Last weekend we drove down to the Southbank to watch some of the pre-Christmas festivities and enjoy seeing London all dressed up.
I took a camera along as I was hoping for an opportunity to catch some of the blue hour light. These two images were taken with a Leaf Credo 60 mounted on my Arca Swiss
Click on an image to see a larger one in a new window
A few images from the weekend, taken at the South East corner of England
A few shots from a recent trip to the Lake District. The weather did not disappoint and stayed grey and miserable for the duration of the trip. I found it quite nice actually as it made me go for a moody, dramatic look rather than the usual postcard like landscape images we’re so used to…
I also went with a “one camera, one lens” approach and took my trusty Arca-Swiss Rm2D with a Schneider 43mm/5.6 XL. The great thing about this tech cameras is that they are hand-holdable at very low shutter sped since they have no moving parts other than a small Copal-shutter.
Framing can be done with a variofinder but I find it just as fun and quick to do it by eye with some help of the built in spirit level.With wide-angle lenses when shooting landscapes, focus is usually set to infinity and for close range you just dial it back a bit.
I’ve been spoilt for choice of digital backs and this time I opted for two: A Leaf Aptus-II 10 and a Phase One IQ140; The former, with its unique 14:9 sensor shape is fantastic for great landscapes and in my view produces the best colours of any digital camera.
The latter, with its built-in spirit level and with Live View, is great for shorter distances where I could not use to full coverage of the lens. The Live View (similar to what we now have on the Leaf Credo) makes it really easy to frame and to focus on closer subjects like waterfalls and trees in the foreground
Earlier this week I had an email from my friend Steffen Jahn; he said he was coming to London for a car shoot and since this was only a few days after the launch of the new Leaf Credo, he wanted to know if I’ve got one that he ca try…It just happens that one of the prototypes came from the factory just a few days earlier. So of course I jumped on the opportunity to spend a day with one of the best car photographers (and a great guy as well!
I took a few “behind the scenes” photos with my iPhone, hopefully the tell a little bit about what se were doing:-)
More of Steffen’s work is available on his website
My recent article about the Berlin trip has just been published!!!
The Luminous Landscape
Aptus-II 12R, Arca-Swiss Rm2D and the Soviet WWII memorial
Been a while since I last had time to post any new stuff…
The last several months were a bit manic, work and travel wise, with 4-5 trips every month on average. Mostly were to boring places but there were a few highlights, lead by St. Petersburg in Russia and a recent holiday trip to Israel.
We got to spend a couple of days in Jerusalem and walked through the old city from the whaling wall to the Christian and Armenian quarters. Loved the colours, sounds and smells of food and spices !!! My trusty Nikon was a joy to use in those narrow allies though there were times where I wish I had some more horsepower to record all those textures and colours:-)
(Click to open in a new large window and then click again to enlarge)
Then we took a drive down to the dead sea. I always find this place to be magical with its stunning vistas and beautiful combinations of land and water colours, especially at sunrise and dusk.
Salt crystals (millions of them) on the “sandy” beaches:
Evening haze makes the mountains and the air disolve into the salty water
As always in the desert you are amazed at the number of stars that can be seen!!!
My first real work trip this year was to Mexico thanks to Leaf and the new Aptus-II 12, to a little magical town called San Miguel Del Allende where I was hosted by my friends Teya and Michael Reichmann in their wonderful Casa Lula
I was there only for 3 days but this gave us an opportunity to walk around the town’s cobbled streets, squares and markets and to try some of the local kitchen (thank you Michael and Teya!) and to of course talk about and shoot the new camera!!!
The view from the roof terrace at Casa Lula.
Aptus-II 12 on Arca-Swiss Rm2D with the new Schneider 43mm, what a combo!!!
The last ever Beetle came of the production line in Puelbla, Mexico on July 30th 2003
It looks as if most of those 21,529,464 cars still live on Mexican roads:-)
No words
The thing that attracted me most are the gates and
facades of the buildings that hide secret worlds behind them:
On One of the days, Michael and I drove to an old, abandoned Silver mining town called
Mineral de Pozos
Nestling at 8,000ft high, this place has some beautiful spaces, yards, walls and doorways
Aptus-II 10R (R for Rotating sensor) on Arca-Swiss Rm2D with Schneider 43mm
Can’t wait for the Aptus-II 12R
On the last day, Michael arranged an interview with Kavin Raber of Phase One Us and myself
You can view it here
February is expected to be relatively travel free as I will be focusing on some office work
(and hopefully will be able to rack up some cycling miles, been missing it this winter)
I expect to hit the road again in early March, stay tuned…
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