ARCHIVE 492 – “HEAR THAT, FATman? YOU’RE NOT BEAUTIFUL UNLESS YOU’RE SLIM!”

 

 

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Someone of maybe my own years (and bulk?) gazes at a beauty stereotype in a slimming emporium’s window, in Penzance, Cornwall; 25 Sept 2012.

Here’s something that can get me reaching urgently for my dictionary of Anglo-Saxon profanity!  We think we’re free but we’re certainly not.  We want to fit in, we want respect and admiration – envy even – from our friends, neighbours and peers, and so we are prey to all the latest fashions, role models, celebrity recipes, diets, gimmicks, cars, buzzwords and other facile stereotypes.

Well, OK, this lady and I would very probably be healthier if we were  slimmer – but as to fulfilling an envied role model ->>> this blog’s called FATman Photos isn’t it??? …  not SLIMman Snapshots!!!

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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 400 ISO.

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ARCHIVE 486 – FAST FOOD OUTLET (MONO)

 

 

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Table and seats outside a fast food café in Newquay, Cornwall; 11 Sept 2013.

Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 135mm; 800 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2’s High Contrast Smooth preset.

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ARCHIVE 484 – HARBOUR SHALLOWS

 

 

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Sunlight twinkling in shallow water, Mevagissey harbour, Cornwall; 4 Oct 2006. 

A bright sunny morning, and we walked down to Mevagissey’s harbour.  The tide was out, and there were shallows above the dark rocks of the harbour’s floor.  The sun shone brightly, and as the shallow water was pulled this way and that by wavelets and currents, the bright reflections skittered around ceaselessly and fast – and I needed a high shutter speed to capture a frozen moment of this transient beauty.

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Technique: F6 with 80-200 Nikkor lens; Fuji Provia 400 colour slide film, rated at 1600 ISO.

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ARCHIVE 477 – REFLECTION

 

 

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Small boat moored in Mevagissey harbour, Cornwall, on a still morning; 24 Oct 2012.

There are four sets of lines here.  First, those of the reflection, which those on the right side of the boat (as we see it) seem to swing away from – maybe these two sets of lines are diverging from a common source. 

Then, left of the boat’s sharp bow, the lines on the boat’s side are more or less horizontal, and divided from the others by the bow. 

Finally, the mooring ropes and the boat’s bow produce a near vertical trend at sharp angles to everything else.

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Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 3200 ISO.

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STILL LIFE 252 – MANNEQUIN

 

 

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Using a long telephoto to look closely into a Truro shop window.

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Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; Truro, Cornwall; 12 Apr 2016.
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ARCHIVE 464 – MOORING LINES ON A BEACH

 

 

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Mooring lines on the beach in St Ives harbour, Cornwall;  27 Apr 2006.

This picture was  taken looking down onto the beach from West Pier.  It might look good in mono, but I think that the subtle colours of the sand and the seawater add something to this Minimalist shot.

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Technique: Leica Minilux; Fuji Provia 400 colour slide; rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

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ARCHIVE 452 – GREY SEAL, ST IVES

 

 

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Grey Seal off the end of Smeatons Pier, St Ives, Cornwall; 21 Sept 2016.

We’ve just spent a few days in Hayle, down near the southwestern tip of Cornwall – and the English weather, always an uncertainty, has been good to us.  When in this part of the world, a visit to beautiful St Ives is always a treat, and especially so on a bright sunny day with the tide in – the colours and light are simply out of this world – maybe because St Ives is surrounded on two or three sides by the bright sea.

Good things about this image?  Well, it was the first time my wife had seen this creature in the wild, which was a huge plus.  We’ve never seen seals there before, and the newly erected warnings about feeding them may mean that, like gulls, crows, Foxes and many others, these denizens of wild coasts have also developed a liking for Man’s tasty titbits.  Certainly an incoming fishing boat threw him some welcome morsels, which were hastily gobbled up – but maybe a Cornish pasty might send him sinking down to the bottom!

And also, just look at the colour of that seawater – for someone brought up along the muddy shores of the Bristol Channel, these clear, emerald waters are beautiful beyond belief.

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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO.

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ARCHIVE 451 – COAST AT PORTHLEVEN (MONO + COLOUR)

 

 

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The beach at Porthleven, Cornwall; 18 Oct 2016.

I tried this image in straight black and white, but the subtle colour of the beach sand and the vast shore defences adds something.  The mist and sea spray also help.

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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Fine Art High Key preset and selectively restoring colour.

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ARCHIVE 446 – SEASCAPE

 

 

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Study in blue – looking out to sea from Lizard Point, Cornwall; 19 Oct 2016.

Composition: a Minimalist image, take away the fluffy cloudlets and there’s really not much here, although it might still (just) work sans nuages.  But I like these little clouds – their shapes, fluffiness and colour – and the way they are at once separate from the dense, dark overcast – their relationship to this overcast is rather like that of little children skipping along beside their humourless, stolid, heavily pacing parents.  There is also that thin, linear break in the parental overcast just above these cloudlets – is it the trace of a smile? – perhaps their parents are not so humourless after all …

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujifilm lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom.

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ARCHIVE 438 – YOUNG GULL, YAWNING

 

 

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Gull yawning; St Ives, Cornwall; 20 Oct 2016.

This is most probably a Herring Gull.  The brown speckling on its plumage shows it to be a young bird, probably now just about to enter its first winter – it hatched from its egg this summer.

It was perched on the wall of the West Pier at St Ives, “loafing” as birdwatchers say.  Which means that it had had some food, that it wasn’t desperately hungry, so that it was just hanging around – while still no doubt keeping an eye out for any chance meal that might present itself.

I leant against the wall and, very gradually, inched my way towards it, keeping silent, compact and low.  It shuffled a little, it wasn’t quite sure about me (sensible bird!), but then it relaxed, and I started gradually capturing images.  I could have wished that the D800’s shutter was quieter but, on the plus side, its reliable autofocus did its usual excellent job, and I was able to concentrate on the images, rather than on whether they were sharp or not.

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Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 400 ISO.

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