An unexpected HCB moment

Caught in a sudden monsoon rainstorm in Amsterdam and having rushed under some shelter, I saw a cyclist approaching, trying desperately to steer whilst using an umbrella. I managed to get my camera out fast enough to catch this, which seemed like nothing until I converted it to black and white and played with a little when it just took on this unexpected Henri Cartier-Bresson feel. Far be it from me or anyone else to suggest that they are HCB, but I was pleased with the outcome…

Downpour

Making something of early digital captures

Back in 2003, I took a helicopter tour of Manhattan, unfortunately I only had my old Fuji digital P&S with me at the time. Since I am unlikely to repeat the experience any time soon, I am trying out ways of making something out of the images which are all characteristically unsharp, low in contrast and suffering from various distortions thanks to the crappo lens.

This particular image I like for the fact that it’s an angle on the city that’s impossible without a helicopter. Manhattan shots are all too often from the top of the ESB or cliched angles from next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York retro

This one has been given a lomo color treatment and a separate vignette action with blur

Panorama-rama

loving the universal version of Stitcher Unlimited 5.6 I am alpha testing. Much better on my Macbook than running 5.5 under Rosetta

This was yesterday, a pano of downtown LA with the San Gabriel mountains behind

7 images, ISO 100, 1/100s, f7.1, handheld 20D and 300 F4L IS, Bibblepro -> TIFF -> SU 5.6 -> PS CS3

Original is 18000 pixels wide (click on it to take you to flickr with bigger sizes, although I don’t license full size originals under CC on Flickr so I can still sell prints so the largest size on there is 4700×600)

LA downtown and mountains sunset pano

The beginning….

Blog #1 – where to begin? Why not a picture…

I’ve been scanning in a lot of old slides. Amongst them I found a very uninspiring shot of a tree which responded well to some cropping and a bit of a treatment. This was shot with a Minolta x700 and standard 50mm on Fuji slide film back in 1989, stored in damp garage in Europe for 17 years and then scanned and given a sound thrashing with PS CS3.

Winter tree