A short set of Italian alpine landscape images, which seems appropriate for the time of year. These were shot in several locations, from Vall di Mello to Lago di Como, and are a pretty good summary of what August should be like. Unfortunately for us, August is going to be a busy month, and I am putting the blog on hold now until things settle down in September, when it might also be cool enough to process film again…
Still experimenting with colour processing in Capture One… this time with a series of fragmentary images taken around Benasque, a beautiful village in the Spanish Pyrennees.
Three landscape images, taken in the Picos de Europa. These were shot in rather dull (and damp!) weather, so this was largely an experiment in using local edits for contrast and exposure in Capture One to give the images more punch.
A few travel snapshots from a brief trip to Munich. A very beautiful and cosmopolitan city, but bitingly cold at this time of year!
A short set of images taken around the piers in Brighton, during a rather stormy period. I have been meaning to try to take some pictures of the old piers for some time, although the original intention of making some long exposure sea-scapes was largely thwarted thanks to a slight aversion to the gale-force winds that were seemingly laced with sleet for much of the time…
A photo essay contrasting mass tourism in Asturias and Cantabria against city life in the same region. This reflects the growing tensions between increasingly wealthy and mobile tourists and and increasingly impoverished local population that sees little benefit from the tourist industry.
Some more tests of the 90mm Elmarit-M, this time some semi-abstract shots of the hyper luxury boat “Dilbar” when it was last docked in Barcelona. The Dilbar is one of the largest private yachts in existence, and valued at $600 million it likely more expensive than the harbour at which it was docked. It is owned by the controversial Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Inexplicably, it is finished in a rather 1980’s beige colour that recalls many early budget PCs. It looks significantly better in black and white than in real […]
A short set of images taken along the River Thames, mainly following the Thames Path. These were taken to test out a newly acquired 90mm Elmarit-M lens, which despite being more than 20 years old seems to be working amazingly well. The lens is extremely sharp, but lower-contrast than most modern lenses – although this is easily corrected when processing the images.
A set of landscape photographs taken along the coast near Lynton and Lynmouth from a rather cold and wet weekend trip to the UK. It is not exactly Cannes, but the slightly less than hospitable weather makes a nice backdrop for the black and white imagery. All images shown here taken with the M 262 and 50mm Summilux, processed in Capture One 11. These would have worked very well on Delta 100 film, but it would have needed a heavy tripod to deal with the lighting and wind. At one […]
The first of two sets of high-contrast black-and-white travel photographs – in this case taken during a rather damp and cold day’s walk around Exeter. These were shot digitally and processed in Capture One. The results are very different from the usual film images, but for short trips such as this there is a lot to be said for the convenience of a digital camera.
A brief review looking at three different options for polarising filters that can be used with Leica M series cameras.
This is a user-review of the Leica M typ 262, based on one year of use with a mix of street, landscape and architectural photography.
We recently had a chance to visit the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Aside from the exhibitions inside, the building itself is a masterpiece that was designed by the amazing American architect, Frank Gehry. The building is mostly known for its titanium cladding and twisted intersecting forms. These photographs were taken of the structure inside, deliberately abstracted to exclude as much texture and detail as possible to give an impression of the forms used. Architecture aside, the exhibits in the museum were excellent – and would justify a visit to Bilbao […]
A slideshow of images taken on a recent trip to Padova, Italy. This was not really a photographic trip, although it was a chance to put the M262 (camera, not aircraft) through its paces following the six week long repair in Wetzlar. Padova is a fascinating city that is a microcosm of Italy. There are many contrasts: the old town and new developments, exemplary classical art and modern graffiti, young and old. You could easily spend weeks observing and photographing in this town, and still not run out of new […]
This week the annual Revela-T festival has once again taken over Vilasser de Dalt to celebrate contemporary analogue photography. The festival has an excellent mix of exhibitions, workshops and a small photographic market. The exhibitions are extremely well curated and there are excellent guided tours which are often aided by the presence and commentary of the original artist. The works span projects undertaken in Vilasser de Dalt itself (notably an excellent large format portrait project documenting the former workers of the textile mills that now make up some of the civic venues in the town) through to international exhibits such […]
A short collection of images from Perpignan. These are very random and very unevenly edited, and show a very partial view of the town. These were originally intended to form part of a set of images around the theme of the recent French presidential election, as Perpignan is very much a microcosm for the issues central to the election. Unfortunately, conflicts on time meant that it was not possible to complete the necessary sequence, and the images here do not attempt to show the tension between the French middle classes, […]
Transient Eye 