Clisson

Posted on Jun 2, 2023Jun 2, 2023 Posted in Architecture, Café Culture, France, History, Landscape Photography, street photography, Travel photographyTagged bridge, Castle, chateau, church, Clisson, color, colour, colour photography, countryside, day out, eglise, France, French, french countryside, fuji, fuji x weekly, fuji x100f, Fujifilm, Fujifilm X Series, fujifilmx100f, historical, History, Ian James Myers, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, live in France, Loire Atlantique, Market, Market town, nature, park, Photo editing, photo reportage, photo shoot, photo walk, photographe, photographer, photography, rural, street photography, Street phtoography, streetphotography, summer, townLeave a comment

Have you ever come across the articles named “The 10 Prettiest Villages in France,” “The 10 Prettiest Villages in Yorkshire,” “The 10 Prettiest Villages in Northumberland,” or “Some Other Dream Spot in This Beautiful World?” No? The one closest to us, is about 15 kilometres away and not in the south of France, which I believe to be completely overrated. Like most contenders for this type of little town, there is a bustling market every Friday morning (which is actually pretty wonderful, if not a touch on the pricier side), a park that hugs the river and lets you unwind while taking in the gentle sound of the water. A castle stands watch over the entire town. Meandering streets wonder up and down hills as do the locals. It is in wine producing country surrounded by vineyards who would be more than happy to flog you some wine…

Yes, it is one of “those” places, Dear Reader, but it is still beautiful. Clisson is also aware of this. Of course, I’m simply jealous because I don’t live there but wish I did.

In this series of photographs, I also chose to maintain the film-like appearance of my digital photography. It appears that summer is rapidly approaching. The days are already warmer and sunnier, but are not yet unbearably hot. And such weather is simply God’s way of encouraging you to go have a refreshing pint!

A Sunny February Afternoon

Posted on Feb 24, 2023Feb 24, 2023 Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, Nantes Photography, portrait, street photography, UncategorizedTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, amateur photography, Architecture, black and white, Black and White Photography, bourgois, Canon 6d Mark II, day out, distortion, editing, France, French, Ian James Myers, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, lens, Nantes, park, photo shoot, photo walk, photographe, photographer, Photographic exercise, photography, portrait photography, Portraits, sculpture, statue, street, street photography, Street phtoography, street portrait, streetphotographyLeave a comment

Sometimes you have brunch and just feel that all is well with the world. Well, that Sunday, all was definitely well with the world, or at least, well with my world, which isn’t a bad way to be on a delightful sunny February afternoon. Out in town with my camera, well-fed, and just wandering around, seeing what would turn up in front of my camera.

If I were to be honest, I know that if I go to such-and-such an area, I will get such-and-such a kind of photo, so we can’t about wandering around aimlessly, but there was a sort of randomness… Sort of.

Get ready for some technical information, which will hopefully explain the style of photos that I am presenting to you today. When converting my images to black and white, I edited as if I had a red filter on my camera and as if I were using black and white film. When using this red filter, anything that is blue comes out in a darker tone. It’s going to be easier to use an image instead of a thousand words…

Basically, anything that is a deep blue turns almost black and makes for a powerful image. Some people love it (I do), others don’t (ah well), and that’s all fine too! You get the picture!

A lot of the photos that follow will exhibit this effect as if they were case book studies. You need the sky to be a certain way or it just won’t work, but when it does, you get the kind of image that jumps out at you. That and the 16-35mm lens, you can’t really go wrong. Mind you, after that delicious brunch, not a lot could go wrong…

He went wider

Posted on Oct 7, 2022Oct 7, 2022 Posted in Architecture, France, Nantes PhotographyTagged 12mm, 12mm lens, 2022, 50mm, architechture, Castle, chateau, chateau des ducs de bretagne, colour photography, distortion, fish eye, fish eye lens, France, French, fuji, fuji XT2, fujixt2, historical, History, Ian James Myers, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, lens, Loire Atlantique, miroir d'eau, Nantes, nantes Castle, photo walk, photographe, photographer, Photographic exercise, photography, town, wide angle lensLeave a comment

Dear Reader, you know how in the past I have talked about how some of us love the big massive telephoto lenses? And how others like to go wider? And how we start of with the “nifty fifty” F1.8 and learn on that? That was in the days before digital photography and a world where zoom lenses came to the fore. We had them before in the days of film photography, but my memories are of using these prime lenses, and zooms seemed to be looked down on. I wanted to go wider.

