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This is an unusual image.

We were visiting MAAT – the Contemporary Art Museum in Lisbon, and came across an exhibit explaining light, heat etc. and infront of us was projected a real-time image of us, filmed by a heat-sensitive camera. Great fun.

For once UPS actually managed to deliver a parcel to the correct address, and yesterday I finally received my new lens. It’s a beaut! Very well made, with the focusing mechanism smooth and well balanced. Sadly yesterday was a day of very mixed lighting and little available time, so my initial test shots are meaningless to anyone other than myself.

To fully understand the wide angle properties of this lens you’d normally have to compare this shot with the same scene taken with a less extreme lens. Which I didn’t have time to take… A full set of comparable images will be available soon…

Suffice it to say I like: The size and weight, the infinity ‘stop’ (very useful in night-time photography) the hyperfocal distance scale (as it’s a manual focus lens) and the general build quality.

I’m waiting for the gelatin ND filters to arrive – then we’ll have some more fun!

This example was taken almost directly into the sun (fairly obvious really) and I’m impressed with the fact that there is very little flare – a well corrected/coated lens.

Todays image involved a little planning…

This is the Vasco da Gama bridge which spans the Tage river basin on which Lisbon is built. The older Western part is more important in terms of it’s size, but the Eastern edge of the basin is fast developing and the 12klm long bridge linking the two sides was opened to the public in 1998.

Before visiting Portugal I had seen a photograph of this bridge taken in the early morning, and it looked worthwhile to visit. I checked the time of the sunrise (6h11) and the approximate angle relative to the bridge (thank you Google Maps) and decided that it would be feasible. What I hadn’t counted on was the scale of our map of Lisbon – what I thought would be a half hour walk from our hostel was in fact an hours bus ride plus a half hour walk!

With WiFi available everywhere in Portugal, we checked for buses, metro, trams and sure enough there was a night bus that ran every hour – so I left the hotel (alone I might add) at 4am to walk down to the bus stop, where I caught the bus with a surprising number of other people (most of whom got off at the airport, presumably shift workers) and thanks to my bus pass, paid 1.30€ for my hours trip. When I arrived at the terminus, the dawn was breaking so it wasn’t too difficult to decide which way to orient myself and I walked along the riverfront to the bridge.

Interestingly I was not the only photographer there that morning – there were at least 3 others. Anyway, I think it was worth it…of course, when I go back to the hotel, it was just in time for breakfast – that’s planning!

In the unlikely event anyone is actually interested, here’s a little of the history surrounding some of my recent images. One a day…

This is the Place Luís da Camoēs in Lisbon, facing West. Our hostel overlooked this very animated square, with an ebb and flow of people and activity virtually 24 hours a day. One morning, as we were leaving the square to explore Lisbon, an elderly lady (Why is it always elderly ladies who feed wild birds?) poured a large amount of corn on the ground for the pigeons.

Pigeons eating infront of a monument really isn’t anything to write home about, so I decided to liven things up a little. Take the focus and frame the shot, finger on the shutter button, stamp foot – marvelous!

I wouldn’t want any of my fan (no ‘s’ – there’s only one) to think I’d forgotten one of my favorite people – haven’t heard much from her (thankfully) recently, but she’s still here, sadly in France, scaring the locals around her hotel in Paris.

Who can this be? Well, from this photo who would you think?

Canadian Super Mario? No, it’s Celine Dion – apparently just been called out to fix a blocked sink somewhere. Frankly anyone who thinks rubber dungarees are ‘in’ is either an overpaid Canadian singer or has just returned from an extended stay in a far away galaxy.

Luckily she’s sporting her plumbers glasses – equipped with LED’s so she’ll be able to navigate under the worktop and sort out those nasty drain issues.

One could be mistaken thinking her choice of shoes somewhat odd for a plumbing job, but I’m led to understand this is actually her skin – all those years of  playing with René-Charles and the twins have taken their toll.

Wtf…

With any luck, this should arrive tomorrow…
(referring to blog post from March 2017)

It’s the new IRIX 11mm f/4 Full Frame – and I have to admit this is great news. Being a fan of extreme wide angle lenses, this lens is very interesting as it’s a genuine full frame (24×36) and not a fisheye. It’s a manual focus lens, which is not really inconvenient to me, and has a ‘hard’ infinity stop – which is VERY useful when taking night shots.

The downside is the huge domed front element which prevents using filters – however, IRIX have designed-in a gelatin filter holder behind the rear element.

