Black and White

Five Landscapes

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Five monochrome landscape images, taken in the Italian alps. These were shot using a Leica Q2 Monochrom and various colour-contrast and polarising filters. The Q2M is a monochrome-only compact camera with a fixed 28mm lens which was bought to replace an ageing Ricoh GR for travel where carrying film is no longer practical. The Q2M has the advantage of a built-in EVF, and shooting with the monochrome sensor is essentially the same process as for shooting with black and white film, only without the chemicals. Compositionally, I found the Q2M […]

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Black and White

Sofia

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The first post for 2021, with some images taken on a recent work trip to Bulgaria. Street and social-documentary photography has been badly curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here in Barcelona there are heavy restrictions on all forms of movement, with both a curfew and limitations how far it is possible to move. Added to this is the expectation of social distancing, which makes conventional street photography with a wide-angle lens and close proximity with people problematic. Street photography is invariably something that feels risky, but with a highly contagious […]

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Black and White

Pushing Delta 400

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After six months away, the M7 is back and seems to be working. These are the last of the test images used to check that the camera was working correctly. All the images were shot here using Delta 400 rated at EI1600 and push-processed in DD-X 1+4. Everything was shot with either a 50mm C-Sonnar or Summilux lens with manual exposure and manual focusing.

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Journalism

Brexit Metaphors

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On Sunday, more than a million people marched in London to protest against the debacle that is the UK’s Brexit process, demanding a referendum on whether or not to proceed with Theresa May’s negotiated exit deal. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there – so this is an alternative photographic commentary on the current state of Brexit and British politics.

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Black and White

Manteros at Barceloneta

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Manteros at the beach in Barceloneta, having been displaced by the police from around the luxury marina (we can not have all those poor tax-evading billionaires being upset by the sight of illegal aliens selling illegal goods now, can we). Another 35mm test shot using Delta 400 pushed to EI 1600 in ID-11 1+1. Again, a difficult back-lit exposure where the there is little shadow detail remaining on the negatives.  

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Black and White

Quantum States

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That things are not what they seem should be an automatic reaction to anything that is reported today on the internet. Leica M7 with 50mm on Delta 100 and processed in ID-11 at dilution 1+1. It is immediately obvious how much smoother the image is compared to the previous (push processed) example, and while I like the result I suspect that it would be fairly easy to replicate this with a digital camera.

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Photography

Barcelona Street Art

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  Street art in the old town, Barcelona. Ilford Delta 100 shot with a dark red filter, and processed in ID-11. The scan resolution is not great, partly because I opted to scan (macro photograph) the negatives as complete frames, including the sprocket holes. While this seemed a cool thing to do at the time, I think the effect is a bit clichéd and I cropped this to match what I saw – you can see the raw scan and another from the same mural below. You can also see […]

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