Life Observed

So, to continue the story : After a couple of years with the Olympus 8080 (a very nice camera actually) I decided I needed something faster, with a removeable lens. Clearly this argument is heading me towards a DSLR , but they were all so big, heavy and expensive.  It was just about this time that Olympus brought out the E400, billed as the smallest DSLR in the world . Here was a worthy candidate at last. I bought mine with two kit lenses and set about finding its capabilities and its weaknesses. Some more patterns and shapes images for you, taken with the E400. This set up produced nicer pictures than any of my previous digital cameras. The lenses were really not bad at all, and the pictures were clean and sharp and not afflicted by noise. It was only when I traded up to my current camera and lens set that I realised just how good Olympus kit lenses are. Their semi-pro glass is better, but the kit lens pair are already so good that the difference is not enormo...

Well here we are a year later, in another place with another camera. I sold the Fuji and jumped to eight megapixels after reading the reviews of the Olympus C8080.  What a great camera: It was made from aluminium alloy, not plastic, with a really classy wide zoom lens. The tiny rear screen could tilt, it had buttons all over it. This was certainly a better picture taking tool than that Fuji. In general the image quality was now up there with my old slides. That's the rear bar in a smart Cotswold pub, it's ceiling covered in a collection of tankards. I used this Olympus for a couple of years and was well pleased with it. I have to admit that indoor shots like that one above were sometimes more noisy than I would like. The camera could shoot raw image files but it took so long to process them it was a joke.  Surely I was not going to change gear again ? Is there a pattern developing?

Here is one of my favourite subjects: A repeated pattern of everyday objects. I took a picture very like this on cheap print film with my old FED50 some years before. That was then, this is now. Film is dead and I was in the brave new Digital World when this picture caught my eye. I had to have another go at it. By this time (2003) I had already owned one digital camera , but the less said about that the better... This second digital camera, a Fuji S602, was a distinct improvement. It offered three whole megapixels, a half decent lens and proper mode controls with Aperture priority. All the inconvenience of film was behind me. Instant results. Excellent. Surely I would be happy now...

Spotting patterns is the life blood of certain types of photography. Quite often I take the picture on the basis of some unconscious decision, only to see the patterns or the sequences later. Well, that's my explanation. It was the voices that made me take it... Here are a couple from yesterday:  I suppose it's self evident that perched birds end up facing into wind. I mean, they would get their feathers all ruffled if they faced the other way, and probably fall of their perch. And weathercocks: Well, they face into wind because they have no choice in the matter. Here is another couple from the stable yard in the morning. I just had to wait for the fleeting moment when they were both looking the same way.  I added a some exposure compensation to get the picture dark enough and kept the aperture large enough to isolate the little 'un nearest the camera.

Mediterranean houses are very different to British ones. All over Cyprus you can see shuttered windows, designed to keep the sunshine out of the house. Trees and vines are planted around doors and windows, which help to make the interior darker and keep the sun at bay. Louvred shutters are even more popular. These keep the sunshine out while allowing a breeze into the house. Well, one man's breeze is another man's draught , and in Northern Europe the houses are designed with exactly the opposite aims. We try to allow the maximum sunshine into the house, and fit sealed double glazing to keep the heat in and the breeze out. I say you can judge a climate by it's houses. We spend a lot of time dealing with rain in Britain, and you see that in domestic and urban building details. So, I am intrigued by the modern trend for the gutterless town street. The paved pedestrian road gives way smoothly to a pavement with just a nominal line of coloured blocks t...

I do like my parallel lines . Give me a view with something straight that stretches away into the distance and I am happy. My picture of the lines of trees at Christchurch College meadow featured elsewhere on this blog is an early example of this fixation. Thus I was pleased to see these excellent views out and about round the village recently. The low winter sun sharpens this view of the remains of last year's crop. Strangely, this stubble field has not been ploughed and drilled with new seed. I wonder what they plan to do? Build houses on it? Here's another example. This time the low sun gives me a very convincing set of parallel shadows drawing the eye towards the outskirts of the village in the background. I didn't feel the colours were strong enough to support the image so I converted it to monochrome with a very slight tint.

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...

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...

I am always attracted by patterns and textures. Some of these are purely accidental, some are natural. Here's some examples: These flowers come out of the bud all crinkly and if you catch them before they have straightened out, with the sun in the right position, they almost look artificial A corner of a field covered in clover. Each flower is different, and yet they are all the same. This was a close up wide angle shot with the horizon deliberately excluded.  A rather more contrived image: I found these melons outside a greengrocers in Rottingdean one wet winter day. And these last two are positively posed images. Peppers on the cutting board. There is always a little guilt when you take a picture then proceed to eat the subject... Finally this posed woodworking image. I think the shapes and patterns of wood shaving  are wonderful. I did however ruin an otherwise useful piece of pine batten to get this picture...