ARCHIVE: STILL LIFE 44 – BROAD PLAIN

Shafts of morning sunlight softly caress a façade – or rake harshly across it, laying bare its every jagged line and texture – its just a matter of how we look at things in the moment.

But the window keeps its privacy in cool shadow; also for the moment.

Analysis: this is a picture of a window (oh, you’re thinking, he’s sharp …), but to me (but maybe not to you …) its more an assemblage of shapes, textures, light and shadow.  Apart from the window’s frame it has Minimal colour but, as so often happens, presenting in it black and white would certainly lose something – the very faint yellow below the window, for example, adds something I think.  I’ve talked about a method of photography where the photographer looks for good light and then thinks what to do with it, how to use it, and I know I’m not alone in this.  Here is an example.  The morning sunlight was slanting across the façade, and I walked along, looking up at the interplays of the light with the building, thinking what might be possible.  And, as always, a telephoto was useful in picking out details from the overall scene.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom; Broad Plain, central Bristol; 26 May 2017.

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.

PEOPLE: PICTURE GALLERY 1 – POSTS 1-10

PEOPLE PICTURE GALLERIES

I’m currently posting images from my archive of photos of people.  As always with these archives, I’m trying to use a variety of approaches and responses to the subject.  These photos are being posted singly, with full text.

To make viewing of these images easier for those with little time to spare, I’m also posting groups of these images in galleries with minimal titles.  This is the first gallery.

Clicking onto each image will open a larger version in a separate window: doing this often enhances the image.

1: Woman in a cafe; Camborne, 2013.

2: Girl in a white dress, with side lighting; Bristol, 2012.

3: Guests laughing at a wedding reception; Surrey, 2012.

4: Boat owner; Porthleven, 2016.

5: A friend, aged two; Bristol, 2011.

6: Death of a beautiful person: George Ann Weaver, 1942-2016.

7: Lovers; St Ives, 2012.

8: In the Dida Galgalla Desert, northern Kenya; 1978.

9: Man on stairs; Newquay, 2011.

10: Friends at a wedding; near Bristol, 2011.

ARCHIVE: STILL LIFE 35 – AUTUMN (1)

Low angle autumn sunlight grazes the surface of the pavement on a steep hill. 

The leaf is from one of the tall Plane trees that line this major route south out of the city.

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

Technique: TG-5 at 74mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Natural film simulation; Wells Road, Bristol; 17 Nov 2017.

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.

ARCHIVE PEOPLE 9 – MAN ON STAIRS

Stairs in a pub, Newquay, Cornwall; 13 Sept 2011.

After lunch, as we left the pub, this colourful chasm opened up on our right.  Letting it go unphotographed was out of the question.  It was awash with colour and I was especially taken with the black and white edges to the steps, which are presumably there to help prevent inebriate revellers from going head over heels – or, as we earthy Brits might from time to time term it, arse over tit – down the stairs.

Two things came to mind.  First, I wanted those black and white steps to be somewhere near vertical in the finished product, to give the effect of a wonderfully coloured wall, or of a receding series of coloured columns.  Second, a problem, there was great contrast in the scene, with the sun blazing in from the left, so I used a low sensitivity – 400 ISO – to give more latitude for digital manipulation later on.

I took two frames and, as I clicked the first, this chap appeared from nowhere and provided an unwitting focal point for the converging lines!

I’ve rotated the shot, and used NX2‘s control points to lighten both the left hand wall and the man.  I’ve also slightly raised contrast in the sunlit areas, to better bring out the patterns made by the thin window frames.

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

Technique: D700 with 24-120 Nikkor lens at 24mm; 400 ISO; Capture NX2; rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.

ARCHIVE: PEOPLE 2 – GIRL IN A WHITE DRESS

Our friends’ elder daughter, luckily caught by beautiful side lighting, in their kitchen.

This family has a large and airy kitchen lit by a single, large window.  Their daughter moved across to the right of the window, and was at once bathed in soft light, with relative shade as a backdrop.

The light flowing over her white dress was immediately beautiful, and I was fortunate in catching her right arm as well as her left, the former being seen both in silhouette and illuminated.  I’ve also been lucky in having the light just catching her long hair too.  Light reflecting from her dress produces a soft glow on the cupboards to her left.

This is, obviously, a picture of a person, but it is unposed and anonymous, and mostly about the interplay of light, shadow, shapes and textures.

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

Technique: D700 with 105mm Nikkor lens; 12,800 ISO; manipulated with Capture NX2, Bristol; 9 Sept 2012.

OUTER SUBURBS 285 – CLEAR

 

 

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Low angle sunlight washes across road markings and the road’s paler gutter and kerb; further towards upper right, the rough, dark pavement, with long reaching shadows, occupies the rest of the frame.

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; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 31 Aug 2020.
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ARCHIVE 577 – NEAR WEST LITTLETON (MONO)

 

 

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Early in the day: above the byway, east of West Littleton; South Gloucestershire; 12 Apr 2017.

More context on this second visit to the extreme south of the Cotswold Hills, and more images, can be found here.

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 206mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Neutral preset.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 17 – DARK CAR (MONO)

 

 

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An image of three parts.  The two cars, manufactured and highly mobile confections of metal, plastic, rubber and glass, racing away from each other on a road that is certainly not for those more sensitive souls who are forever slowing down to compose poetry or look at the wildflowers.

And then the white line in the road’s center, undulating slightly as it climbs towards the hill’s crest.

And finally the light, spotlighting the dark car as it rushes urgently towards us,  and seen more faintly through the trees on the right, and then more brightly (the light at the end of the tunnel?) on the left.

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 . 

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

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset; fast road over the Mendip Hills, above Compton Martin, Somerset; 24 Nov 2017.
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OUTER SUBURBS 273 – WALKING, AND LOOKING DOWN

 

 

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Walking on a pavement – and pausing to look down – just as the sunlight was glancing nearly horizontally across the ground.

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 Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 7 Aug 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 245 – PARKED CAR 17, EARLY LIGHT ON DRIVING SEAT

 

 

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Early morning, the streets quiet and deserted, and a shaft of reflected sunlight illuminates the driving seat of a decidedly up market auto.

There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 .  Each 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.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 25 June 2020.
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