Four decades behind the lens. Six years of sharing the journey.
Welcome. I’m Ian — photographer, horn player, and writer living in the Vendée, near the Loire-Atlantique border. This blog has been running since 2019 and shows no sign of stopping.
You’ll find black and white film work, travel essays, orchestra photography, philosophical digressions about why any of us bother pressing the shutter, and the occasional camera review written by someone with strong opinions and a perhaps unreasonable attachment to grain. No algorithms chose what appears here. No agency wrote it. Just forty years of looking, and six of writing it down.
Start anywhere. Stay as long as you like.
Latest from the Field
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Saints, Shadows and Brass: An Evening at the Festival Saint Donatien
A Friday in May, a Facebook message from an old friend, and a brass quintet about to perform at the Festival Saint Donatien in the Basilique Saint-Donatien, Nantes. I took the Fujifilm X100F, arrived early to hunt for light in the old stone streets around the basilica, and ended up inside one of the most… Read more
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Clisson — A Guilty Pleasure
Clisson on a warm Wednesday in May. The medieval château, the weirs on the Sèvre Nantaise, the old stone bridge with its cross. A familiar town — but this time the film bag stayed at home. Instead: the Canon 6D Mark II, a 16–35mm, a 24–70mm, a 70–300mm, and the nagging question of whether producing… Read more
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La Rabatelière: Month of Our Lady
May 1st: the first day of the Month of Our Lady. I loaded the Canon AE1 Program with Fomapan 100 and drove to La Rabatelière to photograph the Sanctuaire de la Salette. What I found was a burned church, an axe-marked door, a miller’s millstone, and a hillside full of statues built in defiance of… Read more
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Olympus Trip 35 Review: Still Worth Shooting in 2026?
The Olympus Trip 35 is one of the most iconic film cameras ever made — compact, battery-free, and surprisingly capable. A hands-on review with sample shots from my local countryside. Read more
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Half Deaf in the Forêt de Grasla
A roll of 100 ASA in the Pentax ME Super, finished in the Forêt de Grasla. Frogs, toads, a wolf spider, and a stopped-down lens. Film photography in the Vendée, April 2026. Read more
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On Est Bien Là: Back at the Jardin Extraordinaire
A warm Sunday in April, a Canon EOS 500, and a roll of AGFA APX 100 at Nantes’ Jardin Extraordinaire. Film photography, slow days, and why it’s nice to be out in it. Read more
Featured Projects
- The UK Chronicles
Light, minimalism, and preparation.
Shot entirely on the Fujifilm X100F during a recent solo journey through Britain — a deliberate exercise in traveling light, seeing deeply, and preparing for the sensory overload of China. - The Film Archives
Memory in monochrome.
A vault unlocked: black and white film photographs from Nantes, Clisson, and beyond — captured long before this blog existed. Grain, patience, and timeless moments. - Photography Philosophy
Why do we do this?
Not a tutorial. Not a gear guide. A quiet exploration of purpose — the “why” behind the viewfinder. For those who photograph not to post, but to feel. - The Orchestra Visit to China
Culture, chaos, and concert halls.
A visual symphony from the road with the orchestra — temples, trains, backstage glances, and the electric silence before the first note.
About the Photographer
I am not an influencer. I am not a brand.
I am a photographer, ever so slightly stubborn, analogue at heart, digital when needed, and fiercely independent. I’ve been developing my own film since the 1980s. I built this blog in 2019, not for followers, but for focus.
I do not outsource my editing. I do not chase trends. I shoot what moves me, and I hope, sometimes, it moves you too.
“Commercial editing offers and unsolicited partnerships will not be published or replied to. This space is sacred; for art, not advertising.”
A Note from a Reader
“j’adore… il y a des jours avec, et les jours sans….”
— A kind visitor, September 2025
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j’adore
il y a des jours avec, et les jours sans….