Looking at – and seeing – the world
June 22, 2017 5 Comments
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Slivers of morning sunlight on a city centre façade.
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 113mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Narrow Lewins Mead, Bristol; 26 May 2017.
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June 10, 2017 10 Comments
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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.
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Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); Lightroom; Bristol Bridge, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
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June 8, 2017 5 Comments
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I’m emerging from an underpass that crosses a sunken area of the city centre generally known as the Bear Pit, probably due to its lawless nature in times gone by (albeit not very far gone by …).
The sunken path that I’m following is climbing up and around to the right, and the grey hand rail on the sheer wall of the path follows that curve. High railings to my left shed harsh shadows across the scene, and the wall to my right has various graffiti (for which read street art, in my parlance) and stickers adorning its surface.
And, this underpass and the Bear Pit having something of an uneasy reputation, having taken the shot I glanced nervously behind me – only to see another photographer taking my picture – as he said, the photographer being photographed!
This image might benefit from 90 degrees’ clockwise rotation. See below – what do you think?
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; spotmetering; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; climbing up out of the Bear Pit, central Bristol; 26 May 2017..
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June 1, 2017 5 Comments
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Morning light in the city centre: blazing, angled glare, deep shadows, shiny cars, graffiti – the walk to work through a very human, if dehumanising, landscape.
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 and 21. Each will open in a separate window.
Click onto the images to see enlarged versions in separate windows, and click upon these enlarged images to enlarge them yet again.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Fairfax Street, central Bristol; 19 May 2017.
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May 14, 2016 11 Comments
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The sun shining on curtains, seen from indoors; Perranporth, Cornwall; 12 April 2016.
Our holiday chalet had windows facing east and west, and so was doubly blessed. Here, lolling back on sofas, we basked in the late afternoon sunlight until, it becoming a little too dazzling, we pulled the curtains across the tall western windows and enjoyed the many shadows and patterns that appeared upon them.
Click onto this image to see a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
The first image in this series can be found here.
D800 with 70-300 Nikkor at 170mm; 800 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4, including cross-processing.
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October 21, 2015 9 Comments
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Bright autumn sunshine, Whiteladies Road; 20 Oct 2015.
On my way to Corks of Cotham, which is primarily a wine shop, but which also stocks (sadly now only a very few) Belgian beers of truly world class quality – my choice yesterday included mouthwatering tipples from the Trappist monks of the Westmalle and Rochefort monasteries.
And it was a gloriously sunny day – to me, soft, warm, autumn sunshine is more enjoyable than the blazing heats of summer. And beside the road was this rough wall, taking the gorgeous sunshine full on and reflecting Our Star’s warmth back at the world.
Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (equivalent); 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Key 2 preset.
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October 3, 2015 7 Comments
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Car, blue skies and sunshine; Charlotte Street, in the city centre.
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D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 400 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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June 13, 2015 14 Comments
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Forestry plantation east of North Hill; 6 Apr 2015.
A shaft of early morning light from Our Star pierces the great pines’ towering darknesses.
And in my mind, these trees have closed around this little glade, maybe in awe of its light. And maybe conscious too that any closer approach will extinguish that which so fascinates them, that which they hold to be, during the fleeting moments of star-rise, so precious.
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The first of these images is here.
D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; Colour Efex Pro 4.
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April 27, 2015 13 Comments
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One thing about lolling back on a sofa for protracted periods is that it gives you plenty of opportunity to really look at and appreciate your surroundings. Even if you’re not looking for them, you start to notice things that might otherwise lie low and unremarked. And, more to the point, if you adhere to the sofa for sometime, which I thoroughly recommend, you see how the gradually changing angle of the day’s light interplays with the objects within your gaze.
And, lolling last week in our holiday caravan, fortified by mugs of hot, strong tea, I watched as the golden, early morning sun inched its way across the sofa and cushions opposite me, and up onto the pale wall to the right – and here is the scene.
Exposure is reduced to saturate the colours and, equally importantly, to lose various extraneous details in the shadows. Looking at the image from left to right, the gloriously red cushion rests on the sofa opposite me and, at upper right, the sunlight is creeping across onto a slightly paler wall. And the shadows of the blind’s thin slats play over most of it.
21 Apr 2015; West Bay, Dorset. D800 with 16-35 Nikkor at 35mm; 400 ISO.
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December 28, 2014 12 Comments
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Early morning sunlight in our back garden; 9 Jul 2013.
Looking down the garden through a thin screen of tall grasses. A very shallow depth of field, produced by using a long telephoto at close quarters, has thrown nearly everything except the closest grasses far out of focus. This is not an accurate representation of the scene, but rather an impression of how it looked.
The line of dark tones at the top of the frame are the shadows below the hedge at the bottom of the garden.
D800 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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