I remember my first proper photography course where I learnt the basics of film photography, going from taking the photo, developing the film, and getting a print as an end result. I remember seeing a photo of a horse taken with a massive head taken with a wide-angled lens and finding it fascinating! When I said the head was massive, the lens deformed our view of this majestic beast and its body seemed smaller than its head, which is something indeed. It was then that I learnt a photograph doesn’t have to represent a visual that is faithful to the subject. We can mess around with reality and show the world completely differently.

So, as I said, I learnt photography with a 50mm lens. These 50mm seem to be closest to how the human eye sees the world. It represents reality. In 2018 I acquired the Fujifilm X100F which has a lens equivalent to a 35mm lens. Slightly wider, but still represents the reality of this world, and is considered “the” street photography lens par excellence. It has a larger angle of view and allows me to get a little more in the frame and I felt the difference with the 50mm straight away. It was still a great lens and very versatile until I tried taking a close-up portrait. All of a sudden, I discovered some distortion in my model. I’m not saying that my model is deformed, well, no more deformed than any of us.

Suddenly watching YouTube, as many of us do apparently, I discovered the 16-35mm F4 lens from Canon for my Canon 6D Mark II. It was a little more than I had ever paid for a lens, but worth every centime of euro and so satisfying. If you care to have a look in the archives of this blog on my Instagram feed, you will discover many photos taken with this lens. My desire to go wider was now a reality. Distortion of reality was now in my hands. I could create interesting images. I discovered the way a very wide-angled lens can transform the world around us. Leading lines exist all over the place, and the wide-angled lens exaggerates each line, leading or not!

But, and this is a big but. You fellas can’t deny… It is possible to go wider. I know. Exciting isn’t it! My mind is now blown! There is a lens, a very special lens, called a fish-eye lens. This type of lens can offer you even more distortion and make the world seem even weirder than it already is! Canon does one. It’s a 15-8mm zoom lens. There are two types of fish-eye lenses. One will give a rectangular view, however distorted, and one will give a round image with a black frame. It’s a wonderful piece of engineering and for over €1000 it can be yours. But for €1000 it can’t be mine simply because I can’t justify spending that much money on camera kit and might even be cause for divorce. Since it is cheaper to keep her, I would have to look elsewhere instead of buying a super duper automatic lens from Canon. So like any self-respecting poor photographer I went onto Amazon and found a manual lens for my Fujifilm XT2 (like the famous X100F except I can change lenses) for 169€ which is slightly cheaper and a slightly more reasonable purchase, and my dear wife didn’t bat an eyelid! Not batting and eyelid is a very desirable reaction!!!

I will go out this afternoon to test this new toy and get back to you with some pictures!

Happy Birthday Wife!

Posted on May 13, 2022May 15, 2022 Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, France, street photography, Travel photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, architechture, birthday, black and white, Black and White Photography, Bretagne, Brittanny, Cafe, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, chateau, church, Clisson, France, French, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, photographer, photography, riverLeave a comment

Today is the 13th of May 2022 and is my wife’s birthday. It is also Friday the 13th, so I don’t know how I should be feeling, happy for my wife but slightly preoccupied by lady luck deciding to have fun at my expense. Strangely, in France, Friday the 13th is considered lucky. What a peculiar country!

But what a strange coincidence though? But little did I know that 30 years ago, almost to the day that we first met how many coincidences there actually were…

She is born on the 13th, and me on the 26th. 26 being the double of 13. As a Catholic, yes, it happens, I have have always felt close to the Virgin Mary. My mother is Anne, the mother of Mary, and my beloved Grandma was called Mary. My wife is called Virginie… But you could argue that a lot of Catholic women were called Mary or Anne. We also live in the Vendée which has the number 85 – 8+5=13.

