Shooting in the city

Went to town this afternoon with my friend Carlos to shoot architecture.
The place is Bordeaux Merriadeck.
We had a great time, here are the results, well my pictures, that is:

Going digital

Well, some may know that I started photography at the age of about 10-11 years, some 40 years ago.
By that time, evidently evidently, everything was on film!

Later, when I earned my own money, I tested a lot of films just to get stuck with my favorite film, the Kodakchrome 64 for color slides. I just loved the colors when watching the slides on the big screen at home!

It was not cheap, but what a film!

With my Canon FTb QL, I could get 39 slides out of a 36 cartridge!

But when you have only 3 unexposed films left in your bag and you have still a couple of days left in your holidays, you don't do much experimentation, you make every shot count! And even when I was at home, near my trusted photo retailer, experiments have been rare. You had to mark in a (real) notepad aperture, exposure time, light situation, send the film for development, wait a week or so, cut the slides, frame them and watch them on the big screen to finally see the results.

So when I could buy a Canon Ion back in 1989 or so, I was quite fascinated by it. It was not a digital camera, but a "still video camera" which saved the stills on a mini diskette!

The quality of the images was, well a video still, but you could watch them on a TV set or, in my case on a Commodore Amiga 2000 with a digitizer card. The resolution was something like 480 x 320 pixels! In short, it was more of a toy than a tool.

But now, today, with 3 SD-cards in the bag you can shoot thousands of images, experiment and see the result instantly on the screen, change the settings, re-shoot and pinpoint your idea. Since I got my 600D in May, I have shot about 5000 pics! 4500 for the dustbin, well not really, each of the deleted pictures tought me something. Either about the way the camera works, either how to find ways to bring my "vision" of the scene on the screen.

People say, there have never been taken more photos than today. On the other hand, I don't think that the amount of good photos has grown in the same way.

For my part, I do take more shoots than ever before, because I can, because it does not cost me more and because I do try more things.

This is a good time to learn, to train your eye and perception and to get out of your comfort zone!

Traveling light

When going out to take photos, be it in the city or in the "wilderness", I like to travel light.

Here is my basic equipment:

Apart from my camera it consists of:

1
The Lowe pro Toploader Zoom 55 AW, big enough to hold the camera, a second lens and my 8" tab if I choose. It has an integrated rain cover which can be quite useful. I carry it either with the shoulder strap (city) or the padded belt (8) (outdoors).

2
A mini tripod, always inserted in the side loops of the Toploader. A cheap one, but it works, someday I will have to get a better one, but well...

3
A credit card sized grey card, very sturdy with a neck loop. In this case a Scuadra TrueColors. Always in the front pocket of the Toploader.

4
A pocket knife (front pocket)

5
My smart phone, protected in a Griffin Survivor, for GPS data or to control the camera with the

6
USB-OTG cable (front pocket)

7
A mono pod, a Manfrotto 679B with the Manfrotto 234RC head. Very sturdy! Can be used as a walking stick or to get rid of angry dogs!

8
A padded belt with two additional pockets. This one is an old VauDe, at least 25 years old, not sure if they still make them.

Add to this sometimes a daypack with a raincoat, water and a snack inside and you have my "Travel lite" list.

Night shots

Well, I getting a bit bored tonight, so I grabed my gear and decided to do some long exposure shots in the night. With my camera by my side and my trusty tripod over my shoulder I went down to the river Garonne and started my dive into night shooting.

After some tests I found these settings that worked quite good in manual mode:

ISO 100, f 20, t between 5 and 15 secs.

Here are some of the results: