Museum of fine art indeed

Brussels has the Marat by David, the Cranach nude women, the fall of Icarus, the census in Jerusalem by Breughel and a monster sized room of monster sized peter paul Rubens pictures. Mighty fine.

Bruxelles glass plate, pissing boys and karl marx three

When we arrived in Brussels, we had to experience Belgian waffles (oh my God!, mouthgasm), Belgian frites with mayo (had them, tasty, but still prefer steak frites of Paris ), see the pissing boy statue, and du chocolat. (after lady gaga, it's lady Godiva I love).

Brussels is hilly like my home town. This is a huge surprise as I had always thought of it as flat and medieval like the photos of its spectacular city square. It is not all medieval, but also modern. As a good friend said, it is like getting all the benefits of Paris without the sometimes snooty waiters. The people are very friendly, urbane and
Laid back. I like it.

I'm getting great photos here but I can't upload because of the iPad photo card issue. These photos are iPod snaps of the screen on my camera back. More and better later when I get home. The fujifilm X Pro 1 is a handful and requires a lot of management, but like a true thoroughbred, delivers the Goods.

And apparently that fu"@ker Karl Marx wrote tHe final draft of the communist manifesto in the swan cafe in the central Square of Brussels. Piss on him too.

Glass plate negatives of the low countries

Im having trouble loading cards from the iPad. It reads and corrupts the cards such that my camera works too slowly.

If I don't put the cards in iPad, I can continue photographing. So as a work around, I'm shooting the screen on the back of the camera with the iPad.

It has a glass plate kind of feel. I like it but when I get home, I'll process the images more traditionally again in the big Engine....Lightroom 4.

Amsterdam canals and bikes roll

Anywhere you look in Amsterdam , you see bicycles. Look a little further and you'll see canals. Both move people and goods. Amsterdam has always been a city on the move.

Here we are at the rijksmuseum

So. Here we are at .......
The masterpieces of the rijksmuseum in amsterdam. The limited exhibit is on display, selected down to the precious few during renovations. We were here 35 years ago and it was closed for .....renovations. Duh.
Anyway, we saw the Rembrandts. I was literally moved to tears in front of the Jewish bride and the syndicates of the cloth guild.

It was perfect light for photography as they were lighting the art with a combination of natural and Artificial Light.

If you look carefully in the word "am" I am lurking.

Covent Garden .......part two

Here are a few more of the Covent Garden series from London.
Hope you like. Shot with Fujifilm X Pro-1.

I particularly like the shadow person who is wearing real shoes. What is reality?

Covent garden ramble

We visited the Courtauld collection of impressionist and other paintings. They have some of he best Cezanne, Gaugin and Seurat pictures in one place.

Afterwards, we sauntered up to Covent Garden, a traditional London market, which was busy, exciting and brimming with energy.

These shots are various locations around Covent Garden. The Covent Garden Opera is nearby so lunchtime munchers did so to Verdi and Puccini . Brilliant.
If you look carefully at the cakes photo, you'll see a high heeled shoe pressing into the tray.

Here we are in England

Here we are in England. We wanted to see if there was life beyond London so we signed up for a one-day tour of Windsor , Lacock, a laconic 13th century village complete with ancient abbey, Stonehenge, and then let's drive up to Bath to round out this 13 hour day!

It was a revelation. I went to Stonehenge a sceptic but actually felt the ancient energy of the place. It was like breathing pure oxygen and having a tingle in your body. I don't believe in this stuff but it happened. I can't explain it.

We then went on to Lacock where I find the ancient abbey where Henry Fox Talbot invented photography. I recognized the back garden from his photos. He owned and lived in the abbey in Lacock.

Bath was delightful if not a tad commercial. Sally Lunn's house was there. She apparently bakers cakes. Nice house anyway.

You'll have to figure out the photos below yourself. I'm blogging on a phone app from my iPad. It's hard going and I can't edit layout. Sorry

L'importance, c'est la rose....

Love, hate...no it's love........part 3

This fujifilm X-Pro 1 is quite something.  I am now able to shoot with my big strobe soft box.

I couldn't for a while.   I had the camera in "silent mode" because I dislike the beep: the flash doesn't wortk.  It took me hours to find our why the flash didn't fire.  I guess I'm just not on their wavelength.  I almost lost it, but then read the manaual and had a cup of tea.  It was an epiphany.

The controls aren't intuitive but they are well thought out.  They help make photographs:  tres important!

I'm off to Europe Tuesday afternoon.  I'll try to blog from there.  I'm taking the fuji and two lenses.

Love hate part two

I was having a bit of trouble with the strobe settings earlier in the first round so I shot time exposures on a tripod.  I got the settings sorted.

This set is with the beauty light and the strobe.  I'm liking it.  There is a sense of colour and substance here that is rich and deep.  It is a feeling I strive for and a look that I want in my work.

So far it is a love hate relationship

A very quick blog.  We are returning from a marvellous time at our niece's wedding, which was wondrous, and now heading to Europe for two weeks.
I am taking the new fujifilm X-Pro 1.  So far it is a love hate relationship.  Promising: perhaps the most neo-baroqque of all.