Zoo de la Palmyre

Posted on October 27, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in France, Travel photography, Wildlife PhotographyTagged animals, birds, Black and White Photography, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, chimpanzee, crocodile, Ecology, elephant, flamingo, leopard, monkey, nature, otter, photo reportage, primates, tamarind, tourist, Travel photography, Wildlife, zoo, zoo de la PalmyreLeave a comment

Over the Summer I did my best to not be anti-social and spend some time with my family instead of disappearing to go and take photos, and maybe eat cake and have a cup of tea. Hmmm, cake…

So, as a father I have to take everyone into account. We’d done a few visits to zoos in the past but had never been to the Palmyre. Well, why the heck not. Ok it’s about 2 hours away, but we can do that without wanting to kill each other. I let Virginie do the driving. Always best.

Many people have various opinions on zoos, ranging from how can you put animals in prison, to how great they are because of breeding programs etc. For me it’s about letting my family, and especially my children get to see animals up close, in a way that they could only see otherwise by travelling vast distances, or see in photos or on TV.

Even when passing from enclosure to enclosure, we take the time to see each animal, to see what it is doing, to see how it interacts with the other animals around it. We see where the animal would live in the wild, what it might eat, and through that information and observation we can maybe understand more about each animal. We also get to form a kind of relationship with the animal too. Even more so when it is fury and cute. But we see how strong they can be. Just look at the muscles on the chimpanzee. Some of the animals can be fed pop corn, which is conveniently on sale at the entrance to the zoo, and at various outlets within… We build a connection, even if it is by proxy. You can ask your child, “Well, which was your favourite animal?” And more importantly, “Why….?” The child will think about everything it has seen, and how those TV images have become more tangible.

For those of you interested in the purely photographical, the photos were taken on the Canon 6D Mark II, with the 75-300mm F4/5.6 zoom. I had no idea how to take photos of animals in a zoo, so treated the thing as a portrait shoot with various models, and not just fury cute ones…

Countryside in October

Posted on October 11, 2019November 23, 2019 Posted in Black and White Photography, France, Landscape PhotographyTagged Black and White Photography, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, clouds, country, countryside, crops, farming, fence, fencepost, fields, France, french countryside, Instagram, Landscape, life, nature, photo walk, rural, sky, tranquility, tree, VendeeLeave a comment

The weather today is officially depressing and even more so because it’s a Monday. I was so annoyed with life that it now is Friday afternoon. 5 days to get to the second sentence is possibly a sign. Of what, I don’t know…

The tree that is in the photo is “my tree” that I pass every day to and from work. I’d taken photos of it on film, and in digital but hadn’t been back to see her for a while. I’ve just checked Instagram and the last photo I took dates from February 2017! It’s as if I had neglected a friend that I had not seen for ages but still pass in the street just exchanging glances and a swift hello.

It was time to remedy the situation. I had left her in black and white, and returned to her in black and white. She didn’t have much to say for herself. Being a tree might have something to do with that, but she was still there. Still covered in ivy. Still with all her branches. Still a part of my workday.

The field of maize was still there. The maize replacing the wheat harvested in Summer. By Tuesday it had been harvested and all you could see in the field were the remains of stalks not over 6 inches high, and yet the day before had been as high as a man. Time goes on and the field will be used to produce a winter crop. Such is the way in the countryside.

Some fields had be let to fallow and recover from growing our food. Nature reclaims them for herself and plants grow up the fence posts and in the ditches by the sides of the road. At least they’ve gone back to green instead of the drier washed out colours of a hot summer.

It’s now Friday afternoon and I was only at work this morning. The sun is out, I’m in a t-shirt, and it’s 19°C. The rain has done its job, and isn’t there to dampen the earth or my mood. When I was a child I imagined the rain being God having a shower. I couldn’t bring myself to think of Him having a wee on creation.

I think He’s out of the bathroom.

Honfleur, Daytime

Posted on September 18, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, France, Normandy, Reportage, Street Photography, Travel photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, architechture, Art, Black and White Photography, boats, Café Culture, cafes, Calvados, Canon, Canon 6, Canon 6d Mark II, Erik Satie, France, Fujifilm X Series, Honfleur, Normandy, photo reportage, photo walk, seaside, statue, street, Street Photography, summer, tourist, Travel, Travel photography, X100F4 Comments

I’ve been trying to “find myself” lately as far as photography goes. Different editing techniques instead of always doing black and white. Maybe it’s time to get back to basics for at least one article. You’ve seen Honfleur in colour and at night in my last article. However, I did take my camera out during the day! Yes, that can happen sometimes.

