STILL LIFE 122 – TEMPLE CIRCUS GYRATORY

 

 

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Early morning driving on the Temple Circus Gyratory, which is a large roundabout at one of the southern approaches to Bristol, near Temple Meads railway station.  Roundabout?  Traffic circle in The States I think.  And the roundabout’s official name?  Well, it could really only have been dreamt up by officials, couldn’t it, by a Local Authority, in the interests no doubt of good urban planning and neutral nomenclature?

And the photo?  Well, its garish, technicolour plus.  The highlights are all blown to featureless white but to me that’s fine because this isn’t reality, this is how I like to see it.

So what gets to me here?  Well, the lines and curves of the blazing white vehicle, which frame the face – cool shades, no-nonsense beard, mouth slightly open – with the thrill of surfing the Gyratory maybe?  And the car’s curving lines also frame the reflections in the car’s windows, which become more colourful over towards the right.  And then, in the backdrop, all those technicolour stripes.  And no, before you ask, I haven’t ramped up the colour Saturation in Lightroom, although I did increase the Vibrance to +65.   Then CEP4 was used to provide a thin black border, to prevent the lower edges of the image merging with my blog’s white background.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm; 400 ISO; spotmetering; Lightroom, using the Pro Neg Hi film simulation; Color Efex Pro 4; central Bristol; 7 April 2017.
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PEOPLE 277 – GOING TO WORK 23

 

 

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Red light in the rush hour:  queuing traffic, frustration, cold winter sunshine.

Earlier images from this series can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.  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.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); Lightroom; Bristol Bridge, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
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ARCHIVE 293 – TADHAM MOOR (MONO)

 

 

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Misty morning on Tadham Moor, on the Somerset Levels; 10 Apr 2014.

A typical Levels scene.  The water-filled ditch forms the boundary of the grassy field on the left of the shot.  Immediately left of the prominent tree,  a little bridge across the ditch allows access to the field.  The actual field gate is barely visible, at the left end of the two short lengths of fencing left of the tree.  These short lengths of fencing prevent animals in the field from edging around the sides of the gate, and so gaining their freedom via the bridge.

A single track, tarmac road, Totney Drove, is just out of sight on the right of the shot, at the top of the low bank immediately right of the tree.

I was first attracted by the tree’s reflection, but I also like the thin mistiness, both back behind the tree, and above the water in the ditch.  And the cloud above the tree helps the composition, being far preferable to having featureless sky there.

Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 70mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Full Dynamic Harsh preset.

UPDATE: I will never stop loving this image, its as simple as that.
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BRISTOL 121 – ALL SAINTS STREET 2

 

 

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Red car, reflecting yellow and rotated.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spotmetering; Lightroom, including flipping, rotation and use of the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; All Saints Street, central Bristol; 19 May 2017.
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STILL LIFE 119 – TWELVE REFLECTIONS

 

 

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Windows in a block of flats: each reflects the world slightly differently.

The image has been horizontally flipped to make the text more easily readable – which may or may not be a good thing!

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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 250mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Astia/Soft film simulation and horizontal flipping; Temple Way, central Bristol; 26 May 2017.
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STILL LIFE 115 – THE VIEW THROUGH A GLASS DOOR

 

 

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Arriving early in the city and reeling from a second breakfast in Hart’s Bakery, I headed north up Temple Way amidst people going to work.  A jogger went past at the speed of light and scared me half to death.  An old pub I’d known and loved was empty, derelict, sad.  And then I was engulfed by hordes of kids, running for buses, noisy, off to school.

Amidst all this rush, I found myself outside the offices of one of our local newspapers, the Bristol Evening Post.  And in its façade was a glass door, which neatly filled the frame.  Here it is, rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise.  You’re probably going to ask what on earth this photo depicts – most of us want to know what we’re looking at, its a human trait –  but I have to disappoint you, because I can’t remember – it simply caught my eye at the time and I photographed it!  I have a feeling that the half of an ovoid at upper left was a table top, and there was security guard too but I don’t think he’s in the frame … but, in my mind, its really a question of whether such details add to the image overall.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click on this larger version once again to further enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 6400 ISO; Lightroom, adding 90 degrees anticlockwise rotation, and adding the Astia/Soft film simulation; central Bristol; 26 May 2017.
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STILL LIFE 110 – PARKED CARS, AFTER A RAIN SHOWER

 

 

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Cars outside Hart’s Bakery, after a brief, early morning rain shower. (When looking at the photos on Hart’s website, hold your cursor over each one to see the caption).

A humid early morning, heavy with the threat of thunder storms moving up from the south on warm, moisture-laden winds.  I made it into Hart’s in the dry, gorged on white, sourdough toast spread thickly with raspberry jam – and loved the way the jam was not served in emotionless, commercial sachets but, rather, was simply brought to the table in an open jar, with a spoon sticking up in the middle of it – people after my own heart – no pun intended!!! 

And there was a cake too and, when the staff weren’t looking, that also got plastered in raspberry jam.  But maybe the (always friendly and pleasant) staff did notice after all because when one of them came over to ask me if the food and coffee had been alright and I asked to be carried to the door, she suggested it might be better rolling me, whereupon I told her she was very rude and we both laughed.

And when I emerged from that veritable gastronomic heaven, there had been a rain shower and, looking towards the light, I saw this scene.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto the enlarged image to enlarge it yet again.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 250mm (equiv); 200 ISO; spotmetering for the highlights; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Temple Meads, central Bristol; 12 May 2017.
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STILL LIFE 108 – SHOP SELLING BRIDAL WEAR

 

 

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Elegant, graceful bling: it comes at a price mind, but then its for the day when no expense is spared and perfection is the sole (no pun intended!), simply must-have outcome.

There is another Queens Road dress here.

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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 276mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Queens Road, central Bristol; 7 Apr 2017.
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STILL LIFE 99 – PARKED CAR REFLECTING ARCHITECTURE AND BLUE SKY

 

 

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Reflections in the bodywork of a parked car.  The blue sky can be seen left of centre, with distorted reflections of buildings around it.  The other reflections are from the car itself.

Technique: a first for this blog, in that although Lightroom has been used afterwards for final processing, this image was initially generated by the X-T2’s Raw Conversion facility.  In-camera, this facility allows Raw files to be edited in various ways – Push/Pull Processing, Film Simulation, Dynamic Range, Grain Effect, White Balance, Cropping, etc, etc – and then to be saved as jpegs while leaving the original Raw files intact.  In this case, the Raw file was given the look of Fuji’s Velvia film simulation, which (as users of Velvia film may remember), boosts colours and contrast.  Sitting down with the camera after a photo session, I find this a useful and creative way of looking through what the session has captured, as well as experimenting with the images to see what looks and crops may be eyecatching – and then saving those that appear useful.

I have a sneaking feeling that some photographic purists might consider this cheating, because I’m letting the camera do some of the processing work for me whereas I ought to be handling the whole of the processing myself in eg Lightroom.  Well, two thoughts about that.  First, I have always said – and it has always been a very core part of my photographic thinking – that all that matters in photography is the final image, irrespective of the way(s) in which it has been generated.  And second, if I generate something like this image, am I really going to expend lots of time and energy seeking to replicate it with Lightroom, when I already have something useable to hand?

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; jpeg with the Velvia film simulation generated from a Raw file in-camera; Lightroom; King Street, central Bristol; 7 Apr 2017.

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PEOPLE 261 – GOING TO WORK 21

 

 

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Woman driver, an anonymous someone in the morning rush hour – a picture to look deeply into, almost abstract, a traveller cocooned in a cacophony of reflection.

Again a grab shot, the traffic surged forward, momentarily paused, and there was just time for a single, frantic shot before the great metal torrent streamed off again on its way into the city.

This is a restricted crop from the very centre of the image, but the X-T2’s 24 megapixels in the less than full-frame sized APS-C sensor certainly helps when using such small parts of the capture.

Earlier images from this series can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click on the enlarged image once more to further enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujifilm lens at 276mm (equiv); 12,800 ISO; Lightroom; Temple Gate, Bristol; 24 Feb 2017.

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