Framedlight

I happened to be in London yesterday when the sun came out and the temperature rose to the dizzy height of 15 degrees. I had gone to see the Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and when I came out Trafalgar Square was full of basking people enjoying the warmth and light.

I decided that I would try to make some pictures from Bishop's Stortford Thursday market. Bishop's Stortford must have one of the most boring suburban high streets. I used the Fuji XE-1 as it has a much smaller profile than my DSLR. I wanted to let some people know I was photographing them, mainly so I would overcome the fear of doing this. The photos were converted to black and white using Silver Efex2. I was surprised how dated the hight street looked in black and white. It gave a 70's retro feel to the place, even though taken in 2013.

The CloudFTP wireless device for iPad – now called iUSBport https://www.hypershop.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=210 This can be used for iPhone and Android devices too This device can be used to download files directly on to an iPad or on to a hard drive. It does this by generating its own wifi network. I bought it as I am going to South America for a month, with a Nikon D800e (file sizes 47mb) and do not have enough memory cards to last the whole trip. I did not want to take a laptop with me. It cost me £80 from Misco. It retails from Amazon for around £100. In retrospect it might have been easier to buy a secondhand netbook through eBay, but I do use the iPad for reading, browsing etc. When you first receive your CloudFTP,  (it measures 7.5x6x2cm) you can charge it up using the lead provided inserted in to a USB plug like the one with the iPad. The device can be used while it is charging. On to your iPad download GoodReader. Good Reader is used to look a...

 For completeness I thought I would publish a few pictures of Reykjavik. These were taken at dusk using a tripod for the longer exposures. There is a panorama of the waterfront from 12 shots and I am also including one picture of a window  which can be seen walking through to the gates at Keflavik airport. For a stay of only 4 days I got an awful lot out of Iceland and I can't wait to get back there. I am pleased I went in the winter (although there was no aurora while I was there) but I would like to go again in the spring or autumn, with a car and for longer. The Waterfront Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Hallgrimskirkja Downtown Reykjavik The Harpa Concert Hall Downtown Reykjavik

South Iceland  has expanses of black lava fields, overgrown in many places by green lichen. They give a very dramatic look to the mountainous landscape. On the road between Reykjavik and Keflavik the landscape is flatter and the desolate lava field looks extremely minimilist, with little habitation and nothing to interrupt the endless view of jumbled rocks. On the road to Pingvellir. This has been through Colour Effex 4 On the road to Pingvellir 2 converted to B&W with Silver Effex 2 The road to Keflavik The minimalist landscape gives an almost Gursky feel

Moving from ice and waterfalls to the sea I have here some pictures taken on the south coast of Iceland near the town of Vik. This little town of only around 400 inhabitants boasts a wild shore with beaches of black volcanic sand. The strange sea stacks  are called the Reynisdrangur and round the headland to the east of Vik the beach at Reynisfjall has cliffs of basalt columns and caves. The wind had dropped the day we visited but the sea was still full of crashing Atlantic rollers. Apparently the temperature and the currents make it too dangerous for swimming.

I wanted to show you some pictures of the three Iceland waterfalls I visited. The first, Gulfoss which lies northeast of Reykjavik towards the Langjokull glacier. It is a very impressive waterfall and has two tiers, although we could not get to see the lower tier clearly. It was a cold day when we went there and the wind was so high we had to cling to the fence surrounding the waterfall to stay still.  Using a tripod would have been impossible. The way round the fall is duckboarded but it was extremely slippery because of ice and some of the paths had been closed off. In spite of the dull sky the water was still wonderfully blue and seeing it in winter was a great treat because of the ice build up. The following day we went on a tour of the south shore of Iceland where we saw two waterfalls, both very different from Gullfoss. It was late in the day when we got to them, but the wind had died down and so the tripod came out. The first is Skogafoss, 62m hi...

Last week I spent a few days in Iceland and I will endeavour to get a few photos of this trip on over a couple of blog posts. On the Sunday we visited the edge of the Myrdalsjokull glacier and I took these ice pictures there. This glacier lies next to the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that harboured the volcano which erupted and formed the ash cloud in April 2010. Each glacier seems to nestle its own volcano, one of which Katla is a sleeping giant whose eruption is long overdue!

The snow looks as if it is on its way out. So here is a shot taken yesterday of the pylons stalking through the snow. This was on a lonely open footpath between Arkesden and Wicken Bonhunt. The Pylons with some 'Colour Effex' added I am off to Iceland for four days tomorrow, so hope to be back with more stuff next week

I have been reading Ansel Adam’s autobiography where he describes how the f64 club was started and how partly it was a reaction to the pictorialist group of photographers, led by William Mortenson.  Mortenson was 5 years older than Ansel and took pictures of people dressed up as historical figures (dreadful in my opinion) nudes (better in my opinion). He ‘messed around’ with the pictures and printed them on soft parchment paper! I thought there was a similarity with this one of a tree and some snapseed photography. Ansel thought that photography should be literal, but obviously he was taking decisions like framing the shot and printing his photographs and also thought that there should be an emotional investment in the picture. He was affronted by the overt sentimentality of Mortenson’s work. These arguments still continue today! There is more on Mortenson in an article in this online magazine  - http://www.thescreamonline.com/