Travelling Light – Photographing Light
There is more to Dubai than just glass, steel and concrete. A glimpse of old Dubai and its people can still be seen along and around the Creek where wooden Dhows still ply their trade around the Gulf and Arabian ports. The gritty subjects make ideal candidates for some black & white photography where contrast and texture are key.
You know when you have been spending too much on camera gear when a camera retailer invites you to a paid focus group session – and so it was this week that I found myself in London with an hour or so free – just enough time to have a wonder around the London Bridge area a grab a few shots of London’s tallest building The Shard.
Continue reading “The Shard”
If you approach La Oliva from the north there is a point at which my favourite volcano (Montaña de Frontón) looms above the church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria – the problem is it is difficult to find a good place to stand to capture an image.
The steam locomotives King Edward II (6023) and its twin King Edward I (6024) were the final development of Churchward’s Star class and Collett’s Castles, the Kings were the most powerful locomotives on the Great Western Railway, and for several years the most powerful passenger engines in the UK.
So how is the bokeh with the little 12-32 on the GX9 – well its never going to be a bokeh master with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at 12mm – all the same if you get close enough to your in-focus object you can still throw the background out and actually the highlights don’t look too bad.
This time just in and around the Praça Zacarias Guerreiro and featuring the Igreja de Sào José do Hospital o do Espírito Santo and the Igreja de San Francisco.
Ayamonte is the last town in Spain – or maybe the first – either way it is the frontier town on the River Guadiana thats forms the Spanish Portugese border.
Tavira, on Portugal’s eastern Algarve coast, was occupied by the Moors between the 8th and 13th centuries, the occupation left its mark on the agriculture, architecture and culture of the area, an influence that can still be seen today in the whitewashed buildings, Moorish style doors and rooftops.
I recently splashed out on a Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens, I say splashed out but really compared with a fisheye for a full frame sensor camera it was an absolute bargain. It’s a manual focus lens and you have to set the aperture on the lens rather than with the camera so in addition to the fact that it is a fisheye, which in itself is new territory for me, it is all a bit of a learning curve.
The Portugese town of São Brás de Alportel was a settlement in Roman times and later inhabited by the Moors.
Fuerteventura’s former capital Betancuria lies in a picturesque valley next to a dried up stream which flowed up until the 16th century. The village is named after Jean de Béthencourt, who founded the town in 1404 with Gadifer de La Salle. It was the original capital of the Kingdom of the Canary Islands, and later capital of Fuerteventura.
Often times when capturing an image I have it in my mind whether the final image will be presented in colour or black & white. Some subjects just lend themselves to one or the other.
On a ridge above the village of La Oliva about 100m or so apart sit two dissused but intact Canarian Windmills – they should make good photographic subjects – but here’s the thing, they are tricky subjects – finding a good place to stand is just alot harder than it looks particularly if you want to capture both in the same image, so much so that I have yet to master that image. In the meantime here is the best I have managed of just one of the mills. This is a contra-jour image captured as five bracketed images and processed as an HDR image with the sacred Tindaya Mountain as a backdrop.
Today was the start of a week of Fiesta activities in our nearby village and tonight they were kicking things off with a local band (Grupo de Música popular Tababairet) – now this kind of thing is not really my bag as you may have noticed that I rarely if ever photograph people – however I was keen to give the G9s high iso performance a try so off I headed to get a few “snaps”.
The little village of Tindaya sits at the foot of the Montaña de Tindaya in north-west Fuerteventura. It was considered a sacred place by the pre-Spanish local population, and is also known as the Sacred Mountain today. At the heart of the village lies the immaculately maintained church of Ermita Nuestra Senora de la Caridad. It makes a nice photographic subject with the sacred mountain as a backdrop.
Question: What does the perfect Volcano look like ?
Answer: Like this.
Every time I see this volcano (Montaña de Frontón 387m) near La Oliva it makes me smile – just like a volcano I would have drawn as a kid.
Punta Jandia is the southern most point on the island of Fuerteventura. Reached by a 20km off-road adventure that is not for the fient hearted especially if the weather has been bad, fortunately not often.
The church of Nuestra Señora de Regla in Pájara town has interesting sculptures of sun pattern, snakes, panther and birds above the main entrance. It is thought by some specialists to show Aztec influence.
Continue reading “The Church of Nuestra Señora de Regla – Pajara”
Casa de los Coroneles is a stately home in the northern province of La Oliva on the island of Fuerteventura. It was once the seat of the island’s colonel and now is the location of an art gallery.
Patterns in nature and man made can make great photo opportunities – here are just a few spotted when out and about.
