Shade of Light

Q: Have you ever tried to commit suicide?
A: No (however, I quit facebook).

Another nice place to enjoy a hot drink in Durham is the Vennel’s Café. Better if the drink is a tea, because the coffee is poor, and better still if without any accompanying cakes, uninspiring. However the rooms are cosy, the outdoor tables even more so and, more importantly, they are heated during cool weather (that is, 99% of the times). Weird to say, but it is an unusual custom here in Rainland.

Picture taken with Olympus XA camera and Agfa B&W film.

It often happen today that, instead of choosing digital imagery for what it has good to offer – that is cleanliness -, “filters” to add digital film grain are popular. I, for once, believe that shooting with an Ilford Delta 3200 not only is great fun, but also yields great results in terms of tones and (if the scanner is a good scanner, like the Coolscan, capable of rendering a nice fine grain) nice and real grain.

Just like the example above (an air vent shot in the beautiful Bow Lane in Durham), I have several other pretty examples of images shot in B&W film on iStock, here.

Durham is one of those towns that work better in Black and White.

…but the Pancake House in Crossgate, Durham, is cosy and welcoming, and the internal decorations are sure to meet the high expectations of a photographer’s eye!

Bronica SQ-A, PS 80/2.8 and Fujichrome

Did I mention the Illy coffee? Ah!, if it only was the dark-roast version!

The canoe sheds down the river Wear in Durham are the only bits of colours(*)  in an otherwise grey-ish (but pleasant) piece of nature.

(*) Well, I was forgetting the ducks.

Update, 18/04: still no ducklings in the river. I repeat: no ducklings yet!

Some time ago I proposed it would not be difficult to improve on the quality of the current photos of Durham found on the web.

I photographed the Cathedral and… well, what would the Cathedral be without the potent lighting equipment that surrounds it?

Here it is.

Bronica SQ-A

Fuji S3

By the way, my iStock  collection of Durham pictures is growing.

People talk of good portrait lenses, but usually forget about good portrait cameras.
My Bronica SQ-A is a great camera, but not a great portrait camera. Unless used in a studio, on a tripod, with the mirror locked up and with your eyes on the model rather than in the viewfinder, what happens in practice is that the Earth-shattering mirror scares the model – who closes the eyes – and that you cannot verify this because the mirror locks you out of the image.

From this point of view, the Mamiyas C220 and C330 are much better – no mirror noise and no mirror black out.

This said, these two portrais of Misha were shot with the Bronica SQ-A.

Thanks to friends Sara & Mike for the visit. I hope they enjoyed the break from smoggy London.
It is going to be cold and wintry again. This photo is from January.

Nikon FM2n, Nikkor AF-D 50/1.4, Fujichrome, Photoshop