Category: Urban

Edinburgh at night

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I knew there was something that I had forgotten… To finish the Edinburgh series. I seem to get distracted easily. Oh look, a shiny thing…. It’s like when you’re having a long conversation about something, then go off on a tangent, and then have to work out how to get back to what you were talking about, and at the same time trying to make it look witty, and intelligent. Needless to say, I often just loose track, and have a blond moment. A blond moment being where I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t care because I’m blond, and therefore beautiful, and don’t have to think too much…

ANYWAY! Back to Edinburgh at night. I mean it’s not at as if I always do it. I mean Nantes is great and all that, and on my doorstep… I’ve gone and done it again haven’t I?

The photos in this series were taken on two consecutive nights after having spent the afternoon south of the border with my parents. As before in the other Edinburgh posts, I was using the X100F and it just goes to show how well it performs in low light. OK I was in Auto for the ISO setting, and yes there is noise but I still like the result and hope you do too.

On the market in Nantes

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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

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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 I

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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.

The first morning in Edinburgh

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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

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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.