And so to a series of random photos: little scenes seen during a walk down to the city … to buy a loaf of (very special and simple) bread as it happens …
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Technique: TG-5; Lightroom; south Bristol; 14 Sept 2019.
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2: part-shaded by buildings and trees on the opposite side of the road
3: the roof of a sports pavilion, with floodlights and a street light
4: loved the gulls!
5: bridge with red railings, and a white line to keep walkers safe from cyclists …
6: roadside shadows
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September 11, 2019 5 Comments
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Morning sunlight casting shadows across a façade.
There is an earlier abstract image from Little King Street here: 1 .
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Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid v2 profile; Little King Street, central Bristol; 10 May 2019.
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