Today is also the feast of Our Lady of Fatima who appeared to three children in Fatima in Portugal in 1917.

Can you see a pattern developing here?

Anyway, it doesn’t, in any form, detract from the fact that it is my wife’s birthday today. I used to be great at thinking of presents for everyone, be it Christmas or birthdays. I just knew exactly what to look for and where to find it. Now, as in a lot of things, I now know nothing. What do you get for the person who has everything, including Yours Truly? My dream solution, my daughter seems to have stolen my talent and also seems to be very good at spending my money, but this time it is for a good cause.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate in a dignified manner with friends and have a barbecue, with salads, meats, and sausagy things that have been drawn up on the famous shopping list. It is a long shopping list and in a sudden and surprisingly rare instant of genius, I dared to add, don’t forget the charcoal Darling. The charcoal had been forgotten? I had’t saved the day, but I think I scored at least one brownie point.

So now you know what awaits le this weekend. Last weekend was a little more musical. When I first arrived in Vendée just over 20 years ago I played the horn for the local wind band in Montaigu. It was local and it got me out of the house and introduced me to local people who would eventually become friends. After a certain amount of time I got bored and didn’t feel challenged which is not a good thing to happen. You find that resentment can build and boredom never helps. I eventually stopped playing the horn and felt I had had enough, and then in 2009 a friend from the band said that’s had started playing with the windband in Cholet and I played with them from then on, even getting to the point of trying to get my French teaching diploma, but with burnout, and a change of horn teachers, that idea fell by the wayside. I cut music right back to the basics.

Durning Covid, the old conductor from Montaigu died, and within the year his wife died too. At least they’re together now. The band in MOntaigu had wanted to have a concert to remember them by, and last Satudray, after a lot of work by the band committee, they managed it. As an old player, I was invited to join in, and it was a lovely experience.

During the rehearsals, I received news that my boss in Cholet was resigning at the end of the year. Certainly unexpected, but I think I know some of the reasons why. All of a sudden, choices opened up to me. The band in Montaigu found out, and I was told that if I wanted, they would be happy to have an extra horn player. Not an easy decision to make, and I will certainly think about it. It would certainly mean less driving, and with the price of petrol, that is one huge argument. I feel a certain loylaty for the boss at Cholet even more so than for the band itself. not only is he my musical director but has over the years, become a friend. I’ll keep you posted.

Sunday was going to be about rest and relaxation. I felt I couldn’t face Nantes, and would be going to mass there anyway later on. So I went to Clisson instead. We all have those pretty towns just near us. In Hull, it was Beverley, in Noisy le Sec, it was Paris, and in Saint Hilaire it’s Clisson. I’m not denigrating the places that I have lived, but they were also slightly cheaper places to live, but that’s by the by…

I seem to be getting back into using my Canon DSLR and loving it too. It’s the 16-35mm lens that does it. And as you can see in the photographs from that day, Clisson is very photogenic, almost more than Nantes, but let’s not tell everyone, or they’ll all want to go there…

La Rentrée 2021

Posted on Sep 5, 2021Sep 5, 2021 Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, Film Photography, Nantes Photography, street photographyTagged 50mm, analog, analogue, Anneaux de Buren, architechture, Art, art gallery, art installation, back to work, Bicycle, bicycles, bike, bikes, black and white, Black and White Photography, covid 19, covid19, development, film development, Film Photography, Fomapan, France, French, furniture, Galerie HAB, grue titan, HAB Gallerie, hangar à bananes, hp5, Ian James Myers, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, ile de nantes, ilford, ilford hp5, la Rentrée, Loire, mamiya, mamiya c220, medium format, medium format photography, Nantes, passe sanitaire, pentax, Pentax ME SUper, pentax mesuper, pentaxmesuper, photo reportage, photo walk, photogeapher, photographe, photogrpahy, street photography, streetphotography, summer, technology, wife, wind band, windband3 Comments

My Dear Reader, welcome to yet another article where I will try to find something interesting or witty to tell you. I have neglected you over August, but as most French people do, I closed shop and was on holiday. Since Covid and the world going base over apex, my company has decided that we only need three weeks’ holiday in August compared to the more traditional four weeks. I am about to sing the praises of my wife, so for those of you who hate the luvvy-duvvy side of things, turn away now. I take it you have all turned away.

