Looking at – and seeing – the world
December 15, 2020 4 Comments
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Bottle of mixer, waiting on the kitchen worktop for dilution by simply unconscionable amounts of gin.
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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 08 profile; in the kitchen; 9 Sept 2020.
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December 6, 2020 14 Comments
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As you may be aware, The FATman is an inveterate imbiber of top quality Belgian beer. I have tasted many Belgian brews, but for some years now have (delightedly and enthusiastically!) standardised on Duvel, which is an absolutely glorious Belgian strong blond ale – with taste, after-taste, texture and … 8.5% alcohol – so, not something you pour down your throat with gay abandon, unless you have a desire to become senseless and horizontal quite speedily.
Shown above, here is golden Duvel in its own, large, tulip-shaped glass, which has been specifically designed to contain this beer’s often towering white head. Its can be unwise to whip the tops off bottles of Belgian beers as they will often enthusiastically come out to meet you, to say hello, and to end up all over your clothes and the floor. And Duvel is absolutely no exception, caution is needed and, after the bottle’s top is off, then the correct pouring angle is needed – if only to avoid my wife’s comments when I emerge from an accident with perhaps one centimetre of golden ale in the bottom of one of these huge glasses – and the rest filled with bright white foam …
Since 1871, Duvel has been made by the Moortgat Brewery in Puurs – and this town has now achieved even more fame by also containing the Pfizer lab that has started producing vast amounts of covid19 vaccine.
And if all this were not enough, Moortgat Brewery now also produces the simply sublime Duvel Tripel Hop Citra, which is stronger (9.5%) and even more delicious!
I’m being spoilt: both of these wonderful beers are available in our local supermarket >>> but whether this will continue after the current acrimonious Brexit trade talks is anyone’s guess!
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Technique: TG-5 at 38mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Natural profile; my favourite armchair; 18 Sept 2020.
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June 25, 2020 9 Comments
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Savoy cabbage with backlighting; 29 Mar 2009.
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Technique: F6 with 105mm Nikkor lens; tripod; Fuji Velvia 100 colour slide film, rated at 125 ISO to further saturate the colours.
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May 6, 2020 8 Comments
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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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March 31, 2020 19 Comments
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Breakfast plonked down on top of various urgent and often tea-stained papers, that are but the tip of the iceberg of great piles of paper and other rubbish that litter what I laughingly call my “desk”. A hot breakfast, something to keep the cold out – the near zero temperatures and strong winds of the early morning – as I pound the streets of the Outer Suburbs. Streets which are now, in these locked down, virus-ridden times, mainly quiet and almost devoid of other walkers, almost all of whom – thank goodness! – are very much into social distancing.
So, what is here? Well, piping hot cod and chorizo fishcakes and cooked tomatoes, along with grapes, and slices of orange, apple and melon. And all given more bite by pickled garlic, and a gert great dollop of (meaning, in rather more refined circles, “quite a lot of”…) Patak’s Lime Pickle. Oh yes, and all washed down with a mug of hot, strong tea – tea strong enough to stand the spoon up in! >>> tea that leaves a dry film on your teeth! >>> tea that puts hairs on your vest! >>> that sort of tea!!!
When I’ve eaten one of these breakfasts, cats follow me down the streets. But that’s OK, I like cats.
Oh and the mug, yes, Homer Simpson, very much a role model.
An earlier breakfast post is here: 1 .
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Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Natural profile; south Bristol; 28 Mar 2020.
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March 28, 2020 4 Comments
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Carafe and glass on a wooden table top: a cool drink before the food arrives.
More images from Browns restaurant can be found by clicking onto the Browns tag below – recommended.
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Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 36mm (equiv); 800 ISO; centre-weighted average metering; Lightroom, using the Camera Astia/Soft profile; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Spectrum Inverse preset and adding a moderate Coffee tone; Capture NX2; Browns restaurant, central Bristol; 28 Apr 2017.
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March 26, 2020 16 Comments
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A soft drink at lunch: there are earlier versions here: 1 2 .
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 19 Feb 2020.
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March 17, 2020 14 Comments
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Drinks on the table, and now we await the food. Two drinks, soda water with ice and lemon for the more sensible, civilised and sober of the two diners, and something else for … well … the other one …
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 19 Feb 2020.
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March 2, 2020 6 Comments
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At lunch in the outer suburbs.
There are earlier versions here: 1 .
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 19 Feb 2020.
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February 29, 2020 27 Comments
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Hardly fashionable in these vegetarian and indeed vegan times, but I can’t resist starting this with a quote from the cult film Withnail and I , where one of the heroes, probably emerging from overindulgence on booze and drugs, suddenly blurts out “I want something’s flesh!“.
Well I don’t actually blurt it out like that, and I never bother with any drug except The Electric Soup (usually of Belgian pedigree), but when lunching out I do usually like something meaty. Many of you will know of my penchant for Full English Breakfasts, and there are such things as All Day Breakfasts, but (slightly) classier establishments also put out Mixed Grills – which I suppose might be deemed The Thinking Man’s/Woman’s All Day Breakfast – and when done well, these can delicious, like the one above.
So I’d taken a camera to lunch and, when this feast arrived just couldn’t resist some photos – without seeing what was missing. And just as I’d finished the photos, we were treated to the spectacle of the pub’s manageress sprinting frantically towards us carrying a small plate (now that’s what I call service!) >>> on which was the 4oz, well done steak the cook had forgotten to crown this sumptuous feast with.
So you’ll just have to imagine the steak but, working clockwise around the plate, the other constituents of this feast are as follows. A jug of very tasty pepper sauce; chips; onion rings; a slab of grilled chicken, complete with dark scorch marks from the grill – which I always like to see; a grilled mushroom; half a grilled tomato – two halves would have been be even better – they are simply delicious with gammon and bacon, and they add moisture to what can be a rather dry repast (see below); a good, thick, tasty slice of gammon; a runny fried egg, which is almost obscuring three scorched and tasty pork sausages; and peas >>> on top of all of which went the 4oz steak. I can only say, delicious, and certainly something for a cold winter’s day. But glad I didn’t decide to “upgrade” (what a wonderfully awful term … 🙂 ) to an 8oz steak …
And what else? Well, MOUNTAINOUSLY important, the meal was served on a warm plate – serving any hot meal on a cold plate is, to me, total sacrilege. And lots of salt and tomato sauce, the latter especially important as these grills can be a little dry. And two pints of chilled Stella Artois lager which, despite all my snobbish jibes, is really not at all bad accompanying a meal like this. And a steak knife, which is both practical and which also serves to add a tiny element of ritual.
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Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid profile; inverted, to heighten the effect of the lighting; south Bristol; 19 Feb 2020.
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