29 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in London, Photography
A very quick trip to the Crossness Engine Trust’s open day; I hope to get back soon with a wide angle lens…
Open days for the rest of 2013 listed here: http://www.crossness.org.uk/visit.html
26 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in London, Photography
AKZO NOBEL, originally uploaded by neilclasper.
Shot three years ago, looking towards Silvertown from the Thames path around North Greenwich. A glimpse of Antony Gormley’s ‘Quantum Cloud’, and a view of the – sadly since-removed – Akzo Nobel sign.
22 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in London, Photography
I love the colours and textures that the African textile shops have brought to Petticoat Lane. Excuse my converging verticals (or blame them on the iPhone).
05 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in London, Photography
Tags
Blackheath, Fuji X-E1, kites, london, photography, Psychogeography, trees, wildflowers
I’m often ambivalent about the charms of Blackheath; a place desperately convincing itself that it really is an idyllic rural village set by the city, but often as traffic-jammed, noisy, and estate agent-plagued as any other part of London. Last night, though, I walked over the heath from the village back to Charlton, taking a detour to watch the kite-boarders and have a look at the wildflowers along the bunds of Prince Charles Road; it was warm, the sunset brewing up to spectacular, just about possible to ignore the traffic along the A2, and – on foot – take in the variety of plant life barely-perceptible from the bus.
Maybe I’ll put my campaign to have the whole heath re-forested on hold a little bit longer.
Photos all shot on the Fuji X-E1 and processed in the far-from satisfactory Windows Picture Manager. Home insurance payout can’t come soon enough.
01 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in London, Photography
Charlton riverside sunset, originally uploaded by neilclasper.
A JPEG from the Fuji X-E1. I think in RAW I could probably pull a bit more detail out of the shadows, but otherwise I’m pretty pleased with it; particularly the detail in the cable car above the sun.
As yet, the technology doesn’t exist to show this image with the sounds from the incredibly loud karaoke action outside the Anchor & Hope pub just to the left of this viewpoint. What price a peaceful Sunday evening drink by the river?
16 Sunday Jun 2013
Posted in Photography
Trying out my new Fuji X-E1.
Being currently without any sort of proper computer, I’ve not managed to either update the firmware, or have a look at a RAW file, but here are some initial impressions anyway:
1. It’s very nicely made
2. The straight-out-of-the-camera Jpegs seem very good: goo contrast, white balance, and so on.
3. The lens seems very good indeed: no barrel distortion to be seen, nice colours, fast, and capable of pretty extreme shallow focus (though that’s not a style I’m usually interested in)
4. The auto-focus is slooooow. Hopefully the firmware update should improve this, when I get a chance.
5. The lens cap is really, really cheap, and a bit shoddy. Needs replacing before it falls off and gets lost.
Looking forward to getting further into it.
14 Friday Jun 2013
Posted in London, Photography
Tubby Isaac’s, originally uploaded by neilclasper.
11 Tuesday Jun 2013
Posted in London, Photography
Inspired use of photographer Phil Maxwell’s local images on the hoardings around this (less-than-inspired) new development on Wentworth Street, E1. More on this installation here.
11 Tuesday Jun 2013
Posted in London, Photography
Away from the much-discussed, filmed and photographed high-rise developments in the City and south bank – the Shards, Cheese graters, Walkie-Talkies, etc – a whole host of even-less inspired towers are rising on the eastern periphery. This Barratt Homes effort in Whitechapel looks particularly dismal, with its clumpy form and cheap-as-chips cladding.
08 Saturday Jun 2013
Posted in Photobooks, Photography
Just arrived in the post from Cafe Royal Books, Working Men: Club and Coal is a simply-presented A5 booklet featuring the work of Homer Sykes. It’s nicely printed, and cheap – £5! – but doesn’t have any text to explain when and where the series was shot. This seems a bit of a shame, though doing some research on the web to work it out has led me towards some interesting photography that I’d no seen before. Maybe it’s not a bad thing to be made to do some of the work yourself.
The images themselves are excellent: black & white, unposed shots from collieries and workingmen’s clubs, depicting a part of British that’s a part of many people’s past, or maybe part of an inherited memory, but now looks like ancient history.
NeilClasper 