Category: Architecture

Modern architecture on the Île de Nantes

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, Street Photography, UrbanLeave a comment

I remember when the words, “modern,” and “architecture,” when used together in the same sentence would conjure up images of post-war concrete brutalism. Think carparks from thw 1960’s etc.

Thankfully, this is no longer the case! Or at least I hope not. So nearly 60 years later, yes, that does give you a bit of a choc, modern architecture is no longer a dirty word, used, to put architects down.

In this series of photos you will see geometric forms, textures, walkways, and a place I would consider living if it wasn’t so pricy… Maybe in the 60’s they said similar things, but this time around, I believe them!

Today’s weapon of choice was the Canon 6d Mark II and the 16-35mm lens.

Down by the waterfront Part 2

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Right, where was I? Ah yes, down by the waterfront, the front being the Hangar à Bananes and the water being the Loire. So we’ve done the Grue Titan, had a quick look at the rings, and even looked at the Cantine where Kate and I had lunch.

Whilst having lunch I noticed a gentleman and his wife and their two boys. There’s a kind of hilly thing that the children can play on and I think I have a picture of it somewhere… It’s called the “Coline” which means hill. I get you a photo next time… Anyway. I noticed the guy had a rather nice camera and we got talking, and comparing photos and Instagrams etc. Which was nice because anyone that knows me, knows how I can go on and on about photography, and my wife gets bored of it all very quickly, but this guy didn’t. So thank you very much Patrick.

The conversation kept going and it turned out that he, and his wife had moved to Nantes from Paris in much the same way as I had moved to Vendée from Paris in 2001. So we got talking about the differences and how we both had no regrets coming out here. The conversation turned into an impromptu photo walk and it was lovely!

This is where you get to see the big Yellow Titan crane, which has become a symbol of Nantes, as well as the elephant, which is massive and definitely something that every child wants to see and go on!

Down on the waterfront Part 1

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

After having met Nikos Aliagas on the Saturday I was still starstruck and it seemed to bring me out of my photographic funk… I’m not saying that all my photos were crap, but I was definitely getting into a rut.

I was originally going to go out on my own to Clisson, but Kate asked me to wait and take her to Nantes.  So I waited.  Thinking that she would use the x100 and I would use the Canon 6d Mark II with the 16-35mm lens, we set off to the Hangar à Bananes and got into action.

I love this bit of Nantes’ industrial heritage and happy that they conserved it.  This huge grey crane looms up before you and is on the very end of the Île de Nantes. I’ve photograped this crane many times and I might publish some other photos from the archives later on.

When one says Hangar à Bananes, people from Nantes get images of the huge grey Titan crane, les Anneaux de Buren, la Cantine (where we had a lovely little lunch), various pieces of modern art, the HAB Galerie (place the Kate loves having a look around), the Carrousel des Mondes Marins, and a big huge Elephant, modern architecture and so much more. This is Nantes, so expect the unexpected!

In this gallery you can see the first part of my photographs. The rest will follow in future articles…

February in Nantes

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, Street PhotographyLeave a comment

The month of February was amazing. We had a veritable heatwave! Alright, it wasn’t 30°C in the shade, but about 15°C – 18°C. It’s February after all. I felt alive whilst getting all that free Vitamin D.

This is more typical of the photography that I do when I’m out in town. Generally black and white, urban, and trying to find a timeless quality…

When I do black and white photography I feel able to strip away the “distractions” of colour, and concentrate on the essentials; composition and subject. I try and capture the mundane and the ordinary, documenting everyday scenes in Nantes.

It would appear that I have a fixation about doors and door knobs. But that is a story for an other day…

Walkabout in Nantes with the lads from Instagram – Part III

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

We crossed over from the Castle and headed over past the Tour Lu (sans thé) down towards the Canal St Félix, along the Loire, pas the CIC building, and back into town and we ended having coffee and tea in the Sugar Blue Café where I have this habit of going to and eating wonderful food and having a nice cup of tea… I seem to have this weakness for tea and cake…

Walkabout in Nantes with the lads from Instagram – Part II

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Nantes PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

So we’re still out taking photos and learning from each other. We all know Nantes and it’s good to see how other people might see the place. Photography is one of those things that actually lets me show you a moment in time through my eyes. It’s especially so when you have a camera and are looking through the viewfinder. I see something in a moment of time that will never come back, because as soon as I presse the shutter release it’s already happened, and is already in the past. I can’t take that moment back. But I have a snapshot. In life you can’t look with my eyes in the same way that I can look with your eyes. However, photography allows this. It’s maybe one of things that makes it so amazing. It’s surreal.

We managed to find the Château des Ducs de Bretagne. Still with the X100F…

Walkabout in Nantes with the lads from Instagram – Part I

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Now and again I do some colour photography, especially with the colours you get from the X100F. Everyone goes on about it, but they really are good. A guy on Instagram wanted to get some people together of various photographic levels, some who know little, some who know a lot, some who have loads of gear, and some who have very little. This was the first outing.

We wanted to get into Nantes during Golden Hour, but somebody had the rather silly idea of making it the “morning” Golden Hour. I, of course, was late. The meeting place was Place Royale, where Kate’s favourite fountain its. Emiliano Sala had just disappeared on his flight from Nantes to Cardiff, and people had made a kind of shrine to him.

