STILL LIFE 180 – ACCOMMODATION

 

 

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Apartments beside the river.

Turning this image onto its side makes it more abstract, as do the reflections.  The combination of blue and orange gets to me.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; rotated 90 degrees clockwise; opposite Welsh Back, central Bristol; 15 Dec 2017.
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STILL LIFE 66 – CHALET 5: THE VIEW FROM THE CHALET (MONO)

 

 

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On a cheapo holiday last spring, we were very comfortably accommodated in a two storey chalet – well, actually, it could very easily pass muster as a house.  And relaxing with the time to look around, I took quite a few photos of things within the chalet that caught my eye.  Some of these pictures have already been posted here – you can find them here, here, here and here.

And lolling back on a sofa, a favourite occupation, especially in the late afternoons, I looked to my right through the chalet’s open door and saw the lowering sun making light and shadow on the chalets opposite our’s.  And – and this is really decadence gone mad, not really as bad as Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but getting there – and I remember putting down my glass of Belgian beer and, still lolling, picking up the damn great Nikon which was lying on the sofa beside me, and starting firing through the open door.

It was always going to be about light, shadow, shapes and texture, and so I’ve converted the image to gritty and quite contrasty black and white, using Silver Efex Pro 2, the software that no one serious about black and white digital photography should be without.

The roof on the far right makes a diagonal shadow across the house front; and the the shadow of the tree on the building on the left and those few tree branches sticking out from behind that building, both add something living and organic to the scene.

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D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 195mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2.  Near Perranporth, Cornwall; 11 Apr 2016.
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STANTON DREW 33 – COTTAGE WALL

 

 

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Cottage wall; Stanton Drew, 7 June 2016.

X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon at 84mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom.
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STANTON DREW 32 – WHITE HOUSE WITH WINDOW BOX

 

 

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Stanton Drew village, south of Bristol; 7 June 2016.

A humid day and, due to the heavy, stifling overcast, a day with few shadows.  I walked gratefully away from the village’s single, narrow road – always glad to be able to concentrate on taking in my surroundings without wondering if I’m about to be mown down by some hurtling mass of motorised metal.

The clucking and scraping of chickens sounded momentarily loud in the sudden quiet, a sign proclaimed eggs for sale and, looking back over my shoulder – something which I often find useful – there was this white house with a dark window and a colourful window box, partly obscured by the branches of an overhanging tree.

But the overhanging greenery looked good against the black and white chequerboard of the window with its colourfully boxed posy, so I focused on the tree’s leaves and left the rest to look after itself.

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

X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon at 305mm (equivalent); 200 ISO; Lightroom, Capture NX2.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 215 – HOUSE TO THE NORTH OF THE ROAD (MONO)

 

 

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House north of Ashmoor Drove, Ash Moor, northwest of Polsham; 2 Apr 2015.

Driving west across Ash Moor, early on in the day, when this pale house peeped out coyly from amongst distant trees.  Instantly, there was a lot to see.

The dark field in the foreground was lit up by blazing lines – tracers! – of stubble left from last year’s harvesting of sweet corn (maize).  And left of these blazing lines a hedge had been so precisely manicured by a tractor’s cutters that it resembled a wall.  Directly below the house, a pile of rotund silage bales gleamed darkly in their black plastic wrappers.  And to the right of these bales a large tree obscured most of the house’s frontage.

Looking at this scene through the viewfinder (yes, I still use a viewfinder …), I found that the hedge and the lines of stubble took my eyes up into the picture from lower left, drawing my attention to the bales and thence onwards to the tree, which in turn curved up across the face of the house – bringing my gaze across onto the picture’s pale raison d’etre. 

And carrying on this curving visual odyssey up over towards top left, there were darker, older buildings, previously unseen and possibly the remains of a farm that had been partly demolished to make way for this far more modern house – in which might live the farmer or, with the M5 not far off, some commuter bound regularly for Taunton, Bristol or further afield.

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D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 3200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Neutral preset.
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WALES 13 – ABERAERON 8

 

 

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Street beside the harbour, Aberaeron, west Wales; 24 Sept 2014.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 400 ISO.
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SOMERSET LEVELS 184 – HOUSE PARTLY IN SHADOW (MONO + COLOUR)

 

 

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 Shadows on the seafront at Burnham-On-Sea; 5 Nov 2014.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Dramatic preset and selectively restoring minimal colour.
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WALES 11 – ABERAERON 6

 

 

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Building work, behind the harbour; 24 Sept 2014.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 800 ISO; flipped and rotated.
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KENYA 65 – MENDING A ROOF

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Adding thatch to the roof of a house on a Luo farm near Akala, in western Kenya; April 1979.

The agricultural west of Kenya, to the west of the city of Kisumu, with rich soils and plenty of rain from the frequent storms which move eastwards from nearby Lake Victoria.  Lush trees and shrubs border the farm’s compound, within which are these roundhouses, which have wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs.

This house’s doorway is outlined in pale orange and the wooden door is ajar.  An old man, an experienced thatcher, has climbed up onto the roof via a homemade ladder, and is adding more thatch.

Chickens scratch around, and the farmer stands beside a pile of thatching material destined for the repairs.

OM-1 with 75-150mm Zuiko; Agfa CT18 colour side, rated at 64 ISO.
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KENYA 62 – HOUSE ON A FARM

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House on a farm near Akala, in the far west of Kenya; April 1979.

These are Luo people who live in the immensely fertile far west of Kenya, not far from Lake Victoria – a vast body of water that supplies them with vast quantities of fish, and with frequent thunder storms which keep their land totally green.

The structure consists of mud walls, above which a conical thatched roof is mounted on a great mass of wooden poles.  There is quite a gap between the roof and the walls but, in this hot, equatorial area, cold weather is not an issue.  This hut has at least two rooms: the doorway to a second room is to the left of the people.  The mud walls have decorations drawn straight onto them, and there is an oil lamp hanging up.  Notice how everything, including the chest of drawers and some of the pictures hanging on the walls, has cloth covers.

Food and water are not an issue for these people, they live in a wonderfully fecund landscape.  But there are diseases – it was here that malaria first got its claws into me, despite my using nets and prophylactics.

Click onto the image to see a slightly enlarged version.

OM-1 with 28mm Zuiko; Agfa CT18 colour slide, rated at 64 ISO.
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