Tag: Ricoh GR

Week 6 :: Wormhole

Torrassa Metro Escaleras, Barcelona. Ricoh GR II in Black and White.

February 15, 2016 4 Comments

With this weeks spectacular announcement of the first ever detection of gravity waves from the merger of two black holes, it seemed appropriate to find some vague link for the next set of photographs. Fortunately, Linea 9 Sud (South) on the Barcelona metro opened just this week, giving an opportunity for exploration of a virtual wormhole (I admit this is a bit tenuous). Currently, only the north and south sections of the line are open, although they will eventually join when the construction is completed. The new line 9 is […]

Photography

Week 4 :: Of Cats and Men

Street Art in the Raval, Barcelona. Ricoh GR, processed to Black and White in Capture One Pro 9.

February 1, 2016 1 Comment

Another difficult week for photography, so just a few snapshots of street art from around the Raval and also an attempt at motion blur images with the GR. The latter turns out to be much harder than with the film cameras, partly because the Ricoh is so much lighter and partly because of the display blackout while tracking (maybe an external optical finder would work). Unfortunately, still no more film images this week as again the ongoing problems here are continuing to drain huge amounts of time and creative photographic energy. It is […]

Photography

Week 3 :: Modern Times

Drummers at the Festa Major de Sant Antoni, Barcelona. Ricoh GR shot in RAW and converted to Black and White in Capture One Pro 9.0.3

January 25, 2016 1 Comment

This week’s five images come from around Barcelona, and mix modern motorways, old streets, human castles, drummers and explosions. One thing about Barcelona is that there is always something interesting to photograph…

Abstract

Week 1 :: Shadows

Secrets and Lies - Occupation of our home over Christmas

January 11, 2016 2 Comments

One benefit of being a street photographer is that creating a photographic record of criminal activity is an instinctive reaction, even if most of the photographs for legal reasons can not be published immediately. These images have been deliberately selected from a few of the more abstract captures this week – caused by an occasional flash misfire or from several attempts to destroy the camera (as in the lead image). The photographs were processed in the frustratingly buggy Capture One Pro 9, and have no content changes or effects other than to obscure facial features in one image below.

Photography

Jardin des Plantes and Grande Galerie de l’Évolution

November 13, 2015 4 Comments

The Jardin des Plantes and Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Paris. Inside, the gallery of evolution is quite amazing, with an astonishing building that combines fantastic colour lighting, sound effects (at one point simulating a thunderstorm), and a vast historical collection of stuffed animals:

Photography

Review: Capture One Pro 8

September 5, 2015 4 Comments

This is a review of Capture One Pro 8.3.2, specifically from the perspective of a long-time Lightroom user, running Apple’s Mac OS and using several different small cameras (the Canon 5D Mark II and III, Olympus E-M5, Ricoh GR, and various film systems). There is also a brief look at how well Capture One handles RAW compression artefacts from Sony’s new A7R II camera. This is a long post. If you prefer you can jump directly to the conclusion, or to the image processing comparisons with Lightroom. We will also be […]

Photography

Ghost Town

June 3, 2015 3 Comments

A short set of photographs of an abandoned town, a short-lived remnant of western north American gold rush. All except for two images were shot on HP5+ film, with the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm. The remaining images were taken with the Ricoh and processed in Lightroom to try to recreate the Sonnar “look” (in as much as 28mm and 50mm focal lengths can look the same). Aside from adding simulated grain, the Ricoh images needed much reduced overall clarity and contrast, and also a circular graduated clarity filter to further unsharpen the image away […]

Photography

Road Trip II: Fruits and Nuts

May 22, 2015 Leave a Comment

A larger than usual set of images, taken through the passenger window while driving. The images capture snapshots of things which are often passed but seldom visited, showing areas of Native American “reserves”, roadside stalls, advertisements, churches, and the ongoing Californian drought. All the photographs were deliberately taken perpendicular to the roadside, using a fixed 28mm lens. This helps lend some visual consistency that counters the intentionally random and disconnected content. As many of these images do not work well when viewed at a small size, there is a more traditional version of the gallery, with […]

Photography

The Many Faces of Death Valley

May 18, 2015 3 Comments

Sand dunes, Salt flats and storms – all within a few hours of passing through Death Valley. We passed through on the way back to San Francisco, and were not quite expecting to see so much variety on the lowest (-86m ASL) and hottest place in the United States. Sunburned and rained on in the same hour. Running somewhat slowly with the post updates at the moment, due to work related travel – and the need to rebuild the computer after a dodgy installation script wiped out permissions and ownership […]

Landscape

Hiking in Zion National Park

May 13, 2015 3 Comments

A set of photographs taken from a day’s hiking in Zion National Park, Utah. The park is centred around another wonderful water eroded red sandstone valley, cut through the same sedimentary depositions that resulted in both the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. Ascending from the bottom to the top of these sites you can see more than 200 million years of fascinating geological history (pdf) – as well as the spectacular views. The photograph below shows the trails we followed. We originally intended only to walk to Hidden Canyon, but the route was much easier than expected and so we […]

Photography

Tourists of Bryce

May 11, 2015 2 Comments

Tourism in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. We only had a short stop here – just enough to undertake the Peek-a-Boo trail from Inspiration Point. Oddly this is classified as a “strenuous” hike, although for Europeans used to hiking in the Alps this is actually quite an easy and quick walk. The paths are well made and maintained, as an essential part of preventing erosion in the fragile park landscape. There seemed to be a trend for tourist coaches unloading passengers at Inspiration Point, who would then walk briefly down and […]

Landscape

Grand Canyon

May 6, 2015 10 Comments

A short set of slightly abstract images taken from a flight over the Grand Canyon. The aim was to produce images similar to the reliefs seen in an old geography text book. Photographing through a moving airplane window was quite challenging. With a rather tight travel schedule, we chose a late-afternoon flight to try to get some shadow and contrast in the photographs, shooting with a fast shutter speed to compensate for the rather bumpy flight and using careful post processing in Lightroom to handle the atmospheric haze. Framing was challenging, to […]

Photography

Street Clichés IX

April 24, 2015 2 Comments

… and easier still when there are (almost) no people. This is the last of the sequence. There were a few interesting photographs from the short walks that yielded the photographs, which I have added below.

Photography