Looking at – and seeing – the world
June 22, 2017 5 Comments
.
Slivers of morning sunlight on a city centre façade.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it yet again.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 113mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Narrow Lewins Mead, Bristol; 26 May 2017.
.
.
.
June 14, 2017 2 Comments
.
Snapshot of city life.
The black margin to this image has not been applied with software, it is the outline of a window – I was standing in one street, and looking right through a building, via its windows, to a scene in the next street.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click again onto this image to enlarge it further.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Classic Chrome film simulation; shot from Rupert Street, central Bristol, looking through a building into Colston Avenue; 19 May 2017.
.
.
.
June 3, 2017 8 Comments
.
Windows in a block of flats: each reflects the world slightly differently.
The image has been horizontally flipped to make the text more easily readable – which may or may not be a good thing!
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 250mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Astia/Soft film simulation and horizontal flipping; Temple Way, central Bristol; 26 May 2017.
.
.
.
May 30, 2017 2 Comments
.
Looking up, in Christmas Steps.
Windows with blue and cream frames catch the light; and the fresh greens of a pot plant just make it into the frame.
At upper left, metal brackets supporting a shop sign are fixed to the rough, ochre frontage – although, in another world, they might be the antennae and front leg of some giant, climbing insect intent upon who knows what chaos and mayhem.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that version to enlarge it yet again.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Christmas Steps, central Bristol; 26 May 2017.
.
.
.
May 3, 2017 7 Comments
.
Penzance, Cornwall; 8 Oct 2013.
Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2’s Film Noir 1 preset, with selective restoration of colour.
.
.
.
January 30, 2017 9 Comments
.
Building with open windows on John Street, off Broad Street, in Bristol city centre; 5 July 2013.
John Street, in Bristol’s Old City, is very narrow. There are pavements wide enough for only one person to walk, and just room for one vehicle to move along its middle. Walking along it, the buildings tower up on either side. I was strolling down to the Baldwin Street branch of London Camera Exchange, en route to having lunch with a dear friend. The (rare!) English summer sun was blazing along John Street’s facades and, lost in other thoughts, I noticed this but ambled on.
I enjoy visiting the Baldwin Street branch of LCE, simply because the staff there are friendly, and also – a small point! – their photographic expertise is both vast and readily given. That day, I was asking their advice about a tripod and ball head combination I had in mind – and the issue was resolved and the gear ordered in a very short time. A shorter time than I’d anticipated in fact, and I was left with time on my hands prior to lunch.
I remembered the sunlit façade, and strolled back to John Street for another look. It looked good and, taking care not to be swept off the narrow pavements by passing vehicles, I stared down into the G11’s screen and took a range of shots.
In this image, I’ve tilted the camera so that the sunlit, upstanding parts of the façade lean to the right, which I think effective. The white window frames break up the monotony of the pale and dark mosaic.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equivalent); 100 ISO; converted to mono in Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Contrast Smooth preset.
UPDATE: as often happens, filling the frame with the subject, which helps to produce an abstract effect, there being no other source of reference, no other clues as to context, in the shot. I don’t use the G11 much these days, although it remains a capable, compact and not too heavy standby for times when photography may not occur but its good to have a camera along just in case – visits to pubs, lunches, days out, etc.
.
.
.
November 6, 2016 7 Comments
.
Looking in through a restaurant window, Bristol Harbourside; 14 July 2016.
The blue effect is achieved by altering the white balance of the shot in Lightroom, making the light temperature artificially cold.
There are other views into this restaurant here and here, and something similar here.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 800 ISO.
.
.
.
November 1, 2016 13 Comments
.
We were on holiday again recently, in a caravan in the far southwest of Cornwall and, especially towards each day’s end, there were extended periods of glorious inactivity, when everything around could be looked at and taken in. Our caravan’s door had a frosted glass panel, and this warped glass twisted and turned our view of everything outside – and so to this. I can’t remember what the white object against the green glass was, but does that matter?
Well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. You may not feel comfortable with this image. I have found that my and many others’ first reaction on being presented with such an abstract is to try and discover what it is, what the reality is, of what we’re being shown. Well, in this instance, I don’t know what the image shows, and there may remain the urge for greater reality, for something real and knowable to fix your eyes and thoughts upon.
What do you think – about abstracts in general, and about this one in particular?
X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 226mm (equiv); 800 ISO; image rotated; 18 Oct 2016.
.
.
.
October 22, 2016 11 Comments
.
On a cheapo holiday last spring, we were very comfortably accommodated in a two storey chalet – well, actually, it could very easily pass muster as a house. And relaxing with the time to look around, I took quite a few photos of things within the chalet that caught my eye. Some of these pictures have already been posted here – you can find them here, here, here and here.
And lolling back on a sofa, a favourite occupation, especially in the late afternoons, I looked to my right through the chalet’s open door and saw the lowering sun making light and shadow on the chalets opposite our’s. And – and this is really decadence gone mad, not really as bad as Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but getting there – and I remember putting down my glass of Belgian beer and, still lolling, picking up the damn great Nikon which was lying on the sofa beside me, and starting firing through the open door.
It was always going to be about light, shadow, shapes and texture, and so I’ve converted the image to gritty and quite contrasty black and white, using Silver Efex Pro 2, the software that no one serious about black and white digital photography should be without.
The roof on the far right makes a diagonal shadow across the house front; and the the shadow of the tree on the building on the left and those few tree branches sticking out from behind that building, both add something living and organic to the scene.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 195mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2. Near Perranporth, Cornwall; 11 Apr 2016.
.
.
.
August 26, 2016 15 Comments
.
King William Avenue, central Bristol; 19 July 2016.
A photo with little in it. First, I was strongly drawn by the glorious colour and texture of the wall. More of Bristol’s walls should look like this, the city would be a brighter place.
Then the drainpipe and window frame add starkly black, rectilinear shapes, and the window contains paleness and uncertainties.
X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 84mm (equiv); 400 ISO.
.
.
.
