bourgois – IJM Photography

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…

As you might have realised by now, sometimes I seem to find myself in Nantes quite often. Ever the creature of habit I have my “spots” that I seem to go to and one of them is the street between la Place Royale, and la Place Graslin, La Rue Crébillon. It’s basically where rich people do their clothes shopping and you have to be skinny to get into any of those clothes, but it’s all so elegant. Along the way you have the Passage Pommeraye which also oozes French elegance, with Hermès at the top, and a rather delightful place at the bottom that sells chocolat and macarons….

I could tell you the history of the place but you can look it up on Wikipedia if you want. This is more about the photography…

The Passage Pommeraye is a small shopping mall in central Nantes, France, named after its property developer, Louis Pommeraye. Construction started at the end of 1840 and was completed on 4 July 1843. The Passage Pommeraye is a passage between two streets, the rue Santeuil and rue de la Fosse, with one 9.40 m higher than the other. Midway, there is a flight of steps and the mall then continues on another floor. Two architects, Jean-Baptiste Buron and Hippolyte Durand Gasselin, contributed to its design, which is very elaborate and includes renaissance style sculptures. The Passage Pommeraye has been classified as a historic monument since 1976.
Wikipedia

This is a collection of photos taken on my last visit, taken on the Canon 6D Mark II with the 16-35mm lens which has become a firm favourite with me. I enjoy the distorsion and how I can use it creatively, as well as the sheer joy of diving into the scene before my eyes. I also brought out the Helios 44-2 58mm lens to take some photos in the café where I like to have a couple of coffees to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon. An idea for another article perhaps…