Rockefeller Center (with the Fujinon 14mm)

Radio City (Tony Bennett) -- Fuji X-E1 - 14mm - f/2.8 - 1/60 sec - ISO 800I recently had the chance to spend a week in New York City on my own. It's rare that I take a trip without the family, so I decided to make the most of it and drew up a list of places I wanted to visit and photograph. Photography is always a part of any travelling we do, but it's freeing when you have only yourself to plHalal food -- Fuji X-E1 - 14mm - f/2.8 - 1/60 sec - ISO 800ease.

Just before taking the trip I decided to give my Fuji X-E1 a present: a new lens. I wavered back and forth between the Fujinon 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 and the 14mm f/2.8 before finally settling on the wide angle. The optical stabilization of the longer lens sounded interesting, but the wider lens has received rave reviews and better suits the kind of shooting I like to do.

These shots were all taken around the Rockefeller Center complex and the 14mm did not disappoint. It is a fantastic lens.Bags and shoes -- Fuji X-E1 - 14mm - f/2.8 - 1/220 sec - ISO 800

Anthropologie -- Fuji X-E1 - 14mm - f/2.8 - 1/85 sec - ISO 800

Reasons to be cheerful

Reasons to be cheerfulI recently went to the Canadian Museum of Nature with my 11-year-old son so we could spend an afternoon looking at interesting rocks and bones. I had my Fujifilm XE-1 and he had his iPod (I'm secretly pleased to see him using the built-in camera with the Camera+ app more and more).

There was no shortage of things to point a lens at and the time flew by as we explored parts of the museum we hadn't seen since the renovations were completed. Given the concern to preserve the artifacts on display, it's not surprising that most of the facility is not brightly lit. On the other hand, the central staircase and the new glass tower are open to blazing sunlight. As a result, I found that I was switching back and forth between ISOs 200 and 3200 as I moved from one part of the building to another. (I chose well in using the Fn button on the XE-1 for quick access to the camera's ISO settings.)

Reasons to be cheerful? The wide open grin of the skeleton in the first picture made me think of the Ian Dury song and fit well with the afternoon: time spent in a beautifully-restored building, with a camera I love more every time I use it, in the company of my son with the seemingly boundless energy and unapologetic curiosity.

What could be better?

I'll bet he has bony fingersWhalebaitJailbreak

Old Montreal—outside with the XE-1 at night

Basilica lampsIt's time for the March school break in Quebec, so my family and I spent a few days in Old Montreal for a change of scenery. The days are getting longer and there is the barest hint of spring when the sun is out, but we know better than to think that winter has finished with us yet. We've been fooled before!

A mild evening in Old Montreal gave me a chance to see what my Fujifilm XE-1 could do in low light. Even with snow coming down it was a pleasant walk and the architecture in this corner of the city is always interesting for a photographer. These are all JPEGs straight out of the camera taken at ISO 3200 with the 18-55mm zoom lens.

As some reviewers have noted, the electronic viewfinder does indeed lag at times in low light, but I didn't find this too much of a problem. It might be for people who depend on taking a lot of action shots, but that isn't me. I'm still getting over the thrill of carrying a camera that weighs half of my previous kit! The high-quality zoom lens does not add appreciably to the weight around my neck and it focuses and zooms smoothly and accurately. It's a pleasure to use.

All told, I am very pleased with the way this camera plays and performs. So much so that I went out and bought the 35mm f/1.4 lens while still in Montreal. More on that in the next instalment...

Place d'Armes

 

The night life of parking lots

Blue Basilica 

Snow cone

Like a lot of us, I have to push myself to go out and use the camera during the winter. It's not just the temperatures in western Quebec (although it can get pretty cold), it's also the shorter days and weekends that are often filled with other things. Still, I made the effort yesterday so I could put my new Fujifilm XE-1 through its paces outdoors.

I was really intrigued when Fuji brought out the X-Pro 1 because it offered high-quality images in a compact package. And, frankly, I thought it looked beautiful. It also offered something that I hadn't seen in years: real dials that offered direct control of key settings such as aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation. Although it may just be an indication of my age, it looked like a camera should. The only downside for me was the price.

