Frost on Grass - Tammisaari
Tammisaari, 2003
Once upon a time, I had a good friend in Finland – and was able to see her quite a few times. She lived in a summer resort town called Tammisaari, which is on the Baltic. When she was a way at work, I would wander around taking pictures. Sometimes the weather cleared and for a few hours there was golden sunshine and it was almost warm – if you stayed out of the shadows.
At the time, I was using my second digital camera, a Canon G2 which was one of the best cameras I’ve ever owned. Incidentally, it managed the cold quite well (if you kept a spare battery in a warm pocket).
Street Marking - Hammersmith
London, 2001
When I used to live in London, every Sunday and most Saturdays, I would walk into the city centre. Since I lived in Chiswick, this would be a fairly healthy trot, through Hammersmith, on to Kensington Highstreet – across Kensington Gardens and up behind Oxford Street, to walk down the little back streets full of media offices and pubs and hospitals and everthing else.
The camera would have been a Nikon with a 50mm f2 lens (which has always been a favourite with me) and probably HP5+.
Trees by the Saigon River
I live quite near by this stretch of river bank. I’m mostly drawn to it, because of the lush green trees, which cast deep shadows at mid-day, when the sun screams down to burn any skin which wanders into view. At nightime, couples on motorbikes park along its length at discreet distances from each other. Sometimes the river runs very high, coming close to the top of the bank – but I haven’t seen it flood (yet).
It was raining – which it sometimes does here.
Venice
Venice, 1992
Has anyone – who has been to Venice – not taken this photo?
I quite like my version. I think there may be a “Venice” Photoshop plugin – which makes the photo look lovely, but identical to everyone else’s.
Shop Window
Bath, July 2009
I have mixed feelings about Bath as a place. There isn’t much “there” - there. Everything shuts at 11 o’clock. I never seem to be able to find what I’m looking for and end up having to go to Bristol for it (more on that another time). Lots of antique and curio dealers – say no more. But it is good for pictures.
A Fruit Stall in District 8
Ok, quite a bit to say about this one.
One of the things that is exciting about living in Ho Chi Minh City, is that change is going on all around you. Someone explained this to me as a consequence of the population shift from countryside to city within a couple of generations. I think they are simplifying a bit. One area I can see change, even within the time I have been here, is in District 8. Until May this year, a lot of the traffic going into the city centre had to bump through the back alleyways of District 8, which made it noisy and busy, but probably brought money with it (along with danger). Now with the new bridge, which by-passes all this, it is much quieter – and safer – but I wonder if the residents and business people miss it all?
On a technical level, this quite an interesting photo for me, because I took it with my old digital compact a Fujifilm F30fd – at EI 1600 – which is just about useable. With my Canon G9, 1600 is a step too far – and pretty much useless. Although it is a much newer and higher specification camera. And bigger and heavier too.
I basically need to find a way of taking ok pictures at f2.8 60th of a second by street lights. I’ve bought a Canon50D – I’ll let you know how that goes. But again, it is quite a big, conspicuous camera.
In the City
Ho Chi Minh City, November 2008
I took this photo not long after I moved here. Not one of my best photos, but I think you can feel the heat and the congestionand what can sometimes feel like, the struggle of it all.
Traffic in the city can be very bad, particularly at the main intersections. people ride through read lights. people ride on the pavement – people ride everywhere – not necessarily at the right times.
We're Sorry You're Leaving
London, 2006
I have a terrible confession – I can’t think of a job I’ve been sorry to leave. Ever.
This bothers me, because it implies that I don’t like what I do (I’m a teacher) and that I only hanging on until I can’t bear it any longer. Which doesn’t sound very clever.
I think this is the first picture I took with my Rolleiflex after it had been re-built. I was wandering around the back streets north of Oxford Street (in London), fairly near the BT Tower (really want to call it the Post Office Tower) when I saw this open envelope behind a fence. This one isn’t a huge favourite with people, but I like that it raises so many questions. I was using Provia 100F (one less question!).
Cedar Key
February, 2001
I was umemployed. Georgia was freezing cold. So when my mother and foster-sister came to visit I agreed to drive them around Florida. Seemed like a good plan.
It all was pretty much as it seems. It was early in the morning – Mum woke me up especially, so that I could see it (which I really appreciated at the time).
I was using my first “real’ digital camera – a Nikon Coopix 950 – which was an interesting piece of equipment. I of course didn’t have a clue – and I shudder to think of the mistakes I made then and later. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Approaching Ho Chi Minh City
Sunday
I’ve just got back from Singapore, where typically I spent more than I should.
I am one of those people who likes to photograph interesting clouds out the window, but today the sky was just generally murky. Nothing much to see.
Singapore was its usual self all weekend – two middle-aged women stole a taxi from me (never happened to me in New York), all rather pushy-shovy. I wished them a safe journey and advised the driver to get cash up front.
But I managed to get a load of books and videos – perhaps I’ll write a review later.
