Looking at – and seeing – the world
July 18, 2021 Leave a comment
After a cold night, still icy in the shadows.
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Technique: TG-5 at 70mm (equiv); 160 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; Hart’s Bakery, Temple Meads, Bristol; 8 Nov 2017.
July 14, 2021 Leave a comment
Going to work. The bike beats the jams but he’s jammed in – anonymous, wary, vulnerable, claustrophobically picking his way between shifting walls of gleaming metal and glass; lungs poisoned by fumes, ears blasted by engines and horns, and always the thought that he’ll fare worst in any tussle with these mechanised beings.
Oh come, you’ll say, mechanised beings? – each has a human driver! Well, the way things are going, that will not be true for too much longer – so, thinking of the Terminator films – is this Rise Of The Machines???
Technique: this is tight crop, aimed at accentuating how the cyclist is being hemmed in, to accentuate how the “mobile metal monsters” are queuing up to squeeze closely past him. And these feelings of claustrophobia are (hopefully!) added to by cropping The Man Himself; and especially so his eyes, which at once renders him anonymous and unknown; leaving only his mouth, which looks rather taut, stressed and ready for the worst.
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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Capture NX2; Baldwin Street, central Bristol; 19 July 2016.
July 6, 2021 Leave a comment
She is at the wheel – and on wheels too – comfortably cocooned in metal, plastics and glass, all powered up and ready to go.
But glancing around, perhaps for some human contact, for some respite from this purely blank, mechanically mobile world, the view outside – as inside – is only of endless artificiality, only of yet more, transient cocoons, passing on anonymously by.
Click onto the image twice to enlarge it – recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in APS-C format to give 450mm; 6400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Dramatic profile; Bristol city centre; 29 Nov 2019.
June 21, 2021 2 Comments
Using a long telephoto close in to pick out details, to look at just parts of the cars; and then reducing both Texture and Clarity in Lightroom to unnaturally smooth the metallic surfaces. Using long telephotos at close range can have creative potential over a wide range of subjects/genres.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid v2 profile; beside Temple Meads railway station, in central Bristol; 10 May 2019.
June 15, 2021 6 Comments
Something from the Going to Work series, which seems a long time ago now:
He’s giving me a rather fixed stare. I’m glad we weren’t sharing the back seat ……..
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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 800 ISO; morning rush hour, Baldwin Street, central Bristol; 5 Aug 2016.
May 30, 2021 6 Comments
Taking her chance amongst the traffic surging along Queens Road, on the edge of Bristol’s up market Clifton suburb.
The converging cars remind me of a wolf or shark pack closing in upon her – especially the sharp and down-curved “snout” of the car at upper right.
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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 6400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Dynamic Smooth preset; 2 Dec 2016.
May 23, 2021 10 Comments
Photo taken through the streaming windows of my car during a torrential rainstorm.
The image is 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. The car is parked on the other side of the road with its headlights reflecting off the wet tarmac.
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 15 Jan 2018.
May 17, 2021 2 Comments
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Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 04 profile; south Bristol; 6 Feb 2021.
April 19, 2021 4 Comments
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Morning commute on the Somerset Levels: high speeds down narrow lanes.
Click onto image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in APS-C format at 450mm; in-camera processing of raw file, starting at the Graphite profile; further processing of the jpeg in Lightroom; Totney Drove, on Tadham Moor, on the Somerset Levels southwest of Wedmore; 9 Sept 2019.
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April 12, 2021 2 Comments
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Stairs in a city centre car park: stark, utilitarian, unimaginative – the triumph of functionality and “the figure at the bottom of the spreadsheet” over any nod towards elegance or visual appeal.
Click onto the images above to open a larger versions in separate windows – recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX (= APS-C) format to give 450mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid v2 profile; beside Redcliffe Way, in central Bristol; 10 May 2019.
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