You’ve already had the witticisms about Normandy and the like, so this article is somewhat shorter. It’s about exhibiting some black and white photography of a very pretty little town in Normandy without the distraction of colour. They were taken whilst walking from where I had parked the car, to the house that we had rented for the week. They were taken whilst meandering through the streets, getting lost, trying to see what the place looked like in daylight. They were taken whilst I just let my mind wander off and just take in the beauty of the place. Quite typical for me really, and probably the best way to photograph a town.

The photographs were taken over a period of three days using both the Canon 6D Mark II, with the 16-35mm lens, and the Fujifilm X100F.

Honfleur at night

Posted on September 11, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in Art, Café Culture, France, Normandy, Street Photography, Travel photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, architechture, Art, art gallery, atmosphere, bars, boats, bokeh, Café Culture, Calvados, Canon, Canon 6, Canon 6d Mark II, colour photography, Erik Satie, France, going out, ice cream, jongleur, night time photography, Normandy, photo reportage, photo walk, reflection, seaside, street, Street Photography, summer, tourist, tranquility, Travel, Travel photography, yachts2 Comments

Honfleur is one of those pretty places that you see on postcards from Normandy. It is the birthplace of Erik Satie, the musician, composer, and a slighty, ever so slightly, eccentric, which is how my mother describes me. I think it’s a nice way of calling me a wierdo!

So Honfleur… Full of Parisians and people from just outside Paris that don’t have enough money to be able to afford Deauville. But also full of art lovers thanks to the many painters that have their galleries, and those channelling Eugène Boudin (joke available in French, contact me for details) and those wanting some Monet, Monet, Monet! (the Dad joke strikes again!) And let’s not forget those messing up their cholesterol levels with Camembert and Crême Fraîche d’Isingy, and those ruining their livers on Calva, and Pommeau. Cider is available for the lightweights like me.

On our first night, Killian, my ever dutiful son, needed to get out of the house and stretch his legs, so I tagged along with him. We went out with the two cameras (X100F for me, and Canon 6D for him) to do some night time photography, and headed off to the old harbour. We vowed to keep away from all the bars and ice cream places and actually managed it! Such restraint!

Here are my photos from that trip out:

Omaha Beach, Normandy

Posted on September 8, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in France, History, Landscape Photography, Normandy, Reportage, Travel photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, America, American, beach, burial, Calvados, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, cemetery, colour photography, d day, France, grave, graveyard, History, Landscape, Normandy, omaha, omaha beach, peace, summer, tourist, Travel, Travel photography, US Army, USA, World War 2, WW2Leave a comment

Omaha Beach was one of the five beaches that had to be taken on D Day, 6th July 1944. That task was given to the 1st and 29th Infantry Division of the US Army. To say they took a hammering is an understatement, and General Bradley saw the very grave situation, and one stage nearly abandoned the operation. The grit and determination of his men paid off and they took the beach, but the amount of casualties and dead was tremendous, around 2000 men. A great sacrifice was made that day.

Whilst on that beach, I saw American families turn up, and the emotion was visible on their faces. It is almost a spiritual experience for them, and a form of pilgrimage. The dead are remembered, not only by the few that survived, but by the local population , and the French in general. Just next to the beach, there is the American War Cemetery at Coleville sur Mer. The prisitne graves serve as a reminder to those of us that didn’t experience what they did: the horrors of war!

I remember seeing footage of an old veteran who landed on Omaha, saying that the greatest reward they had, was to see children playing on that beach now, enjoying the peace that was earned by those men who lay down their lives on that same beach all those years ago.

I’ve decided to share photos of both the beach and the cemetery with you. The camera used that day was the Canon 6D Mark II with the 16-35mm Canon lens.

Commonwealth War Cemetery, Ranville

Posted on September 4, 2019June 18, 2024 Posted in Black and White Photography, France, History, Normandy, Travel photographyTagged 16-35mm, 16-35mm lens, 6th Airborne Division, Black and White Photography, burial, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, cemetery, d day, death, France, grave, graveyard, Normandy, Parachute Regiment, photo reportage, tourist, Travel, Travel photography, World War 2, WW2Leave a comment

In my last article I talked about Normandy and the battle to take Pegasus Bridge, and in this article I want to talk about the soldiers that didn’t come back. Ranville is a town, not too far from Pegasus Bridge and the men that fell in that engagement are buried in the Parish Churchyard. Just next to the chuchyard is a Commonwealth War Cemetery.