And then along came the XE-1. Slightly smaller, no optical viewfinder and... hundreds of dollars less, even with the 18-55mm f/2.4-4.0 zoom sold as a kit lens. And no less beautiful! I was willing to work with the electronic-only viewfinder if I could get my hands on the same image quality for substantially less money.

And why was all this important to me? Well, although I loved my Nikon D7000 and have shot with film and digital Nikons for close to 30 years, I wanted something lighter and more compact without having to sacrifice any image quality. I take a lot of pictures while travelling, so space and weight of equipment count for a lot, especially if I'm out all day for several days in a row.

The XE-1 seems to fit that bill and I can't get over how light it is: just 350g with battery and memory card versus the D7000's 690g for the body only. It doesn't sound like much, but halving the bulk is important when it's hanging around a sweaty neck all day. And the lenses are much lighter, too -- it all adds up.

The accompanying image was shot hand-held on a mild-ish winter day (somewhere between -10C and -15C) with the lens wide open. Needless to say, I am very pleased with kit that can produce such fine JPEGs straight out of the camera. And my neck is happier too, even though less sweaty at this time of year.

More on the XE-1 in the days and weeks to come. Time to sell the Nikon gear?

Boxing Day, Gatineau Park

It's been quite some time since I added any posts to the blog, so I'll make an effort to fix that. In the meantime, I've been putting my new Nikon P7700 to good use whenever I can.

I was very happy with the Canon G11 that I used to use as my second, smaller camera, but I got tired of having to use something other than Capture NX2 to post-process the images I took with them. I'd rather take pictures than spend time mucking around with the files afterward, so NX2 has been a godsend for me. I'd resorted to making minor corrections on the G9 and G11 files in Canon's Digital Photo Professional and then saving the files as high-res TIFFs for final processing in NX2. This was a bit of a pain, of course, but it seemed to me that Canon simply made better compact digital cameras than Nikon did.

By the time the P7700 was released, I thought that might have changed somewhat and I was ready to take the plunge. Canon introduced their G15 around the same time, but I knew I'd miss the articulated LCD screen I loved on the G11 and that was now available on the P7700. The G15 had a slight edge with an f/1.8 lens, but I thought this was a negligible advantage over the P7700's f/2.0 and zoom equivalent of 28-200mm (vs the Canon's range of 28-140mm). Some reviewers made a lot of the P7700's lack of an optical viewfinder, but I thought the argument was overblown -- I had never used the viewfinder on the G11 because it was too small and terribly inaccurate. It was more of a cosmetic add-on than a truly useful feature. All told, the P7700 had the features I wanted in a compact camera and produced NRW files that I could process natively with Capture NX2. Smiles all around.

I took this shot during a walk with my family on the estate of former Prime Minister Mackenzie-King in Gatineau Park to blow off the cobwebs on Boxing Day. It seemed that quite a few others had the same idea: walkers, snowshoers and cross-country skiers were all out enjoying the benefits of last week's snowstorm. The little P7700 performed wonderfully and I came home with a memory card full of stills, panos and video. More smiles.

I'm resolving (good photographic word!) to be a more faithful poster in 2013, but for the moment I'll wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

 

In the blink of an eye

I never cease to be amazed at how the business of taking pictures still has the power to fascinate me. There are times when long preparation leads to minimal results, and other times when everything just works with minimal effort.

This picture falls into the second category. We were on a day out in the centre of Antwerp when my wife and son ducked into a shop for a few minutes. I took advantage of the short break to wander down and alleyway and shoot a few frames. The sun was reflecting perfectly off the creamy walls and shedding warm light into every corner. In not much time at all I had made several pictures that I'm happy with.

Light, sky, clouds, buildings, angles, textures all just clicked... in the blink of an eye.

Public art and the art of the public

I took this picture on the Zeedijk promenade in Blankenberge, Belgium while enjoying some of the public art associated with De Beeldige Wandeling, an outdoor exhibit in its ninth year.

