ARCHIVE KENYA 20 – RAINBOW, LAKE NAKURU

 

 

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Rainbow in Lake Nakuru National Park, against a dark, stormy sky; and with Yellow-barked Acacia trees on the right (also known as “Fever Trees”, as formerly thought to be the source of malaria); June 1980.

Note the difference in brightness of the sky on either side of the rainbow, and also how the sequence of colours in the rainbow’s dim reflection is opposite to that in the rainbow itself.

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

Technique: Olympus OM-1 with 28mm Zuiko; lens Agfa CT18 slide film rated at 64 ISO.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE 494 – THE VIEW EAST FROM THE JACK’S DROVE BRIDGE (MONO)

 

 

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Looking east along the North Drain, from the Jack’s Drove bridge, on Tealham Moor on the Somerset Levels; 29 Aug 2013.

Jack’s Drove is the single track, tarmac road that runs north-south across one of the loves of my life, Tealham Moor.  This little byway rises over the great east-west waterway of the North Drain on a low bridge – and on this dead flat moor, much of which is at or below mean sea level, this little bridge is a real highpoint.  Its sobering to recall that, standing here, I’m well below the level of the high tides that lap the promenades at nearby Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-On-Sea.  But for the network of sea defences, and also the sluices on the tidal rivers, this area would be open to inundation by the sea.

Here are Water Lilies floating placidly on a still day, in waters alive with the reflections of the sky, and this for all the world looks like a river – except that, of course, it is a little too straight.  Its name is also rather a giveaway.  For this is an entirely artificial water, excavated by human hand to help drain the sodden clay and peat soils hereabouts.  It is part of a great network of manmade waters that cover this area and ensure – for the moment at least – that it doesn’t return to the marshes and brackish waters of not that long ago.

Standing here on this little bridge and looking east towards the lightening sky, I feel a great sense of peace and, after a life of many wanderings, I feel at home.

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

Technique: D700 with 12-24 Sigma zoom lens at 18mm; 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at High Structure Harsh.

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OUTER SUBURBS 230 – PARKED CAR 13 (MONO)

 

 

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There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 .  Each will open in a separate window.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 04 profile; south Bristol; 16 Jan 2019.

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SOMERSET LEVELS 457 – TEALHAM MOOR, SUNRISE

 

 

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Sunrise tints the sky above Tealham Moor and, in this landscape of silhouettes, the sky’s colours are reflected by the still waters in a ditch.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.

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

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Landscape v2 profile; Tealham Moor, on the Somerset Levels southwest of Wells; 12 Apr 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 228 – CAR BESIDE FENCE, EARLY LIGHT 2

 

 

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Walking in the lockdown, and – deja vu – finding another car beside another new fence lit by the bright, early morning sun; this one had just been sprinkled by a light rain shower.

The earlier post is here .

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 1 May 2020.
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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.

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

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

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OUTER SUBURBS 227 – BUS SHELTER, EARLY MORNING LIGHT

 

 

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Walking in the lockdown, walking up a hill towards a bus shelter that was being visually roasted by the sun’s early light.  The was a colourful advertisement on the far wall of the shelter and, as the warm hues of the sunrise played on this poster, reflections flew everywhere and the interior of the shelter was ablaze with bright, warm colours.

Technique: a blogging colleague, Michael Scandling, recently put out a very useful post (here) discussing the quality of digital images.  Many photographers try for images that are as noise-free and sharp as possible, which can result in pictures that, to use his words, are plastic and clinical – and I know exactly what he means.  Some think that all images should be technically perfect, whereas others consider content and narrative more important – and I’m 100% with the contenters and narrators.  In his post, Michael went on to say that, in post processing, he often uses noise reduction sparingly, that he sometimes selectively softens areas of a picture and artificially introduces grain.

And so to trying out some of Michael’s points here – no luminance noise reduction; artificially introduced grain; Lightroom’s Camera Vivid profile; increased Vibrance – and I like the result, and am certainly going to bear these points in mind for future pictures >>> thank you, Michael!

And looking at all these colours brings a story to mind.  Forty or more years ago, in Kenya, I was giving a slideshow (remember slideshows?) to a group of American aid workers who were lolling around smoking pot, and I’ll always remember the almost ecstatic tones of ” … oh wow, man! …… THE  ******* COLOURS, MAN! ……”.   Halcyon days …  and no, before you ask, I didn’t take up the offer of any of their heavenly medicine … already, at that tender age, being a truly confirmed disciple of the … Electric Soup … courtesy, in those days, of the excellent output of Kenya Breweries, which even included a  local version of Guinness!

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 5 Apr 2020.

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OUTER SUBURBS 225 – PARKED CAR 12

 

 

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Looking at a BMW, not in any envious or possessive way, but rather seeing this confection of glass, metal, plastic and rubber more as a still life, looking at its shapes and lines, seeing how it reflects the light.  And so to processing the image, and to two crops.  The one above is more conventional, whereas the one below looks at just a part of the upper image and is more Minimalist.

There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 .  Each will open in a separate window.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 26 Apr 2020.
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ARCHIVE 482 – PHONE BOX

 

 

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Telephone.

Extreme wide angle – we are inside the box, about to use the phone, looking out at the surrounding buildings.

The windows are dirty and scrawled on, inside the box is grimy – this is city life.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 15mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Pro Neg Hi film simulation; Lewins Mead / Rupert Street, central Bristol; 11 Aug 2017.
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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.

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

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

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