Life Observed

Allow me to introduce the medieval hill town of San Gimignano near Siena in Italy. This mini hill top Manhattan is quite a tourist draw, and we certainly enjoyed our short visit there a decade ago. We find the typical Mediterranean hallmark of tall buildings and narrow streets, but there are also these huge almost windowless medieval towers. From Wikepedia: "While in other cities, such as Bologna or Florence , most or all of their towers have been brought down due to wars or catastrophes, San Gimignano has managed to conserve fourteen towers of varying height which have become its international symbol." I can't argue with that. The towers  were apparently used as statements of wealth and status, with each family attempting to outbuild its neighbours. Although the town is an architectural delight, it is also a photographers nightmare. The deep shadows and the bright stonework are at war with each other, and everywhere there are your fellow tourists...

I like architecture, landscape, light and shade, abstract and all things natural. These are the subjects that occupy my viewfinder. However we all have our blind spots and mine is people.   I have a colleague who is a prodigious people photographer. I would say ninety percent of his pictures involve people, and he covers Glastonbury on a regular basis. I have a suspicion he would be lost if instructed to make a quality landscape image, just as I would be out of my comfort zone doing a portrait session. (Edit: If you travel forward in time you will find I have done the odd portrait session ). However, it all depends on the context. If you are dealing with someone who is putting on an act in some way, a performer, then you are half way towards the end result. They expect to interact, and are probably happy to be photographed. Here we have the Newbury Town crier in full cry. He is on duty, in costume and in character, and is fair game for a picture. Even so I felt I...

Dark corners in Florence. Those who step out in a new city with me are cursed by my fascination with side alleys and partially revealed views. I am for ever falling behind or investigating what lies off the beaten track. (Even though these were taken in my Nikon and Provia film era, I will have used exposure compensation to preserve the right feel of light and shade) In your typical Mediterranean town there will always be plenty of dark corners to investigate. I believe the hot summer sun, high land values and a splendid lack of town planning have driven the builders to place the city houses closer and closer together. They also build tall in Florence. All this creates canyons of shade and endless photographic temptation. When you add to this mixture the ever present Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or "Duomo" that can be glimpsed from time to time, you have many opportunities for the unexpected view. It is well worth climbing the four hundred and...

Let us go to Houghton Lodge , hard by Stockbridge in Hampshire.  Houghton Lodge is " An 18 th Century  Grade ΙΙ* listed  Gothic Cottage Orné, idyllically set above the tranquil waters of the River Test."  We were visiting Stockbridge and decided to have a look at this place on a pleasant afternoon.  As we wandered around the beautiful grounds and garden we came across people in costume, looking for all the world like a Jane Austen novel come to life. It turns out to be a company of historical dance enthusiasts out for a stylish summer picnic.    In what is one of my great Missed Opportunities, I didn't have the brass neck to gather some of them together for a posed picture. There were all the right elements. The Empire line dresses, men in scarlet uniforms just back from some foreign campaign, and the odd bounder. Surely this fellow is The Warden from Trollope's Barchester Towers... Oh well. I sti...

Many of us have a photographic history that goes back to the Film Age. In those days worried photographers roamed the land searching for three excellent pictures to "finish off the film" . They would then wait and fret for a week, wondering if the pictures would "come out". During my long path to digital photography, I switched to Fuji Provia and had the film developed at the local pro labs with the intention of scanning the images in my new SCSI slide scanner. While the slides looked great and the scans were not too bad, the whole process took so long that many of the images were left unscanned. The scanner did not cope well with high contrast images and tended to sacrifice all the detail in the shadows. Fast forward: Now I have a DSLR or two, a remote triggered flash and a macro lens. It doesn't take much analysis to realise that my top quality macro lens (even these guys regard it as one of the best lenses they've tested...) with a 36mm wide f...

Boxing Day. Its a bit of a mystery, there is no agreed explanation for it. For some it will be a time to follow the local hunt, for others a chance to walk off the feasting of Christmas Day, and for some it will be an on line shopping day. On line shopping? Why today? Perhaps they are spending the vouchers they had for Christmas, or perhaps buying the goodies they were secretly expecting, but which did not turn up. I will not add to legends with any of my theories, so I will simply offer this dawn view from the relative warmth of the house: Minus seven degrees outside and plus seventeen inside before breakfast. Thank goodness for modern insulation. Its nice to see some early morning sunshine, as it skews the colour balance of this rule breaking picture. One can correct colour balance with great ease these days, but sometimes you lose some of the magic in the picture. A well corrected dawn picture suddenly looks commonplace.

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to my reader...   St Nicolas church in the snow, 2001. Fuji Provia slide film, scanned by DSLR using this rig that will be described in a post from the future..