The cemetery contains predominantly British soldiers killed during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. A large proportion of those interred were members of the British 6th Airborne Division. These places are always very moving, even more so when one looks at the ages of some of those that died in June 1944. My son is 20 and the same age as so many of those soldiers.

Even when dead they are still on parade in ranks with perfect dressing. They died as soldiers and even in death they remain soldiers. When you look through the photos you will notice certain anomalies. One was a tank crew that was buried together, as a crew. One is a grave of a German Jew who escaped to join the British army, and was given a pseudonym so if he was captured his name wouldn’t betray him, One grave is of a parachutist and his dog who were buried together.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Extract For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon

My wife. Again…

Posted on August 21, 2019January 10, 2025 Posted in PortraitTagged 85mm, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, funny, panama hat, photo shoot, relationship advice, relationship goals, relationships, wifeLeave a comment

Let me re-introduce my wife to you again. The sweet loving woman, who has been my long suffering companion, and my love, for more than 25 years, and 20 of those years married to me. She is also the only woman who could put up with me for that long too. But, when asked in front of witnesses, the Mayor, and then God, she said I do… Which means that she can’t take me back for a refund, and that she’s stuck with me. Ah les folies de jeunesse, or in English, she put a ring on it, and now it’s too late.

Anway. I’ve been trying to learn some technique to do some portrait photography, and needed a willing victim, I mean model. I found one just laying on the sofa doing some crochet , and thought you’ll have to do, and she did do! We had quite a laugh whilst doing it too!

Yes, she was a very good sport about the whole thing! She even looks as if she’s having fun. But please, don’t ever cross her, or she turns into this psycho monster. I once tried peeing standing up. That was 27 years ago. I learnt my lesson well!

Other misdemeanours include, just being in the way, breathing, speaking when she hasn’t finished telling me something, snoring, farting in bed, lifting the covers up to share, apparently sharing is caring doesn’t apply in this case, taking up too much space in bed and making her sleep on the very edge of the mattress, not leaving the toilet seat down, not shutting the door, fridge, or my mouth, not cooking, cooking when the food should already be on the table, taking too long to cook, not leaving her alone, and then leaving her alone, using the phone to talk her when we’re in the same house, and many others I’m sure. You see dear reader, we’re a perfectly ordinary couple…

But, and this is a big but, and I cannot lie, you other brothers can’t deny, hang on, that sounds familiar… I can still make her laugh, and that’s not bad. Either that or she’s far too polite to tell me that my jokes are crap…

Anyway!

The tools of the trade that day were the Canon 6D Mark II, Canon 85mm F1.8 lens, a reflector, and my panama hat.

Humber Street

Posted on August 4, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in Architecture, Art, Street Photography, Travel photography, United Kingdom, Urban, YorkshireTagged 16-35mm lens, architechture, bars, blue hour, boats, cafes, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, colour photography, dusk, east yorkshire, england, Food, going out, golden hour, Hull, hull marina, Humber, Humber street, marina, pub, pubs, river, street art, the Deep, yachts9 Comments

In 1987, my father bought me my first SLR. Notice the D is missing. So, I did say SLR and not DSLR. It was a Praktica MTL3 and it is now retired (polite way of saying Kaput) and sitting on a shelf in my son’s room. It took film. And the first roll of film that I shot with it was down Humber Street

In 1987, Humber Street was the fruit market of Hull, and I’m not making an unpolitically correct joke about sensitive men looking to do sensitive things with other sensitive men. No. That would be wrong and very un-enlightened of me. No, they did that in other places dotted around the city.

I used to shoot my film, get it developed at a place on Newland Ave, where I got the camera, and the guy would present me with a contact sheet and critique my photos. For those of you who were born after this analogical age, a contact sheet is where you lay out the negatives on a sheet of photographic paper, and expose the paper, and develop it, and get a whole load of thumbnail images that you can look at and decide which were worth printing. Yes, just like the thumbnails you get on the gallery on your phone, except it might have taken a little longer…

There was one image that pleased me immensely of a cat sitting quietly on a box of fruit wondering what the hell I was up to. That was then.

