ARCHIVE: STILL LIFE 22 – NIGHTMARE FROM THE GUTTER

Nightmare! – the distorted reflection of a window seen in a car’s shattered wing mirror found lying in a gutter; 17 Oct 2004.

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Technique: tripod-mounted OM-4 with 50mm Zuiko lens; Fuji Velvia 50 colour slide film.

ARCHIVE STILL LIFE

This is a new category on this blog – Archive Still Life studies.  The Still Life definition will certainly be followed loosely – e.g. some studies may only have been made “still” by the split second opening of the camera’s shutter – and my objective will be to use as many different types / genres of subject matter as possible.  Some images will be Minimalist and, in general, I try to make simpler images, rather than cramming them with visual content.

Some new Still Life studies will (hopefully!) continue to appear.

STILL LIFE 263 – WALL OF CONCRETE BLOCKS, DEFACED BY RED LINE

 

Strolling down tatty back alleys behind a row of small shops in the blazing summer’s sun, and reveling in the burgeoning and totally uncaring unkemptness of it all.  The shops’ fronts might look alright, but back here behind the facades there is only sordid and refuse strewn reality – what you see is very much what you get, and what you get is pure, artless, drab functionality, bereft of all thoughts of beauty or attractive design.

And I found a wall of made of concrete blocks – breeze blocks as we Brits call them – on which some bright young thing had scrawled a long red line.  Up behind the wall was a fence of crudely painted and rusting metal panels.  And in the foreground, parked up close and personal against the wall, a car, patterned by the bright reflections of its stark backdrop.

And – rather an epiphany I suppose – I realised that, should I linger too long in these scruffy and unkempt surroundings, anyone passing by might think me a very real part of them.  So I hastened swiftly on, anxious to give a better – if false – impression elsewhere.

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

Technique:  TG-5 at 49mm (equiv); 200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 1 June 2021.

STILL LIFE 262 – BARBERING LOUNGE

This car’s driver?  He’s inside, having his hair cut.

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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 320 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; flipped; south Bristol; 1 June 2021.

BIRDS 133 – EURASIAN COOT

Coot swimming, on a day of blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  This is one of the Rallidae, the Rails and Crakes, and a common bird on lakes and other freshwaters.

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

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX (= APS-C) format at 450mm;  800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait v2 profile; 5 May 2021; Chew Valley Lake, south of Bristol.

ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 60 – PARKED CAR

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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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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 55 – CARS ON DRIVEWAYS, EARLY LIGHT

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 .  Each post will open in a separate window. 

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 25mm (equiv); 400 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 23 Feb 2021.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 54 – VAN PARKED IN BUILT UP AREA

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 .  Each post will open in a separate window. 

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

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 21 Feb 2021.
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OUTER SUBURBS 310 – LOOKING INTO A HAIRDRESSER’S

 

 

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Visual confusion: the view into the window of a hairdresser’s salon, currently closed in the covid lockdown.

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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 400 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 6 Mar 2021.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 51 – CARS AFTER A RAIN SHOWER

 

 

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An early morning trip into Bristol city centre.  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 bakery 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 to the door, whereupon I told her she was really 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.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 .  Each post will open in a separate window. 

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 250mm (equiv); 200 ISO; spot metering for the highlights; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Temple Meads, central Bristol; 12 May 2017.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 48 – SELFIE WITH CAGED CAR

 

 

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Car in a basement garage.  The garage is set down below the level of the adjacent pavement, and has open, barred windows – that let in light and air and let out exhaust fumes, and that keep out those with a predilection for theft.

The camera is looking down into this garage, framing some of a car’s rear lights and bodywork.  The window bars make linear reflections on the bodywork, and I’m the more or less amorphous blob (how apt!) just below centre stage.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 .  Each post will open in a separate window. 

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

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Bristol city centre; 5 Aug 2016.

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