The angle of view of my existing extreme wide angles (14mm – 114°and 16mm – 107°) is pretty wide and fairly distorsion free, but this 11mm is a whopping 126° – can’t wait to start using this…

Watch this space for examples

Yes, we’re back from a superb time spent visiting Portugal – what we saw we liked (particularly the bridges!!) and the people and the food were excellent.

The difficulty now is to come back down to earth – the over 2000 images I made have been sorted with a first pass on the site as an album – there are far too many images, but I’ll reduce this as time goes on.

Since arriving back I have also photographed the Fête de la Musique AND a presentation at CiRCa – I’ve decided to rest now…

This is the Vasco da Gama bridge which joins the West and East parts of Lisbon – getting up at 4am and taking the night bus, to get there in time for the sunrise, was an experience! Hopefully I’ll have time to post more images in the next few days.

 

Nice sunny day, so we decided to visit Villeneuve-sur-Lot – not just a random thought, as there is an exhibition of the work of Jean Dieuzaide at the Musée de Gajac until the 18th of June.

The exhibition is not huge, but the images are interesting – very varied. Aside from the fact that several seemed to be hung slightly ‘wonky’ on the walls, and the smaller prints had dreadful matt boards (cream coloured – made the frames look very old) – the exhibition was well spaced and lit.

This image was probably our favourite – a true work of art in my opinion.

At the moment it’s the ‘Mai de la Photo’ at Villeneuve and a number of expos are available all over the town. Sadly as it was a Sunday, not all were open but we did manage to visit the Tour de Paris where a young photographer was exposing her ‘glamour’ work. Can’t say we were really convinced – but it takes all sorts!, and above all it was worth the trip to see everything.

Today, it seems, we have to be so careful what we say, or write – particularly on Internet. People seem to have adopted the American attitude of suing everyone for the most ridiculous reasons. So much for freedom of speech.

I mention this simply because if I were to publish the following on a public forum I’d no doubt be banned (again) !

This was brough home to me recently when I was reading some posts on the Nikon Rumours Forum and realised that I simply couldn’t reply or comment.

There are a few very reasonable photographers who post their ideas and desires, and a whole host of people who really shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a camera who post all sorts of totally unremarkable dross.

One of them (« With more than 55 years experience » according to his FLIKR profile) only posts images taken three or four years ago – thus prompting the thought that he still hasn’t quite got used to his latest DSLR purchased two years ago – interestingly, despite the fact we never actually see any of his more recent rubbish, sorry, images, he’s the first to be « waiting for the revised edition » of his current camera. WTF.

I rest my case…

Anyway… after reading a few posts from largely ignorant (but visibly quite wealthy) people who consider themselves ‘experienced photographers’  I came to the conclusion that the large majority of these people relied entirely on the camera to take/make their images, seemingly forgetting that the camera, in my opinion at least, is simply a tool to record what the photographer wants to portray.

More than one of these amazingly ‘experienced’ people made the comment that despite having recently purchased a recent digital reflex camera, that they were eagerly waiting for the next model – but why? The current model does about 3000 times more than they will ever need or understand, so does this mean that the fact that they are incapable of using it and creating decent images mean that the next model will do this any better for them?

I can better understand the camera manufacturers marketing now – they aim everything at these idiots, knowing full well that they will buy every new model, not for it’s capabilities, but because they think they will suddenly take better pictures!

Great strategy!

For the past three or four years I’ve come across a man standing in the from row, taking photographs of the artists at Welcome in Tziganie. We never really had the opportunity to talk until this year when we actually spoke a little, and after the festival it dawned on me that it was Jean Jaques MOLES a photographer based at Maubec in the neighbouring department Tarn-et-Garonne.

He has most recently exposed work at the Abbey de Flaran in the Gers, and I remember really liking some of his work when we visited the exhibition earlier this year (before I realised who he was).

We exchanged a few e-mails after the festival, and this exchange has left me a little confused. He made a comment regarding the photographs he’d seen on my site :

« I found your images very ‘harmonious’ with respect to the lighting – and it’s for this reason that I think you ‘treated’ them before publishing. I don’t treat my images »

I really don’t know what to say –  yes, I ‘adjusted’  the exposures it’s true – this is inevitable in a concert situation where the lighting changes as the artists move on stage. Does this mean he doesn’t like anything that has been ‘adjusted’? I find this a little old-fashioned, frankly.

Sad really – I’d hoped this friendship might develop.