For the first ten days of my holidays, I was camping in my living room. My wife and I literally carried our bed downstairs and set up camp. That was the less agreeable part of those first ten days. However, my wife had decided to decorate our bedroom and change all the furniture and replace it with nice new furniture from the infamous Swedish flat-pack place that we all know. I have a love-hate relationship with flat packs. Firstly, they’re heavy and hardly fit into the car without all the seats down and your wife in the back of the car telling you how to drive, you bloody moron! Secondly, they take up an awful amount of space in the garage whilst your wife gets to grips with decorating the room. Painting the ceiling, putting up wallpaper you agreed to ages ago because it’s easier and you love avoiding conflict. You don’t sleep well because everything feels strange in the living room and it’s hot too. Thirdly, they have to be taken upstairs to be put together and there’s always something missing, and you know it’s going to be your fault, you useless fool!

Anyway, with the help of friends, my son, and a mad screaming bitch, sorry, wife, we now have a haven of peace. We not only have a haven of peace, but fitted wardrobes that took three days to put together, but look great, and I have a cabinet for all my photography gear and, most importantly, a desk.

She is a champion, and let me assure you all, she has become human again! It has been a life-changer.

During the pre-let’s get this done otherwise I’ll go mad, clear out, we found some films that needed to be developed. You do not know what might lurk on those reels of film, but you tell yourself that you must have taken them, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I took in 9 rolls of film in. I was told by the amiable lady that if any of them hadn’t been exposed that there would be no charge for the development. Seems fair.

I returned to get the films and the contact sheets. That still sweet lady told me I would be in for a surprise! She was right. I looked through the sheets of paper and saw images of my son, who was still a toddler, and having baths, and being dried by his mother and his godmother. It took me right back to the end of the last century! My beard was in colour in those days!

Encouraged by all this photographic success, I went out and took even more photos. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, or Instagram you will have seen the stories and saw the cameras for the day: the Mamiya C220, and the Pentax ME Super, which were both gifts from a former teacher, and now a friend of mine! Merci Mr McM!

I do like taking photos and using cameras. There’s something I don’t think you knew!! It was good to be back out. I am now double jabbed. Thank you to that lovely lady at the chemists who reassured me and said that I wasn’t the only guy in the world that has a phobia of injections. Not only am I double jabbed, but I also have my Covid Passport, so I can go to the pub again without having part of my brain scraped out by a nurse with a long plastic thingy! I have rejoined the general population.

If you’re wondering what the French title of this article is doing there, let me explain. Quickly though, I’m already at 750 words here. The Rentrée is the re-entry into normal daily life after the summer holidays where people just weren’t there. The children go back to school. Those of use in employment, go back to that employment. Our extracurricular activities start again. Last night was my first wind band rehearsal in over a year (thank you, COVID), and it feels as if some relative normality has come back into my life.

Back to the photos. I shot the square photos on the Mamiya C220, using Ilford HP5+ film shot at box speed, developed in Ilfosol 3, and I took the other photos on the Pentax ME Super, using Fomapan 100 film developed in the same chemistry. Fine grain with the Fomapan and not something I’m used to, but a change is good, right? Oh, and I took them at the Hangar à Bananes, and HAB Gallerie in Nantes.

Hello Dear Reader

Posted on Jul 30, 2021Aug 24, 2021 Posted in Architecture, Art, bikes, Café Culture, France, Landscape Photography, Nantes Photography, street photographyTagged beach, Bretagne, britanny, Café Culture, Cafe, cheesecake, Chinesse Communist Party, covid, Emmanuel Macron, France, French, gouter, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, levoyageanantes, liberte egalite fraternite, lvan, Nantes, neptune, passe sanitaire, photographer, photography, president, President of France, street photography, streetphotography, summer, tea, town, vaccinationsLeave a comment

It has been a quiet three weeks over here in France. I went to see my wife’s family in Brittany, and strangely enough I could go out, take some pretty photographs, and not get any grief from my mother-in-law. Yes, miracles can happen.

