Category Archives: Photography

June 2nd

02 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Diversions, London, Music, Photobooks, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Work, plus the all-pervading sense of existential despair engendered by politics in 2016. Or maybe I’m just coming down with a cold.

Some good things that came by via Twitter and MixCloud through the day:

Fantastic photos of London c.1970-71 by David Wisdom: “I was more entranced by the continued existence, both architectural and human, of a London that stretched back in time before The Beatles, before The Wars, back to the slophouses of Dickens, back to the slatterns and toffs of William Hogarth and back to the Romans.”

News of a new SoulJazz Records compilation: Venezuela 70. A nagging thought in my brain says I can’t just buy everything that comes out on SoulJazz, but there would be worse ways to build a record collection. Anyway, the teaser track sounds great:

 

Ghostpoet’s Soho Radio show threw up a few great tracks, in particular Herbie Hancock’s Wiggle Waggle, which I’d never heard before – an excellent bit of soul-funk apparently recorded for a kids’ tv show; also Rangda, whose album I’d  made a mental note to buy when I heard the single on Soundcloud then immediately forgot about.


Photobook collection addition

Got home to find East End by John Claridge had arrived in the post, published by Spitalfields Life blog, which I’d quite forgotten ordering. It’s good: nicely produced with a lot of images in,and smartly edited. I’m not a huge fan of that blog’s prose style but its commitment to photography, never mind its overall scope of recording the history of Spitalfields – and in particular the history of ordinary people – in detail, is hugely impressively.

Brighter Later: Durham

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Back from the framers’ with a print bought from Brian David Stevens from his Brighter Later series. For this series of diptychs, Stevens circumnavigated the British coast taking shots looking out to see. Having bought the excellent photobook (published by Tartaruga) I decided I wanted a print, in particular of the Durham shots. Is it my favourite because of the way it looks, or because that’s where I grew up? Who cares.

I recommend taking the time to explore Brian’s other work, in particular his latest series exploring Beachy Head – sad and beautiful images.

Down by the river: from Hungerford bridge; April 2016

22 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Down by the river, London, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

On a brighter-than-expected day last week (my 40th birthday, as it happens), we walked down from Soho in the mid-afternoon – after lunch at Tapas Brindisa and a record-buying splurge in the fantastic Sounds of the Universe – and across Hungerford bridge to get the train home from Waterloo. The clouds were billowing over the Thames, the sunlight glinting off the stone and concrete of Waterloo Bridge and the Southbank centre; London looking freshened up after a stretched-out grey winter.

Earlier in the day we’d been to the Paul Strand exhibition at the V&A, which I’d highly recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in photography or 20th century art. Definitely worth visiting for any photographer who worries about veering from ‘their’ style: Strand changed his approach significantly a number of times through his life (one constant being his exquisite printing).

With the Strand exhibition at the V&A and the Martin Parr-curated Strange & Familiar at the Barbican, London has at least two big photographic exhibitions on at the moment, both of which would reward multiple visits. There’s more to come, too, with the National Portrait Gallery’s Willam Eggleston portraits show later in the year – let me know if you’ve seen any other photography exhibitions that are worth a look!

Glassblowing demonstration at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland; April 2016

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

An afternoon at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland. Recommended. 

All shots taken on a Fuji x100t then cropped (severely) and processed in the Enlight app on iPhone while waiting for my daughter to go to sleep. All of which is a way of saying, “I have no idea what these will look like on a proper screen”.

Whitstable beach: groynes, oyster beds, sea forts and wind turbines

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Low, low tide at Whitstable beach on Easter Sunday morning; the sky changing every few seconds as the weather hurtled by (though not as quickly as it did 12 hours later when Storm Katie arrived). A photo snatched as I followed my daughter as she cycled along the sea front. I suspect she’s only a few weeks away from getting the confidence to cycle at speeds which will make it harder for me to follow on foot taking photos as I go.

Dungeness and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by in Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

By miniature steam train to Britain’s only official desert, on a cold and blustery Easter Saturday.

Mostly shot on Fuji X100t (a couple may have slipped through from the iPhone); shot at Dymchurch station, wandering – briefly – around Dungeness in between trains, or from the top of Dungeness Lighthouse.

Edited in Snapseed on the iPad then transferred to desktop in a particularly convoluted and painful process: I either need a bigger iPad or to give up the idea of a seamless camera > wireless transfer > iPad > blog/Flickr/social workflow for the time being.

Apart from anything else, the colours look very different between my iPad and my desktop’s screen; what was a pleasing slight warming of the black and white tones on the iPad has turned more murky on my Dell monitor than I had hoped. Which is ‘correct’? I suppose I should dig out my monitor calibration device…wherever it is.

Natural History Museum, Oxford; February 2016

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

 
    

All shot on an iPhone 6s+, then processed in Snapseed iOS app. Here follows the magic formula* for B&W conversion in Snapseed:

  1. Contrast +10%
  2. Drama +20% (don’t be put off when you open this filter and find it defaulted to a deeply unpleasant 90%)
  3. Convert to Black & White: ‘Neutral’
  4. Apply a colour filter in the Black & White conversion filter, to taste
  5. Warmth +8%
  6. Vignette: to taste, depending how cluttered your corners are
  7. Frame: whatever (but here’s something I have learnt: the more film-like the frame I use, the more I regret it later).

*Not a magic formula, obviously; but a useful shortcut, hopefully. All values above approximate.

#PinocchioDay protest at The Valley; February 2016

14 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in London, Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

The Charlton fans are revolting…

 
  
  
  
  
  

Down to The Valley on a damp Saturday afternoon to catch the latest protest against the Duchâtelet regime. A couple of hundred people there (I’d guesstimate), gathering after a goalless draw with Cardiff City, some wearing Pinocchio masks provided by organisers CARD.