Come to Nantes – It’s a riot!

Posted on Mar 26, 2019Jan 6, 2021 Posted in Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, Reportage, Street PhotographyTagged abbaye de maillezais, black and white, Black and White Photography, Canon 6d Mark II, CRS, France, Fujifilm X Series, Gerndarme, Gilets Jaunes, Ian Myers, ijm photography, Nantes, Pentacon lens, photography, Police, Reportage, Riot, Street Photography, Tear gas, X100FLeave a comment

Oooooh… About to get political. Well, not really, but for the last 19 weeks, the Gilet Jaune movement has become a reality and what was at first something pretty scary, has now become part of everyday life and people are just getting on with it! I love the way they just say “merde” which delivers a certain contempt that the English language just can’t manage to do so concisely.

I’m not going to pass judgement on the movement, or am I going to get into the politics of it all. However, as a piece of history, it has been fascinating to watch and photograph. I mean the French are ready to demonstrate about anything, and things can get quite militant, so we know what to expect. The police come out dressed in riot gear, an all of a sudden you some bangs. The first rounds of teargas have been fired. You get that strange mist that permeates the city and gets your eyes and throat. Not the most pleasant experience, but I’ve had worse. Streets get blocked off by rather large CRS (Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité) or Gendarmes. And they know if you’re demonstrating or not and are quite civil. The ones you have to watch out for are the BAC (Brigade Anti Criminalité) who have less riot gear on but can be pretty brutal.

I watch from afar as elements of the scene fall into place. People are just going about their daily business.

A Manif (demonstration) from last May bout the proposed airport in Nantes.

Thes folowing photos were taken on the X100F and the Canon 6D Mark II, with a Pentacon 50mm lens.

February in Nantes

Posted on Mar 24, 2019Aug 25, 2019 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…

On the market in Nantes

Posted on Mar 23, 2019Aug 25, 2019 Posted in Nantes Photography, Street Photography, UrbanTagged colour photography, Food, France, Fujifilm X Series, gastronomy, Ian Myers, ijm photography, Market, Nantes, photography, X100FLeave a comment

My name is Ian, I have a Jamie Oliver cook book. Hello Ian! Oh com’on. Gimme a break. We’ve all done it The recipes for the hamburgers were really good. Anyway. What was as appealing as much as the recipes was the photography of some of the food but the markets as well. These were of course English markets and therefore by definition largely inferior to the markets here in France.

So this thought had been in my head for ages stored away in a little cupboard in my brain. Since seeing these photos, the idea of doing the same has been working on me. I finally did it. Rémi was one of the guys on the Instagram walkabout, and said OK to accompany me. Helped make sure I didn’t do anything silly.

I wanted to capture the colours in the beautiful light on that day. Weapon of choice was the X100F .

Walkabout in Nantes with the lads from Instagram – Part III

Posted on Mar 23, 2019Mar 23, 2019 Posted in Architecture, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged Archtitecture, colour photography, France, Fujifilm X Series, Nantes, photo walk, photography, Street Photography, X100FLeave 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 Mar 23, 2019Mar 23, 2019 Posted in Architecture, Nantes PhotographyTagged britanny, chateau des ducs de bretagne, France, Fujifilm X Series, History, Ian Myers, ijm photography, miroir d'eau, Nantes, reflection, tourism, X100FLeave 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 Mar 23, 2019Mar 23, 2019 Posted in Architecture, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged architechture, colour photography, Emiliano Sala, France, Fujifilm X Series, golden hour, Ian Myers, ijm photography, Nantes, photo walk, photographer, Street Photography, X100F3 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.