Looking at – and seeing – the world
February 7, 2020 21 Comments
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Sub-Saharan Africa’s love affair with bright colour: Luo woman on a farm near Akala, in western Kenya; April 1979.
She is sitting in front of the wooden door of a mud hut with a thatched roof.
Technique: OM-1 with 50mm Zuiko lens; Agfa CT18 colour slide, rated at 64 ISO to further saturate colour.
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August 20, 2019 10 Comments
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A couple of years back, I was doing a lot of early morning visits to Bristol city centre, and glorying in the abilities, light weight and compactness of my second mirrorless camera, the Fujifilm X-T2 (my first being the X-T1). Having tramped the early streets for several hours, I would at last fetch at some or other eatery, and flop down to a second breakfast – which was usually a Full English.
One of the eateries I frequented was Browns: the food is excellent and, while not inexpensive, the Full English with a pot of tea (together with a tea strainer!) has a definite sense of occasion and ceremony about it – which I’ve tried to convey in A Distinctly Civilised Full English, here . Even though I say so myself, if you’re anything like interested in food, this post might be worth a look.
And while waiting for the food to arrive, I took many pictures of the restaurant’s tables and beautiful yellow chairs, which were side lit by large windows looking out onto the street. Some of these images have already been posted – search for Browns in the tags shown along the bottom of this post – but here is another that I came across recently. Mostly low key, its about the way the light coming in from the street illuminates the various objects in the frame, notably the yellow chair. I hope you like it.
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-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 212mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Provia/Standard profile; Browns restaurant, Bristol; 24 Feb 2017.
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July 31, 2019 10 Comments
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Table and chair, with daffodils, in the William Bray, a restaurant and bar in the village of Shere, Surrey; 24 Mar 2012.
This restaurant is on different levels, and I was able to get up onto one floor and look down on the one below. The wonderful lines and forms made the by the chairs, tables and floorboards – and the colourful flowers – caught my eye, and I took several photos, none of which were “THE ONE!”, to work on later. With all these lines and textures, I knew that there was something there – and that it was screaming out for mono conversion, with the plant’s colours restored.
It took quite a time to find this crop, but it has what I searched for – the lines and textures, the great contrast between the wooden and metallic structures, and the great contrast between the daffodil’s leaves and flowers and everything else.
Technique: D700 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 24mm; 6400 ISO; converted to mono and manipulated in Silver Efex Pro 2, and then manipulated further in Nikon’s Capture NX2.
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May 27, 2019 11 Comments
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Table and chair, the offer of fashionable alfresco dining on a city street but – at a rather cool and early hour – with no takers.
The flowers added a wonderful splash of colour, and selective restoration of that colour in black and white immediately came to mind.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 70mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid V2 picture control; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Soft Sepia preset, and then selectively restoring colour and adding a slight pale vignette; Corn Street, central Bristol; 10 May 2019.
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September 30, 2018 6 Comments
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The backs of terraced houses in Bedminster, south Bristol: garden chairs on an impromptu and rather stark “patio” that is sandwiched between a garage door and a wired security gate – garden chairs??? – relics of this summer’s record breaking heatwave, no doubt.
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 23 24 25 . 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: TG-5 at 57mm (equiv); 500 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Film Noir 2 preset; Bedminster, south Bristol; 12 Sept 2018.
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September 22, 2018 4 Comments
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Seat beside a children’s playground – and a parent, perhaps, rolling their own while their child played.
There are earlier Modern Life posts here: 1 2 .
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 12 13 . 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 enlarge it yet again – recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 640 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 22 Aug 2018.
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September 3, 2018 8 Comments
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Armchair with cushion.
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 23 24 . 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-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; Lightroom; flipped, rotated; Cosy Club, Corn Street, Bristol; 5 Aug 2016.
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August 23, 2018 9 Comments
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Table and chairs, for smokers and sun-worshippers, on the pavement outside a Bristol pub.
The backdrop, which considerably simplifies the picture, is some kind of hanging fabric, through which traces of words and patterns can faintly be seen. In many instances, visual simplification is good – as enshrined in the KISS principle, which I think originated with press photographers, decades ago: KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid!
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 23 . Each will open in a new window.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Victoria Street, central Bristol; 16 Sept 2016.
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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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June 12, 2018 7 Comments
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This is the final post of Looking at Chairs – hope you’ve enjoyed the series.
So, lastly, two chairs, back to back, beside a window.
Sitting in Browns, waiting for the third breakfast of a long morning’s photography – a repast which might have equated to what we Brits call Elevenses … except that it was only just after 10am …
In Browns, I always sit at any table that looks across the room towards the windows onto the street, because these provide good cross- and backlighting.
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 . 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 further enlarge it.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom; Browns Restaurant, Bristol; 19 May 2017.
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