Stand Up Night Out

One never knows what ugly issues will rear their heads when I'm out on the road and can't do anything about them. So, just to be on the safe side, I thought I'd test posting to my new layout from my NEXUS 7. Just in case...

Stand Up Night Out | Sony RX1 | 35mm F2.8 1/60s ISO2500

Smoking Lavapiés

While I detest the smell of smoke, a puff here and there sure looks good in a photo.

Yellow Bag Crossing

Normally I can't ignore anything yellow, so everything is as it should be here. Normally, I also put space in front of the subject. Here I deviated from my norm, swinging the camera to the left. At the time it was an intuitive reaction but upon further reflection I think it adds a certain tension to the scene. She's at the threshold of the sidewalk's relative safety and we can't see what's speeding up the road from the right.

Dundas Street Shuffle

I'm sitting behind my big monitor in Amsterdam again, pouring over the hundreds of photos I took while in Ontario. I expect a large percentage will end up in the virtual garbage can while a few will appear on this blog over the next few days. I'll try not to mix those two categories up.

Noodle Refuge │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F2.0 1/80s ISO500

The photos in this post were taken during an late night stroll along Toronto's Dundas Street. They're all minimally tweaked, out-of-camera black & white JPEGs. Of course I also have RAW files, but I actually like the look of the B&W JPEGs that the RX1 produces. Not only do they look good, but the time I save not having to muck about with RAW files can go towards catching up on the sleep that my transatlantic flight deprived me of.

Cleaning Up │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F2.0 1/100s ISO8000

Homeward Bound on the 505 │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F2.0 1/80s ISO12800

Under Flying Concrete

Here the massive concrete arches of London's Waterloo Bridge loom over the flimsy folding tables of the Southbank Centre Book Market. I like places like this as they're being used in a way probably not intended by the designers; there's a kind of sponteneitity you just don't get in a more controlled environment.

Row by Row │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F2.8 1/200s ISO100

Browsing │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F5.6 1/250s ISO100

Café Careen

The RX1 is very quiet; nobody hears the shutter being released, even at close quarters. I'd still be noticed though if I were to spend a lot of time composing the shot perfectly, so I didn't. This is very much a spontaneous shot that I took among some of the other patrons waiting in front of the counter. It's a bit raw with a dangerous list to the left, but captures the atmosphere.

The L that got Away

I thought I'd continue the red theme with another photo I took while in London; as if that weren't obvious from the big red double decker buses, never mind the “ondon” stenciled on side of the passing bus. I did want to catch the “L” but I wasn't quite fast enough.

Coming Home

Coming home there are no obstructions, the bumper to bumper traffic is up above, out of the way. If you're talking on your smartphone, there's also a good chance you won't notice the man with the camera in front of his face.

Back in Amsterdam

There's no better way to prove that I'm back in Amsterdam than showing a photo with bicycles in it. The girl stopped to do some texting is causing a little obstruction. It's still much better than the alternative of texting while cycling one handed, which is more common.

Now that I'm back home, I have a lot of photos from London to sort through. I'll be posting more images from my collection over the coming days.

Where am I?

If you want to photograph tourists, head for one of the info-boards scattered throughout central Amsterdam. Yesterday a young woman handed me, a total stranger, her big DSLR camera so I could take a photo of her with a canal in the background. Personally, I wouldn't need a photo of myself so badly that I'd hand someone my RX1. But that's just me.

Walk Around │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F4.0 1/250s ISO100

Well Heeled at Night

I need to work a little harder to focus the RX1 at night. The autofocus system acquires the subject quickly and accurately as long as there's enough contrast, as one would expect. As even lower light levels plunge the subject into the deep shadows, the autofocus starts to hunt. In this case, setting the flexible AF spot over an area of the subject with a little more contrast normally allows the system to lock on.

The RX1 took longer than usual to focus on the woman above, but then we're talking about light levels low enough to require a sensitivity of 12,800. While my Panasonic GF2's autofocus feels a little quicker at night, its sensor would have capitulated at anything beyond 1600.

Gritty Nights

This is the season around here when there's a lot more night than day, so I'm often shooting in relatively dark conditions. Everything's maxed out on the camera to achieve fast enough shutter speeds. The resulting high sensitivity images have a natural grittiness to them; no need to add grain in post processing. On the GF2 with its small sensor, ISO 3200 is a stop too far with noise obliterating much of the detail. If only I had a nice, compact camera with a full frame sensor...

Into the Shadows │ GF2 + Leica DG Summilux 25mm F1.4 │ 25mm F1.4 1/160s ISO3200

Paris Tourists

It doesn't happen often this time of the year that great weather coincides with the weekend. When it does, popular tourist destinations like Montmartre quickly become so crowded that I feel cramped shooting with a 50mm lens. In the photo above I wanted to back up slightly, but couldn't due to the masses behind me. Time to get out of there.

Two Plus One │ GF2 + Leica DG Summilux 25mm F1.4 │ 25mm F4.5 1/100s ISO100

Down By The Pier