I was lining up a shot of Guy Timmerman's sculpture when I saw out of the corner of my eye two men approaching, deep in animated conversation. They were so caught up in their chat that I thought they'd make an excellent counterpoint to the sculpted figures. I waited, and all four obliged me by stepping into place. Rendering the image in black and white helped to emphasize the foreground figures and to eliminate a lot of the distracting colours in the background (it is a beach, after all).

I'm pleased with the result and it's reminded me of two things.

First, art can enhance our public spaces in many ways. It can be a pleasure to look at; it can introduce us to new artists, new techniques, new media and new ideas; and it can help spark interaction and conversation, even between strangers.

Second, I realize that I should take more seriously my wife's encouragement to add human presence to my pictures. I really enjoy shapes, forms and textures and have been happy to shoot buildings, architectural details and abstracts. I get a kick out of bringing new order to established forms and spaces. Still, there are only so many times you can shoot the same subject matter and try to say something fresh about it. For example, I found it harder to get excited about making pictures of the things we saw on our summer vacation this year. This was our second trip to Belgium in three years and, while I enjoyed the trip very much, the beautiful Belgian towns were not exotic to me anymore: cathedral, cobbled market square, guild houses. Check.

Perhaps the answer is really that obvious: I need to inject some (human) life into my photographing and photographs. And after all, people as viewers find people as subject matter endlessly fascinating. I'll make a conscious effort to include more people in my shots in the months to come and we'll see where that leads.

The Atomium

We visited the Atomium in the north end of Brussels yesterday. Built in the form of a 335'-tall iron crystal for the 1958 World's Fair, it continues to attract tourists to an area which is now given over to parks and a large trade centre.

The structure itself is remarkable and evokes the confidence in science and idealism of the space age of the late 50s and 60s. I wondered if I would need to carry a sliderule, Brylcreem my hair and wear a plastic pocket protector before being allowed inside...

For a photographer, it's an enjoyable challenge to work the angles both inside and outside the giant model. If you're on a budget or pressed for time, you can have a lot of fun with a camera without paying to get in.

It would be interesting to know a bit more about what the Atomium housed in 1958, though. There are snippets of descriptions of other buildings from the 1958 Fair Brazilian pavilion and a temporary exhibit on the theme of water conservation, but probably not enough that shows the Atomium itself at its best. One sphere can be booked by school groups for activities and sleepovers and another appears to be available for corporate functions. The top-most sphere houses a restaurant and a panorama level that affords views in all directions.

In spite of the way that the tourist guides hype the facility, though, we came away with the sense that the Atomium is a somewhat wasted opportunity. What was it supposed to represent at the World's Fair? What was it meant to say about Belgium's place in the world or sense of itself? What about all the optimism reflected in the vintage World's Fair posters?  (And why can't you buy copies of them in the gift shop?) Does the Atomium have anything to say now? What about more developed and coherent exhibits on science and Belgium's contribution to research? Why not do something in conjunction with Belgium's space agency? (Yes, there is one: the Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aëronomie - BIRA / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique - IASB).

With all the efforts that Western European countries have put into restoring, promoting and telling the stories of their historic buildings, this piece of recent history could be managed with more imagination. There aren't many sites like the Atomium, so the vision for it ought to be more than... atomistic.

CN Towering

Toronto is full of buildings that are indistinguishable from those you can see in any other North American city. The CN Tower, though, makes the Toronto skyline unmistakeable.

I remember it being built while I was in high school and following its progress with interest. It was exciting to think that the world's tallest free-standing building would not only be built in Canada, but would be clearly visible from the featureless bedroom community where I spent my teens. Bramalea was (and likely still is) just a place to buy groceries and sleep, but the tower on the horizon was a visible reminder on the horizon that interesting things were happening, not far away.

Since the tower was completed in 1976 -- a doubly-big year for Canada with the summer Olympic Games in Montreal -- the structure has been photographed from every possible angle, in every light, in every season. It's been done to death. At the risk of being cute, finding something new to say about it visually is a towering challenge.

So I won't for a minute flatter myself that this view is unique, but it's different enough for me that I think I'll be able to enjoy it for some time. And, if I let it, the picture might help remind me that interesting things are always going on not far away, whatever age I am.

