Looking at – and seeing – the world
August 21, 2018 Leave a comment
.
Tag on the wall of a bar.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 223mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Little King Street, central Bristol; 19 July 2016.
.
.
.
August 9, 2018 11 Comments
.
Fishermen far off across Chew Valley Lake on a misty morning.
The local water company stocks Chew Valley Lake with trout, and makes good profits from anglers. There is also a sailing club, and some barely adequate birdwatching hides – returning from Kenya’s wide open spaces, I was astonished to be restricted to these little huts with their narrow viewing slits – something of a culture change! I retain the feeling that birding ought to be out in the fresh and open air.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – if you like grain!!!
Technique: D800 with 80-400 Nikkor lens at 400mm; 800 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2’s High Contrast Smooth preset; Chew Valley Lake, south of Bristol; 17 Oct 2013.
.
.
.
August 6, 2018 11 Comments
.
Oh dear, we Brits – and many other Europeans too – are in the throes of a record-breaking heatwave that, accompanied by thunderstorms, torrential rain, flash-flooding and wildfires, has been with us for at least six weeks. In a nutshell, this heat is both draining and debilitating. It is a bit like being under siege. Walks in the early morning are delightful, but after that the heat and humidity build, and being indoors is really the only thing. Early yesterday morning I made the fatal mistake of opening our kitchen curtains for a look at the new day – curtains on a window that faces due east – and was immediately smacked in the face by the blazing and not long risen sun.
But we shall survive, and not least because of the felicitous discovery that pints of weak gin and tonic, with many slices of fresh lemon and loads of ice, are in fact extraordinarily pleasant. Ah, there’s always a silver lining … hic! ….. 😉 ……..
And in an effort to beat the heat, I got down to Stanton Drew exceedingly early one morning recently, and wandered around in the cool peace and quiet of my favourite village for a couple of hours. But the sun rose, hit the side of this outhouse near the church, and soon had me retreating to a cool café for that mother of all solaces, a second breakfast.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – recommended.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 83mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Dramatic preset and adding a split tone; Stanton Drew, near Bristol; 6 July 2018.
.
.
.
August 5, 2018 14 Comments
.
Water Lilies in the North Drain, Tealham Moor, on the Somerset Levels; 25 July 2009.
I like the Minimalism here – just thin, green plants against a dark background – looking almost as if they are floating up into the air on a dark night!
And then there is the way the leaves weave a sinuous line back through the picture, and the increasing dimness of the stems of those further away.
Technique: D700 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 120mm; 200 ISO; spotmeter reading taken from the nearest leaf.
.
.
.
August 1, 2018 6 Comments
.
An old and very dear friend of mine is a professional psychologist and avid people-watcher. Her insights into everyday human behaviour never cease to fascinate and amaze me. I had the idea sometime back of giving her a photobook of the Going To Work images (produced via Blurb) for her birthday, and that project is moving ahead. In the course of assembling these pictures for use in her book, I have found six images that have not been posted in the Going To Work series but which really belong there, and so I am incorporating them into this series here. This is the second of the six. You can find the other images here: 1 .
Morning sunlight blasts up Christmas Steps, a steep lane connecting two busy city centre roads. But there is no traffic here, the Steps are purely pedestrian and, early in the morning, a steady stream of people use this ancient thoroughfare as a short cut down into the city centre.
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, 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 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 . Each will open in a separate window.
Technique: close-in with a wide angle lens, low angle sunlight, and textures all around. This was never going to be a colour image but, as always, I like to capture images in colour, and then convert them to mono post-capture with Silver Efex Pro 2. This method does, I think, provide far more options and potential for the final image(or images) than having the camera itself shoot mono images.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: X-T1 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 24mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Film Noir 1 preset; 16 Sept 2016.
.
.
.
July 11, 2018 6 Comments
.
Mooring ropes against a ship’s rail.
Click onto the image to open it in another window, and click onto that image to enlarge it.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Film Noir 3 preset, and adding a light coffee tone; Capture NX2, for rotation and cropping; Bristol harbourside; 14 Jul 2016.
.
.
.
June 20, 2018 6 Comments
.
Morning crowds, heading for work, with tall, double-decker buses in the background.
Another take on this scene, in mono, has already been posted: click onto link 47 below here.
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, 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 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 . 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 further.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Broad Quay, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
.
.
.
June 13, 2018 16 Comments
.
This image is best seen at larger scale – click onto to it to see a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – recommended.
Mute Swan at Herons Green, Chew Valley Lake, not far south of Bristol; 6 Apr 2015.
The bird is preening, busily rearranging its feathers in a flurry of activity that is sending concentric ripples out across the surrounding water.
There is another photo of this bird, in very different pose and style, here .
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 200 ISO; -0.3EV; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Low Key 2 preset.
.
.
.
June 12, 2018 7 Comments
.
This is the final post of Looking at Chairs – hope you’ve enjoyed the series.
So, lastly, two chairs, back to back, beside a window.
Sitting in Browns, waiting for the third breakfast of a long morning’s photography – a repast which might have equated to what we Brits call Elevenses … except that it was only just after 10am …
In Browns, I always sit at any table that looks across the room towards the windows onto the street, because these provide good cross- and backlighting.
The first post in this series on chairs, which contains context and an image, can be found here. Subsequent posts are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 . Each will open in a new window.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and then click onto that image to further enlarge it.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom; Browns Restaurant, Bristol; 19 May 2017.
.
.
.
June 9, 2018 8 Comments
.
The walk to work: small, alone and in a fleeting, uneasy world of light and shadow.
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, 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 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 . 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 further enlarge it.
Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset and adding a light coffee tone; Victoria Street, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
.
.
.
