Barcelona 2012

Barcelona 2012, a set on Flickr.

This was the first visit in my life to Spain.

Rather depressingly, I'd thought I'd try to give myself a bit of background history to the country by reading the story of the Spanish Civil War. 5 days of wandering around the streets of this lovely city made me realise that there's another side to it all. The place is full of colour and life, with a real buzz and excitement, the food is excellent, and some of the "Must-See" sights are really extraordinary.

I really loved it, although you couldn't miss a feeling of rebellion and barely suppressed strife which are still there in 2012.

London - 1991

London - 1991, a set on Flickr.

Photographing London is an almost impossible challenge.

It’s so big that the only chance you’ve got is to select one facet of the city and then concentrate on that. So, just before I moved away from the South East of England, I set about taking some pictures of London’s river and the bridges which spanned it. The Thames is a magnificent river, and its bridges, old and new, road and rail, are all different and worthy of a closer inspection than most people normally give them. The colours and the shapes, the different designs and the various locations are quite stunning when you look at them in some detail.

The pictures here were all taken in 1991, and they have all been scanned from original transparencies taken on Fuji Provia 100 film.

PICK OF THE PICS - No. 7

The last in this sporadic Pick of the Pics series, a few days ago, showed a picture of Ironbridge Power Station, seen from my house, pushing Goodness knows how many tons of Carbon Emissions into the atmosphere - but doing it very beautifully. Hence the picture.

Like buses coming in twos, today's picture is another one taken this afternoon from the same place, but in very different conditions. Having seen Man's puny attempt last week, this is the Almighty's version of the scene.

IRONBRIDGE POWER STATION - THE POT OF GOLD

Cue Rain, Cue Wind, Cue Yellow Brick Road, Cue a very different colour pallette.

Tags:ironbridge,
landscape,
photography,rainbow,
shropshire

PICK OF THE PICS No. 6

I don't seem to have put up one of my own pictures onto this site for quite a while.

We live in the country, and have a distant, easterly view of Ironbridge. It has a power station there, and this evening, just as the sun was setting, I turned away from the sunset, and the scene which faced me was the one below.

IRONBRIDGE POWER STATION AT SUNDOWN

Sometimes the results of Man's efforts in the landscape can look rather impressive.

Tags:

ironbridge,
sunset,
power station,landscape,
photography

SIX OF THE BEST - IRELAND 2

The West Coast of Ireland is a magical place. If you've been, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't been, you've missed out Big Time.

These pictures of Fishing Nets were taken in a small fishing village in Connemara.

They're really just pattern pictures - colours, shapes, textures, and compositions that please me.

Simple really.

Tags:

photographs,
ireland,
landscape,
fishing

GREAT NEWSPAPER PHOTOS - No 2

The theme again is Water.

Today’s “Times” had this lovely picture on the Front page today, and doesn’t it capture to perfection the simple essence of torrential rain on the city streets.

Taken in Westminster yesterday by Jack Hill, it is one of those all too few images which tells the whole story in one simple, uncomplicated view. We have a street, a woman with an umbrella, and more rain than you can throw a stick at. And that’s it.

There’s no detail in the picture – it’s almost an impressionist study. And it’s the fact that there is no detail which makes the picture work. I doubt if even the individual in the image would recognise themselves. As well as no detail, there’s almost no colour, with shades of grey turning it into almost into a monochrome study.

Except, of course, the little smudge of red in the background. And it’s this that makes the picture come alive.

The composition is excellent – the woman is walking at the edge of the buildings, to get away from the rain, and here she is positioned in the picture space right at one side to emphasise her position and give the feeling of keeping under the roofs if she can. The perspective leading your eye along the street is very strong.

It’s good that there’s only her in the picture, paring down the picture content, so you’re left in no doubt what the picture is about.The bottom part of the image is just tons of rain bouncing off the road, and this puts the whole thing into context. Almost half the picture is "out of focus" rain. Gene Kelly is NOT going to spring out of the shadows here and start singing. The mood is damp and the person wants to get home.

Great atmosphere and great picture.

Tags:

times,photography,landscape,jack hill

A RATHER CONVENIENT BREAKDOWN

As one drives one's journey to work through the seasons, the colours and patterns of the countryside at the side of the road slowly change in a rather miraculous way. We are in the middle of one of the most enjoyable times of the year - there is a great deal of change, and everything is new, bright, zingy and colourful.

I have watched the field of poppies gradually appear over the last few days, alongside Junction 4 of the M54. Tonight, on a mission of marital mercy to Ikea, my car seemed to suffer an odd desire to slow down and stop just alongside the field, and remarkably I found that I had brought my camera along with me. I took a few pictures, four of which are reproduced below. Amazingly, whatever it was that had afflicted the car seemed to have cleared itself when I returned to it.

So, all in all, a rather magical evening - Ikea excepted of course!

Tags:

poppies,
landscape,
photography,shropshire

SIX OF THE BEST - IRELAND - 2

The West Coast of Ireland is a glorious place to be. The whole coastline is a series of large inlets, which cut into the mainland, forming hundreds of miles of endlessly varying and very beautiful coastline.

We have spent half a dozen thoroughly enjoyable holidays there. One of our jaunts was to Connemara, a beautiful area to the west of Galway. If you want desolation and “getting away from it all”, that’s your place.

For some unknown reason, whenever we’re there, the weather seems to turn into something more akin to the West Indies than the permanent rain cover which everyone I know who’s been there says is the Status Quo. In Connemara, we’re known as “Sun Gods” – we brought 14 days of continuous sunshine, something which has never happened before.

Wandering around the coast there one day, I came across a big boat called the SS Pibroch, moored on its own on a very unkempt jetty.

SS PIBROCH

I could see a raft of photographic opportunities appearing so got myself aboard, with camera and tripod, and wandered about on the boat for an hour or so. One of the little details which a Photographic Eye picks up on such boats is the areas of rust, paint, which has been painted on top of other paint, and the lumps of machinery which produces lovely shapes, colours, textures and compositions. You need to home in quite close to see these shapes, some of which are no more than a couple of inches across.

The pictures below are the result.

Tags:

ireland,
photographs,
photography,
connemara
landscape