MS Jadran

I have no reason to post this image other than the fact that I like it a lot. I've been processing more of my shots in black and white recently and enjoying the results. Clean lines, form and texture have always appealed to me, so being able to bring their qualities to the fore really appeals to me.

The vessel in this picture is a well-known landmark on the Toronto waterfront. It's been a restaurant for years, although I can't remember seeing anyone go in. Perhaps I've never been there at the right time and, to be honest, I've never ventured inside either.

Manhattan at dusk

What else is there to say about New York? It is the archetype of the metropolis.

This was shot from the Top of the Rock, looking south over Manhattan. The Empire State Building is dead ahead and you can just make out the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Few cities have played such a defining role in modern Western imagination. And it's still easy to see why.

Alone, but never on your own

One of the great things about a big city is the range of options you can have for interacting with other people. You can be anonymous, if you'd like. Or you can seek out the company of others if you'd prefer to do that. Or, in large common spaces like a Central Park, you can move back and forth between the two, choosing now to find a quiet space to read or stroll and then joining with others to applaud a street musician. That ease of movement between different degrees of social interaction also makes it easier to try your hand at street photography: as long as you are not obnoxious, no one is the least bit surprised to see you taking pictures. Much harder to do in a smaller town.

I like NY.

New York grain

We spent three glorious days in NYC a week ago. If you're not caught in a late-winter blizzard, March break in Quebec often means grey skies, grey streets and grey scenery, so somewhere with a little more warmth and activity is always a welcome break.

New York is only a day's drive from here, but it could just as well be a world away. Not only is it warmer, but there's something to see and do on every street corner. A break for the soul, as well as for the body!

And it's a photographer's paradise. If you aren't moved visually by this city at any hour of the day or night, well, you need to put your camera away and take up Sudoku as a means of personal expression.

This shot was taken from the "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center. The observation deck allows for fantastic views of the city in most directions and is a great vantage point for including the Empire State Building in panoramas. We went up just before sunset to get the best balance between the building lights and the glow of the sky. We weren't disappointed. I messed around a bit with the image in the desktop version of Snapseed, an inexpensive little image editor with fast and powerful tools. For about $20, it's a real deal, and it lets me experiment with RAW, JPEG and TIFF files non-destructively.

Still in the photographic line, we also visited B&H Photo and Video so I could pick up a new lens and make the pilgrimage to the superstore. I have never seen anything like it: a photographer's most vivid dream and combined with a descent into the ninth circle of retail hell. It's madness -- but what glorious and orderly madness!

Needless to say, we'll be going back to New York and more shots will follow on the blog.

Check mate

This image of an East German border guard stands beside the spot where Checkpoint Charlie used to stand in Berlin. The checkpoint was the crossing between the American and Soviet sectors of the divided city. Although the Berlin Wall was opened in 1989 and much has changed since then, it is surprising how much of East Berlin still shows signs of its drab Communist past.

The young guard's picture goes well with the featureless apartment block behind him: both are anonymous and cold. For me, they serve as eloquent reminders of the dangers of statism.

Touching calm and composition

I've been having a lot of fun with the Apple iPod Touch 4 I bought just after Christmas. It's my second Touch (Number 2 Son has inherited the first), so I was familiar with the hours of music I can keep on the device and the wifi access that it gives me. My earlier model was my constant travelling companion as I visited Canada's capital cities in connection with my last job.

With the new model, though, I was dying to see what the built-in camera would do for me. And I haven't been disappointed. It's no dSLR, but it's not meant to be. And that's a good thing.

The Touch is always in my pocket and I can find a few moments for photography wherever I am in the middle of my workday. I have a very busy job, so this means that I can inject a little bit of something I enjoy into the daily madness. It's like therapy, only cheaper and faster (and effective!).

I'm finding that the limited camera controls are encouraging me to pay more attention to the basics of light and composition, rather than adjusting settings and wondering if I should really switch to a different lens. I took this image during a quick lunch break at work, while a colleague was waiting in line to pay for his slice of gelatinous pizza. Personally, I think I got the better end of the deal...