Skip forward a few years, just a few mind you, because I’m not an old git yet. No sonny Jim, I’m just a git! The area came into it’s own in 2017 when Hull was declared City Of Culture. People were proud of their city again and there were whisperers whispering, “Come to ‘Ull, it’s not shite anymore!”

The ‘gentrification’ of the area started with bars, and even Art Galleries! Then of course came the Humber Street Sesh, showing some amazing local musical talent. This year’s Street Sesh was last night, so you’ve missed it!

At the bottom is the Minerva. Minerva is of course the wise old owl in Greek mythology. It is also a pub which always has such a special place in people’s hearts. They do good food and good beer, and good gin, so the wife was more than happy.

The two nights before these photos, I had met up with and old friend from my school days who was kind enough not to mention all the silly shit that I used to get up to in my youth. The next night was a school reunion with people I hadn’t seen since 1985 and 1988 for the lads. Tales were told that I will not repeat here including stories about a pogo stick, and how I once said “merde” to my French teacher and left the room throwing my French books into the bin on the way out. They told my French wife, “Well he always was a bit European….”

Well now, you’ve kept reading up to now so I suppose I should tell you about these photos. They were taken on the Sunday night when I needed some “me” time to deal with the overwhelming overload of nostalgia. I was out with the Canon 6D Mark II, and the 16-35mm lens. Hope you like them.

Did I go on for too long?

Down by the waterfront Part 2

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged 16-35mm lens, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, Chantiers navals, elephant, grue titan, hangar à bananes, ile de nantes, jaune, le voyage à Nantes, Nantes, YellowLeave 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 April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 Posted in Architecture, Art, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, UrbanTagged 16-35mm lens, Anneaux de Buren, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, Galerie HAB, grue titan, hangar à bananes, ile de nantes, le voyage à Nantes, Loire, lvan, Nantes, riverLeave 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…

The obligatory bike shot!

Posted on April 3, 2019 Posted in Bikes, Black and White Photography, France, Nantes Photography, Street Photography, UrbanTagged Bicycle, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, Canon AE1, Ecology, Fujifilm X Series, Nantes, Transport, X100FLeave a comment

Do you ever get that shot that just seems to turn up on each of your films or series on an SD card? I do. Usually it’s doors, or door knockers for me, but I’ll leave that for an other post. This time I’m going to talk about the obligatory bike shot.

Now I’m all for being ecological and actually own a bike. I have even been known to get on it. Not only that but have been known to use it as a form of exercise and ride around my village. I keep telling myself to get my arse back into gear and get back on after a winter break. My body could use the exercise. Anyway, in Nantes, there seems to be a huge amount of bikes around, and you can see the Dilveroo, or Uber eats, guys riding around and they for an integral part of the city’s landscape. The city also has a large amount of cycle paths and I aim to visit Nantes on my bike one day. It should help me get to places that I can just can’t get to with the car, and it will diminish my carbon footprint, but maybe not my rubber tyre print…

The thing with a bike is that you can get up close and it won’t question your motives like you sometimes get whilst trying to do street photography portraits. You can take your time getting the angle you want without it telling you to get a bloody move on. You can get that depth of field that you like so much and it wont tell to Photoshop out any rust. They won’t talk back. No being accused of stalking.

The tools of the trade for these photos are: the Canon 6D Mark II, the Fujifilm X100F, and the Canon AE1. Can you spot which two photos were shot on film? And for the really keen ones amongst you, can you tell me which film I used?

Île de Saint Cado

Posted on March 14, 2019May 30, 2024 Posted in Black and White Photography, Landscape Photography, Travel photography, Wildlife PhotographyTagged Bretagne, Brittany, Canon, Canon 6d Mark II, France, Landscape, Saint Cado, Wildlife2 Comments

So you now that some of my French family lives in Brittany. Just near to where they live is the Island of Saint Cado. It’s one of those quaint places that you see on post cards. It can get a tad windy in winter, but the last time that I was there everything seemed fine.

So what you’re getting today is landscape photography and some wildlife photography. I’ve always like birds and birdwatching and I’m always on the look out. Today I saw a Spoonbill. It’s basically a big bird that wades in the water and has a beak (bill) shaped like a spoon. 10 out of 10 for originality, eh? It’s a bird that is quite rare in the UK and at 47 years old, this is the first time that I’ve ever seen one. I just stood there looking at him and snapped away. It was like being a child again.

I wanted to test some new ND filters with the 16-35 lens, and as you will see further on, I also had the 75-300 lens with me. All this on the Canon 6D Mark II.