ARCHIVE 596 – QUEEN CHARLOTTE STREET (MONO)

 

 

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Morning sunlight across a rough façade.  I’m down an alleyway in the city centre and the décor is, shall we say, functional.  Lots of rough texture, no need for the expense of glamorous, smooth surfaces here.  And off the main road a little, out of view a bit, so plain bars to deter those who, seized by an excess of entrepreneurial zeal, might not want to enter through the front door.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 145mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset; Queen Charlotte Street, central Bristol; 8 July 2017.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 37 – MISTY MORNING

 

 

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Misty early morning in the street, the people sleeping and the cars silent, dark and still >>> LOL! which is a very poor attempt at Dylan Thomas!!!  What about something from The Master himself then, from Under Milk Wood, very certainly one of my most favourite books in this whole world, and an endless source of both awe and inspiration:

Time passes.  Listen.  Time passes.

Come closer now.

Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep and silent black, bandaged night.

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Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams.

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

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 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 80mm (equiv); 6400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 30 Nov 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 304 – WALKING THE STREETS AT NIGHT’S END (MONO)

 

 

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Walking the misty, deserted streets at night’s end, listening to the silence, watching the foxes making for their daytime lairs, passing the stolid ranks of cold cars – and very much having the feeling of enjoying the very simple and uncomplicated moment, of being glad to be up and about … of seeing and savouring the world at the antisocial hours that only a few early joggers and dog walkers know.

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); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Cool Tones 2 preset and adding a tone; south Bristol; 22 Nov 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 303 – DAWN BREAKING, LATE DECEMBER

 

 

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Dawn breaking on Boxing Day, just after rain.

And almost invisible in the murk up to the left of the light – can you see it??? –  a large gull glides in above the rooftops, calling noisily to its companions in the dark sky as it starts its day above the suburbs, searching for the edible scraps and refuse that we have discarded.

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 – certainly recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 26 Dec 2020.
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HOME 8 – SHIRT, AS YET UNIRONED

 

 

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Contemplating clothes in need of ironing, clothes being washed over by window light, and somehow feeling that there must be more to Life …

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

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Astia/Soft profile; at home, on the ironing pile; 9 Sept 2020.
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HOME 6 – SOFT DRINK, BACKLIT

 

 

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Bottle of mixer, waiting on the kitchen worktop for dilution by simply unconscionable amounts of gin.

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; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 08 profile; in the kitchen; 9 Sept 2020.

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CHEW LAKE 25 – THE VIEW EAST, ACROSS THE LAKE (MONO)

 

 

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

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 800 ISO;  Lightroom, starting at the Camera Graphite profile; Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 7 Dec 2020.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 33 – MAIN ROAD, DAWN (MONO)

 

 

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Driving at dawn, in autumn: bare trees, mist, darkness and – rather unsettlingly – a fat, disheveled old man, with far more hair than is immediately apparent, photographing your passing car …

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.  Earlier 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 .  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); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 03 profile; south Bristol; 22 Nov 2020.

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HOME 5 – LOOKING OUT THROUGH LACE CURTAINS

 

 

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Looking out through lace curtains, as sunrise starts to light our back garden.  The curtain rail cuts starkly across the top of the image.  Because the curtains themselves are still in shadow at this early hour, they have taken on a blue hue, which (although it could easily be corrected) I think adds to things.

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.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; at home; 25 Nov 2020.
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ARCHIVE 588 – SELFIE ON A BRIDGE

 

 

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Selfie on a footbridge, Lynmouth, Devon; 24 Sept 2009.

The striking shadow and backdrop were too good to miss, and I angled the camera so that, instead of being horizontal, the footbridge’s shadow cuts a powerful, stark diagonal right across the photo, more or less from top left to bottom right. The background, a dry overspill channel, is quite rugged and textured, and also variously green – this shot also works in black and white.

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

Technique: F6 with 24-120 Nikkor lens; Fuji Provia 400X colour slide film rated at 800 ISO.

2016 UPDATE: its almost unreal to see that this photo was originally taken as a colour slide/transparency – taken on 35mm FILM!!!   And I was having the film push processed, which means that although the film was rated at 400 ISO, I asked the company who were going to develop it to treat it as if it had a speed of 800 ISO.  The firm were (and still are, I think) based in Cheltenham in the UK, and sending the exposed film to them – and receiving back the developed colour slides in a neat plastic box – all took place via the UK postal system. 

Provia 400X was a wonderful film, excellent colours, fine grain, and I had no hesitation in having it push processed up to 3200 ISO or even higher on occasion.  Had digital photography not come onto the scene, I would certainly still be using 400X (or its descendants) now (but see below).

And film?  Well its only 7 years since this photo was taken, but all that seems such a long time ago.  Would I ever go back to using film?  Definitely not, absolutely certainly not.  The creative advantages provided by digital photography simply cannot be ignored.

2020 UPDATE: regarding Provia 400X colour slide film, time moves on and I now read that it is no longer produced, and that all existing stocks are past their expirey date – this does not of course make them anything like unusable but, as I say, time moves on …

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