The Camera+ app I've been using is also a terrific piece of software. It lets me upload my shots directly to Facebook and Flickr and offers a range of post-processing choices to adjust colours, rotation, cropping and borders (like the pseudo-Polaroid one here). At US$ 1.99, it's a terrific bargain. If you use your iPod or iPhone camera much, I encourage you to check out this app.

Now back to work, just a little more relaxed...

Baillie Road, New Year's Day

The background in this shot shows low clouds over the Eardley Escarpment at the edge of the Gatineau Hills in the Ottawa Valley. It's a stitched pano made from 10 exposures with my Canon G11, so it's unfortunately difficult to see in anything but the largest size.

I drive along this road every day on my way to work and keep meaning to stop and do something with the often-interesting light and conditions. This time I was on the way back from church and had a camera in the car, so there was no reason not to stop. The escarpment is a more-or-less sheer drop of some 800' and covers a large sweep of the landscape, so I thought it deserved a panoramic view.

This is my first picture of 2012, so it gets me out of the photographic and blogging gates for the new year. I don't normally go in for resolutions at the start of the year (although I did promise myself to visit both New York and Paris in 2010 and managed it), but I'm going to aim to shoot and blog more this year. I think at least one posting a week is a reasonable goal, so let's see how well I stick to it.

A Happy 2012 to all!

Frozen milkweed

Winter has arrived again in the Ottawa Valley. Fewer hours of daylight, colder temperatures and the demands of my job work together to reduce my time—and inclination!—to take pictures. Still, winter comes to the Northern Hemisphere at this time every year, so none of this is news.

All these hurdles can be overcome: my Canon G11 and updated iPod make it possible to take pictures during my work day; light can be added to almost any scene; night photography can be enjoyable and produce impressive results; and daylight can almost always be had on weekends. As for the cold itself, my photographer's gloves let me feel buttons and dials while staving off the chill for a while and an oversized Ziploc bag protects the camera from condensation damage when coming back into the warm air of our house.

This image of milkweed was made in the field behind our house while my younger son and I took a walk on a snowy day. I sometimes struggle with pictures of natural objects, but I'm happy with this one.

Virtue by design

Okapi-rightDuring our trip to Germany this summer we made a point of visiting BMW Welt, the famous automaker's headquarters in Munich. We were glad we did.

Part showroom, part museum and part happening, the facility is well worth a visit whether you are interested in cars or not. BMW is in business to sell cars -- and expensive cars, at that -- but their approach to business is somewhat different from what we normally see in North America. "Lifestyle" advertising and sales are the norm here, too, but the German approach (we saw something similar at VW's Autostadt in Wolfsburg) seems to combine a commitment to quality in design and manufacturing with a genuine commitment to the customer.

Prospective buyers are invited to take their time viewing sightlines, opening doors, feeling surfaces and manipulating controls -- you can even sign a vehicle out for an hour or two if you like.

And there's no need to hurry: you can spend the day learning about cars of the past and new technologies, let your children take part in interesting activities or be driven around the facility in a tiny BMW two-seater from the '50s, and stop for lunch in one of three restaurants.

You'll need to stand back, though, while a rider on an off-road motorcycle does stunts up and down the stairs and across the display floor. If you're fortunate enough to be picking up a new car, you'll get the full VIP-treatment in a special hand-over area. (The image at right is a picture of one of the pieces of art one the walls of a lounge area used for receptions and available to visitors who want to rest for a while in one of many very comfortable chairs.)

All in all, not a bad way to spend a few hours, whether you leave with a new car or not.

What's most striking, though, is the concern for quality design and workmanship throughout. Not everyone can afford to buy a BMW, but all of us can appreciate the evident concern to produce goods and spaces that are well-designed, well-made and welcoming. Taste and style can come and go, disposable cash can expand and contract, but doing the best we can with the work of our minds and hands is always within reach of any us. My eye might have been caught by a dark grey Series 3, but BMW Welt captured my thoughts with the virtue of excellence.

 

Lady in white

White lady

Still working my way through the shots I took during our trip to Germany last summer. This young woman was a street performer who stood out from the others in the crowd in Munich's Marienplatz. I'm realizing just how far behind I am in my processing, so I'll need to get at it a little more seriously.