Tulips come and go.....

Recent images in sepia and colour

Ralph Hodgson park....part 2

seeking significance in the sepia hills

I have lived in these hills all my life and I still can't convey in visual imagery what they mean to me.....

I'm getting better at representing them in the dramatic way they live in my soul.  But I can't say that I've nailed their essence yet.

That's the bad news and the good news.  Because as long as I have more work to do, it keeps my trying to improve, which is an excellent motivation.

Bonehenge part 2

Here are three more images from the bones as icon series.  I popped in my Stonehenge photo with similar treatment to show where I think I'm going with this.

When we were in England, I sensed Stonehenge had gotten into my bones, but I never, frankly, imaged it was to this extent!

Paris is for lovers

I might as well state the obvious while doing the Paris pix.  Everywhere you look, there are people wandering Paris, their relationships in various states of perfection and disrepair.....

The joys of summer

Big hats, jelly beans, nearly naked, and just bombin" around in the car.....the true joys of summer

Who wants to jump off a cliff?

I recently changed out my entire canon eos 5d mark II and III with all the good L lenses for a humble Fujifilm X Pro-1 with lenses (three only !!!).

I have made all my recent best photos with the Canon.  But when I saw the still life pix and then my vacation snaps from the Fujifilm camera, I just said "fu&%k it".  Life is short.  I want easy. This feels like my old Rolleiflex. I can wear it around my neck all day, without strangulation.  I think I'm home. (plus I banked $2600 on the trade in. It's like getting paid to trade!~)).

But when I got home from vacation, I realized the Fujifilm might not be able to do cable release autofocus self portraits.  Since portrait photography is one of my enduring loves, I had a brief moment of panic (just to see what it was like).

No need to panic.  The portrait files are stunning: in monochrome or colour.  The Fujifilm focuses like old friend Karsh on his best behaviour ("hold that now!" as he points the finger at you.)

Phew.

Hey hey hey, it's the Grand Palais

Grand Palis from Champs Elysee

window seat

halls

grand staircase

Helmut Newton exhibit

grand staircase

Grand Palais exterior

As we walked along the Champs Elysee, we noticed a rather interesting building towards the river.  It was the Grand Palais.  Next day, I realized the Helmut Newton retrospective was hung there. Newton was a German photographer busy for most of the middle of the 20th century.  I had wanted top see the Newtons as his wife had curated the show and it was extensive.  I had seen lots of Newton in books and mags, but never up close.

He is a very impressive photog.  He is like Lucien Freud in his existential tensions: they are of the same generation, and both recently died.

It was great to see his work.  The large nudes were inspired by police photos from the 1970s.  He did most of his shooting with a medium format Rolleiflex camera.  The really big prints are eight feet tall and they are grainy but fine nonetheless.  Pixel peepers today would dismiss him.  That is the sad state some photography has sunk to.

The light in the Grand Palais was fab.  I shot a bunch.

Paris et la Seine...part 1

We had great weather for our entire two weeks.  In Paris, it was overcast when it needed to be.  I love shooting water in overcast weather.  Thank you gods of the river!

Guitar man in sepia tone

Here is a shot of a man with a guitar.  It is done in strong side lighting (Rembrandt light) which gives it a nice mood for this shot.
I wanted to capture the concentration of the moment and at the same time, create a strong diagonal line across the photo.  I purposely let the drapery in the background create a diagonal highlight that flowed parallel to the guitar neck line and complimented the highlight in the hand and pants, which then flowed back up the arm to the head, to keep the eye moving.
The light was at head level so the head and hands get most of the illumination.