England and football had definitely come home just before buggering off to Rome. Those three poor lads who missed penalties and got so much flack for it. Disgusting. I listened to the match on the radio in the car on the way home, but got home before the penalties, which would have been too horrible to listen to. At least we got further than France, and beat Germany. Small mercies, people, small mercies!

My eejit son got back with his ex-girlfriend, but apparently with “different rules,” and “different bases,” and asked me to accept everything wholeheartedly. Very optimistic, that boy! There are more red flags in that relationship than in the last Congress of the Chinese Communist Party… And to quote the genius that is Forrest Gump, “and that is all I have to say about that…” I’ve been forbidden from saying anything else. It happens, I suppose…

They have jabbed once me. I think there is definitely a conspiracy about the COVID vaccinations. Why don’t the injections hurt like hell, the way they used to when I was a child??? What is this utter madness? As of the 21st July, the “passe sanitaire” has been imposed, firstly on theme parks, cinemas, and libraries, where more than 50 people can gather. As of the 1st August, you cannot go to restaurants, cafés, shopping centres, and basically anywhere where everyday French life happens. The President sounds like a scratched record, vaccinnez vous, vaccinnez vous! Strangely enough, people are starting to feel a little iffy about the whole situation.

There are now huge demonstrations against this “passe sanitaire” and people are comparing it to the “Ausweis” that people had to carry about during the Occupation. Has Macron committed political suicide? Many are hoping so. I’m for people being vaccinated but want it to remain a choice. Aren’t we free to refuse a medical act? Have Liberté, Égalité, et Fraternité, just disappeared from France? Many think so.

A friend had his 26th birthday, so the weekend before, I took him up to Nantes to buy him his present. As we are still allowed to frequent cafés etc, we enjoyed ourselves and only had two teas, and one visit to the pub. Such restraint! I was amazed. I could have taken him to at least another two places. He dared to tell as we were ordering tea number two, that he was no longer hungry! I quipped, you don’t need to be hungry to eat this… These youngsters!

I am still allowed to wander the streets of France, and might keep doing it and my goal, this week, is to take some photos of the Voyage à Nantes Art festival! I might not be able to sit down and have a pint, but I’ll be a brave boy about it! Yipeeeeee!

Why do I bother taking photos?

Posted on May 14, 2021Aug 28, 2021 Posted in Architecture, Nantes Photography, street photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, amateur photography, Architecture, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, colour photography, France, French, french countryside, holidays, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, Instagram, Loire, Loire Atlantique, nantais, Nantes, philosophy, photo walk, photographer, photography, street art, street photography, streetphotography, tourism, Trentemoult, youtube2 Comments

Sometimes you read an article, or watch a YouTube video that makes you sit up and think, yeah, that person’s right about that. Why do I even bother? Is it about self-validation through the Gram? Is it the process? Is it to provide a document?

Watch the video first and then we’ll come back and have a chat. OK?

So why do I bother taking photos? Well? Have I slipped into the “selling myself” on the Gram, and also trying to find a social acceptation and validation through my photography? Quite possibly, but not solely, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t give a damn about the likes. I love it, but despite that I would still continue. This past week I have been on holiday. I have been looking at the weather to see what kind of light I could get, but more importantly to see if I would get rained on! Sgt Gilbert once told me dinnae worry Petal, your skin’s waterproof. And he was, of course, right. But I do prefer being dry, the way I like my Martini.

So why do I do I bother? I could go on about my fascination with cameras that started at an early age and developed as time went on. You can read about all that on my About Me page. I still get off when I go into a camera store, but strangely more when I go into a film camera store and see all the historical models and stuff from another era, que les moins de vingt ans, pourraient jamais connaître, as Aznavour said in one of his songs. But it’s not just the kit, despite having spent a certain amount of money collecting. I have to justify each thing I buy and it has to allow me to progress. Sure I’d love a Leica, and maybe one day I might acquire one, but I don’t need one to progress. But above all, I love the process. I love the process of going somewhere, getting my camera out, and just taking a photo. It’s amazing. My OCD loves doing film photography, because there are more steps to getting the photo and you have to go through more hoops to get there. Choosing the film you’re going to use, putting it into the camera which will shape the photographs you will take, and winding on the film after each shot. I also love the sound that the camera makes. The click and hearing the mirror going up and smacking back down telling you that you have just created and image. I don’t get that with digital cameras, but I still love Digital. It really is getting out, and just seeing what you’ll get. If I want more control over the outcome, then I’ll be in my studio where I can control everything. But isn’t leaving it to chance so much more exciting?