They all had DSLR’s with lenses and tripods and the whole shebang. Guys together having a competition to see who had the biggest… Camera… What else were you thinking about???? I turned up with my Fujifilm X100F. Yes mine was the smallest (camera) but I’m fine with that, and I own it!!

But I digress. I usually do black and white conversions and seem to have the process slightly sussed out. The colour film simulations are just great on this camera and I get why people wax lyrical about them.

When I got the X100F I wanted to have a digital camera that was the equal of my film cameras. I wanted something that could open up to F2 and go up to F16. I wanted something that looked good and that got the job done. It’s basically a compact camera, with a fixed prime lens, and is sold as the street photography photographer’s camera, or the travel photography photographer’s camera. Of course it it great for this, and just slips in a bag. It’s light and such an understated chic. I love it! There you are. I love my camera.

But back to Nantes who is the real star in this series. In this first part you see us going from the Place Royale, going to bakery for breakfast and a coffee (I always seem to find a place to eat wherever I am…), heading towards the Tour de Bretagne, which is Nantes’ version of the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, going across Cours des 50 Otages, towards the Castle via rue de la Marne, and having a look at some the of the streets branching off, and ending up on the rue du Château.

Greyfriar’s Kirkyard, Edinburgh

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, Landscape Photography, Travel photography, United KingdomTagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

We’d both decided that before we even got here we would have to visit this Churchyard with many of Edinburgh’s famous and infamous residents who decided to stay on permanently… JK Rowling used some of the residents’ names for her characters in the Harry Potter books. See if you can spot where Tom Riddle is buried…

It’s a very “haunting” place and is supposed to be one of the most ghostly cemeteries in the UK. As you get closer to the (now closed) section where the Convenanters were imprisoned you can really feel the ominous pain and suffering that they endured at the hands of Mackenzie, and the hatred as you pass Mackenzie’s mausoleum.

Elsewhere there was a feeling of calm. The sun was just coming up over the hill and Edinburgh castle was so warm in the golden hour light.

This little guy, as bold as brass just didn’t care about the photo shoot! He just went around looking for food…

The first morning in Edinburgh

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, Travel photography, United Kingdom, UrbanTagged , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

It was that time of the month. The month of December that is. In between Christmas and the New Year. Those days where you’re in food limbo and don’t know what day it is..

Let me explain… Last Summer we went on our annual visit to see my parents in Northumberland. My son was working at the time and couldn’t come with us. My daughter had her two parents all to herself.

Towards the middle of Autumn, my father was in hospital and we we’re all very worried. I hadn’t received “the” call to come home but I was in a bit of a state about the whole thing. Wanting to spend time with him etc, and during Autumn and Winter I tend to get very homesick. My parents were about to go on a cruise over Christmas and the doctors said that he couldn’t go, as they “wanted to keep an eye on him.” As it turned out, he didn’t have pancreatic cancer, and just need his heart medication changing. But I felt so crappy living miles away and not being able to do anything, and failing completely as a dutiful son.

I had once jokingly said, “You know I’m capable of coming over to see you.” To which he replied, “You are capable of many things!” Well that had stayed in my mind, and as Autumn turned into Winter I decided that my son and I would go and see both my parents. We decided on staying in Edinburgh, and we could take the train down and see them. All this to explain what the heck I was doing in Scotland.

I got the poor bugger out of bed before the crack of down, and headed down for breakfast. Not just an ordinary breakfast. Oh no. We don’t do Ordinary. I had the full Scottish breakfast and as I was piling up the sausage, haggis, baked beans, roast potatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and the obligatory HP Sauce onto plate one, I could hear my heart saying something that rhymes with “Oh Clucking Bell!” Funnily enough, it had given up when I got the toast and blackcurrant jam, and the natural Greek yogourt, with cornflakes and red fruit. Gotta stay healthy folks! And Tea. Proper tea. I mean the tea that just gives you a cuddle as you drink it. not this French “infusion” rubbish that looks like something the cat did when it was upset with you. Oh no. None of that. I was home!

Right, now to the geeky bit about what camera I was using. As we only had hand luggage I decided to leave the DSLR at home and only take the Fuji X100F. It’s a great little camera and a joy to shoot with. Between you and me, I actually think it’s my favourite camera. A bit needy in the battery department, if you know what I mean… But I take spares with me.

Nantes Grand Angle Photo Rally

Posted on Posted in Architecture, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, Street Photography, UrbanTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

What do you do on a nice, sunny, Saturday afternoon, when the Gilets Jaunes have forgotten to turn up? You get in the car with your daughter and meet some fellow Instagrammers from Nantes Grand Angle to go out and take some pictures. My camera for the day was the Canon 6D Mark II, with a Pentacon 50mm F1.8 lens. Of course you need the adapter ring so it’ll work, but it works. You’ll see in the pictures later.

We met up and our little group headed off towards the Station to do some architecture shots (the theme was details…) but it was sunny so who cares! We went from the FNAC, towards Bouffay, Ile Feydeau, the Château, the Canal St Félix, and then down to the station.