Patterns and Abstracts: I do like a good pattern. Repeated shapes and shadows seem to be a draw to many a photographer. I am not so certain that I would want this first picture up on the wall, but that didn't stop me taking it... What a strange struggle between concrete and grass. I wonder which will win? This window blind is a great deal more minimalist. There is very little to explain to the viewer. No hints or tips. Equally, it has its own mysteries. What might be behind it? What is it hiding? Aah. Brickwork... The hand of the artisan on public display. This ambitious building is certainly eye catching in the sunlight, and makes a nice picture. I don't think I would wish to live opposite it however. I decided to break the striking diagonal flow by including the air vent top right. Finally a much more organic pattern. The generic cracked mud picture. These pictures are always the same, and yet always different, rather like seascapes. Sometim...

There is always a touch of guilt involved when I photograph fruit or vegetables. It seems somehow wrong to eat your subject. Sometimes the object in question is found in the garden: Here is one of our Raspberries: Sometimes I've found the subject is lying in a field. This sweetcorn escaped consumption because it was still attached to the plant. I fear that someone ate it eventually. Usually the best subjects are to be found in the Kitchen however. You can control the lighting and dissect them at your leisure. Take this half cabbage for example, what wonderful patterns... Finally, here is the usual half pepper picture. This one sports a very pleasing array of seeds. So: Should we eat our subjects? Is it so bad?

Ever since I had a house extended and talked to the bricklayer, I have been an observer of walls. I have to say his bricklaying was excellent. It put the rest of the house to shame. The courses and joints were regular and  even. So these days I look carefully at bricks and their joints, searching for true artistry. So there's my tip of the day, go look at a wall. Anyway. Closely Observed Walls: This rather artistic display of good mortar and truly awful 1960's bricks was, until a few years ago, holding up the A34 at one of the bridges in Newbury. I don't know where they got the bricks but just look at the state of it.. I had noticed it decaying for some years and eventually decided to get this picture in 1998. The result was this almost abstract arrangement of lines, light and shadow. Fast forward ten years to Durham (the Cathedral that bans photography) and walk down a side street, where you will find a sandstone wall that is going the same way: This is a...

The only good thing about the Shortest day is that one may now claim the days are getting longer. You can hold the memory of spring in the mind as a reward for all this dark and dismal foolishness. Why we have to revert to GMT for the winter has always baffled me: Looking out of the office window at four pm to see it has already gone dark is such a depressing experience. Winter Sunset It is in the Winter that we pay for those longer days of the Summer. For every lovely late  Summer evening there has to be a dark drive home from work in December. BTW, my time travelling ability lets me tell you there will be a post including winter sunsets in the future. So, what about it folks? Surely a mild readjustment of the Earth's orbit would reward us in the Northern Hemisphere with a (say) fouteen hours of sunlight averaged over the year rather than twelve. That small change would be enough to make life a lot more tolerable in the Winter.  Let's have a go at it. Afte...

If you go to Durham Cathedral you will find out that photography is forbidden. All forms of photography. They will sell you a CD of pictures they took for you and do allow you to take pictures of the outside. We had a guided tour of the Cathedral a while back as part of a church pilgimage, and yes it is splendid inside.  So, in the spirit of the Dean and Chapter of Durham: Here is my picture. I should point out that we found an exhibition in place inside. Oh irony.! It was an exhibition of photographs by the local camera club. As an alternative, let me recommend Ripon Cathedral . Part of the same pilgrimage involved a short trip to Ripon. What a nice place and what a nice Cathedral. Small and perfectly formed. Yes, they will let you photograph the 15th century misericords ... ... and their remarkable Saxon Crypt. It was there I took this tight focus picture of this splendid metal statue. Do call in and visit Ripon. Tell them that Pete sent you. 

Some shots from a choir and band concert last night. I was supposed to be taking pictures of the choir, but I was seduced by the shapes and reflections in the instruments, and the characters in the band. Band and choir Hard at work Following the dots A small detail.. (A note from the future. It turns out I revisit the plumbing and valve department outdoors)

Yet more Arctic air was funnelled down unsuspecting Britain this week. I caught some moments of sunshine on the farm in between the dense grey clouds of snow. So far it has been a decorative dusting. Further north and west it seems to be much worse.  I fear there will be the usual transport mayhem. I do wonder if Britain tries to do so much internationally that there is no money left to spend at home... Anyway, politics apart, let's see the pictures. This is the farm lane, the subject of previous posts and part of an observational thread on the UK Olympus users forum. This is a contre-jour shot (straight into the sun) but as is the generally accepted method, I have hidden the sun behind a tree trunk. This maintains the look of the picture but reduces lens flare. Thin snow but very cold even at lunchtime. There's not much sign of life, just the restless rooks in the tops of the trees. It may be boring stuck in a stable, though I bet its warmer than spending the day out...