So does this still mean that I’m an amateur photographer? Can I still take photographs just for me? Yes, but I do like sharing them with you. But as I’m not selling my photography as a professional, I have this freedom to take photographs on my own terms. I can choose to go where I want to go. I can choose what is important to me especially when I’m out. This is what I did in that first outing of my holidays. Showing them here is like my Latrigue albums. Sure, I share the hell out my articles, but it’s not like putting everything on the gram, and I know well that not a tremendous amount of people will see them. Here people generally look just at the album at the end of each article. And you know what, that’s great!

Social Media will change, and so will Instagram. Some would say it has changed hugely from its inception. Facebook, has morphed into this enormous monster too. But they are only temporary. Art, if I can be as bold to call what I do, art, has been around for centuries. Photography is starting to get established after 150 years. People did it before Instagram, and will still do it when Instagram no longer exists. Will I still be doing it? Possibly. I have this need to create images. I have this desire to record the world around me. If people didn’t see them, would it stop me? Probably not. Is it part of leaving a legacy for my children’s children, sharing events and places from my relatively short time on God’s earth? Definitely. A picture can tell a thousand words. I can see one of my photos, and remember what was going through my wind when I took it. It brings me right back to that instant.

The question raised in this video for me was about the process of photography, and would I still do it if nobody was to see any pf my photographs? Yes I definitely would. This photography lark has provided me with a kind of therapy which allows me to stand back from the world and observe it. I am no longer an actor, but merely an observer and I can press record if I want to. It gets me out of the house and outside trying to find new places and visit old places too. It has given me an opportunity to learn new techniques and offer myself different options to allow my creativity to manifest itself. There is still something so magical about creating an image that excites, and enthrals me. Yes I will keep going.

Thank you for perusing moments that no longer exist. Just as an afterthought, I should probably tell you where these photos were taken. Trentemoult, just opposite Nantes, on the south bank of the Loire river. And taken on my Canon 6D Mark II, with the 16-35mm lens.

Off to see the King

Posted on Oct 25, 2020Oct 25, 2020 Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, France, HistoryTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, abbaye royal de fontevraid, Abbey, angevine, anjou, aquitaine, architechture, Architecture, Art, black and white, Black and White Photography, blog, burial, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, cathedral, cemetery, coeur de lion, eleanor, fontevraud, France, French, french countryside, french revolution, Gardens, historical, History, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, king, Maine et Loire, photo walk, photographer, photography, plantagenat, Richard, Richard the lionheart, robin hood, sculpture, tourism, Travel, Travel photography, vihiersLeave a comment

At work lately we’ve been having four day weeks and it’s wonderful! There are slightly fewer orders coming in but that’s OK. There’s enough to keep everything rolling by. And who doesn’t love having a day off? Those who said not me, are either liars or simply mistaken.

So that Friday I decided that I wanted to stay away from the house and get my booty off somewhere to take photos. But where? While I was edging closer to be a full time professional musician I did a spot of teaching in a place called Vihiers. It’s miles away, but still a nice drive out. I stopped edging towards music, and photography has taken over. One of my pupils talked about the Abbaye de Fontevraud. I looked it up on the Internet and started learning about it.

I’m half English and part of that is being real with the French. They need this. During and before the Hundred Years War, this area of France was English, and our King was their King. Those of you who aren’t English might have heard of Robin Hood, who looked just like Kevin Kostner and had a mate who looked strangely like Morgan Freeman. There was the Evil Prince John who became King when Richard the Lionheart (who looked really badass and you could mistake him for Sean Connery) went off on a Crusade to show just how badass he really was. Their mother was Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor, her Husband Henry Plantagenet, their son Richard (the famous badass), and Isabelle d’Angouleme who was married to John. Her bad… We all make mistakes.

So this is kind of crazy for me who enjoys history and discovers more of the Anjou region which is just down the road from the Vendée. On the way I recognised a place where I used to buy foie gras when we first moved here. I called in on the off chance of being able to make a purchase and take something good home for my family. It’s changed a bit since 15 years ago, and offers different products. I left some money there and felt happy about buying something directly from the producer that was made on site etc. And it tasted really good too.

Sooooo… I turn up in the Village of Fontevraud l’Abbaye and I even managed to find the said Abbaye. 11€ for the entrance ticket, which seemed reasonable.

A bit of history here for those who can’t be bothered to click and have a read. Basically, the abbey was founded 1101 by the itinerant preacher Robert of Arbrissel. It developed and flourished during the Plantagenet era, went downhill after the Plantagenets were no more, however by the Hundred Years War things were going downhill, and during an inspection in 1460, the abbey was found to be barely inhabited. Fast forward to 1457 reforms were introduced by the then abbesse Marie of Bretagne. Louis the XI gave the place his blessing and the place started to really try to get back on its feet again, but without a huge amount of success. In 1491 there came Renée who was from the French Royal family (the Bourbons, french royals and not the rather tasty biscuits or whiskey). I’m not going to translate the whole of the French wikipedia article but you get the gist right? Things got better, and by the time the French decided that Royalty wasn’t for them during the French Revolution, things were OK!

However as the revolutionaries weren’t into Royalty and because of the so called “Enlightenment” philosophies, they weren’t into religion in a big way either. That continues to this very day. I promise not to get political! They basically get rid of the nuns, and by 1804, Napolean, yes him again, decided to make the place a prison, and it remained so until 1963.

When I went there I wanted to feel the Royal side with Richard the Lionheart and feel the medieval legends in the walls. But I’ll risk being contraversial, and say that I felt more the “prison vibe” and it might be because of the less than sunny autumnal weather, but I could feel the buildings being a place of great suffering. Quite ominous in fact.

Since 1975 it was converted from a prison into a Cultural Centre for the Region. You can see a few “colour” photos of the latest art installation which was very impressive.

Would I go back? Possibly, but not in Autumn.

Canon and the Helios 44-2 58mm

Posted on Sep 15, 2020Sep 15, 2020 Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, Café Culture, Nantes Photography, street photographyTagged architechture, Art, black and white, Black and White Photography, bokeh, bokeh whore, Bretagne, Brittany, Café Culture, Canon, Canon 6, Canon 6d Mark II, Close up, day out, France, helios M44-2, Ian Myers, ijm photography, ijmphotography, lens, Loire Atlantique, Nantes, obligatory bike shot, photo walk, photographer, photography, quartier, sainte croix, street art, street photography, streetphotography, summer, swirly bokeh, vintage lens2 Comments

It was a Sunday after a night celebrating a friend’s birthday with a “couple” of drinks. Which meant I was a tad on the tired side. Not hungover of course. Let’s just say that I needed to move my booty and air my mind.

As those of you who know me might have guessed already that meant making sure I was fit to drive. I was fit to drive. Grabbed my Canon 6D Mark ii and stuck on the Helios 44-2 58 mm F 2,0 lens.

At 58 mm we are leaving the standard focal lengths and heading off into portrait lens territory. How bold of me! Especially as I would be using it on the streets of Nantes. It’s a M42 screw mount lens and therefore needs an adapter in order to work on my modern DSLR. Manual focussing and without focus peaking and with my bad eyes is not easy unless yon use the flippy outy screen and zoom in,which meant that even I could get some in-focus images.

The Helios is a Russian lens from the Soviet era and the build quality could be described as slightly solid. When I first bought it I had placed it on my dining room table. It fell off the table onto the tiled floor and damaged a tile… But you dear reader are sensible and don’t do that kind of sh*t so you’ll be fine.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the bokeh that this lens gives out. If you like creamy bokeh goodness with a bit of a swirl then you won’t be disappointed. Try and spot it as you look through the photos. The bokeh whores amongst you will not be left wanting.