Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged architecture, arts, classical, fountain, grotesque, Italy, night, photography, renaissance, Rome, sculpture, shadow, statue on January 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Piazza della Rotonda, Rome : 23rd August 2012
This particular piazza in central Rome is most famous for one of the city’s star attractions, the imposing and ancient Pantheon, but it is also home to an obelisk, at the base of which is an intriguing sixteenth-century fountain. Here are two of the four sides captured at night, and given different post-processing treatments. In both cases the non-use of flash allowed the fountain’s lighting to cast eerie shadows over the somewhat grotesque figures…
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged emptiness, figure, interior, lines, loneliness, monochrome, shadow, silhouette, walk on April 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Gallery Ghost” : Tokyo, 18th March 2012
Another shot from inside the Tokyo National Art Centre.
I waited a long time for random folk to cross my sights for a decent capture, but I’m not really happy with it, to be honest…
See a larger version of this photograph here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged bridge, figure, lines, path, perspective, railing, shadow, walkway on March 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Man in Perspective” : Porto, 9th September 2011
This was taken on a large bridge spanning a gorge, with fairly hair-raising drops on each side.
You can see a larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged abstract, apartments, architecture, building, city, shadow, silhouette, twilight, urban on January 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Twilight Apartments” : Hiroshima, Japan, 14th January 2012
I braved the cold last Saturday to wander around the largely unfamiliar streets to the north of Hiroshima’s main train station, and came up with quite a few interesting shots.
There’s no magic in the subject of this photo – it’s just a block of flats, and not a particularly beautiful one at that, but the early evening light intensified the warm colour and threw out those amazingly sharp silhouettes and shadows that provide such amazing contrast.
I also got plenty of strange looks from passersby, though, which makes me a bit worried – what must people think when a guy with a ‘professional’ looking camera with a big lens is taking photos of seemingly ordinary residential buildings?
Check out a larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged "close-up", decay, industrial, lock, metal, padlock, paint, rust, shadow, whitewash on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Locked in Shadow” : Hiroshima, Japan, 31st December 2011
I found this little scene on the outside of some sort of power generator next to a major roadway, and in this tiny little rectangle there are a host of elements that appeal to me: rust, shadow, texture and warm tones. What more could you possibly want?
Check out the larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged bridge, figure, grass, monochrome, mysterious, outline, railing, shadow, silhouette on January 1, 2012 | 2 Comments »
“Silhouette Self Portrait” : Hiroshima, Japan, 28th December 2011
First picture of the day for 2012. Yes, when your time zone is GMT +9 you get to experience these ‘important occasions’ way ahead of your family and friends back in Europe or America. Although any relatives in Australia or New Zealand are even quicker off the mark, of course.
Honestly, I have no idea why people commemorate New Year, birthdays, or any other ‘special’ days. It’s just totally arbitrary, random, and ultimately meaningless. Personally, I like to think that I can give people presents, contemplate the future or past, eat and drink too much and celebrate the joy of being alive any time, anywhere, as my mood takes me, and not at the behest of any calendar, religion, nation-state, or anyone else.
But that’s just me. Go ahead and enjoy yourself as and when you see fit!
And yes, that amorphous shape in the picture almost sporting a halo is indeed my good self.
Click here for a larger version of this image.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged concrete, Hiroshima, industrial, Japan, shadow, silhouette, tree, urban on December 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Imprint of Life” : Hiroshima, Japan, 17th December 2011
A second image from last Saturday’s photo shoot out in the suburbs of Hiroshima following a monorail artery.
This silhouette of a small tree against the backdrop of a monolithic concrete support seems to be an apt symbol for urban Japan, in which nature has been virtually banished by the dictates of industry and the exchange of the wonders of nature for lives of convenience…
A larger version of this photo can be found here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged architecture, building, futuristic, light, metal, monochrome, shadow, walkway on December 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Light and Structure” : Hiroshima, Japan, 16th December 2011
On Friday I took my new Canon S95 high-end compact to work and this was one of the results.
I can’t say I’m bowled over by this highly-rated camera: anything other than a DSLR just doesn’t really do the job, but this shot was decent enough.
I climbed up to the sixth floor of the futuristic university building and loved the way the early morning light was pouring through the metal walkways and casting mirror images on the vast concrete wall.
It seems this place just never stops giving me interesting things to photograph, which always puts me in good mood before first class…
I’m just a sucker for stark, grand-scale modern architecture, I suppose.
You can see a larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged "Praça do Comércio", flag, flagpole, forest, Lisbon, photography, Portugal, shadow on December 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Flagpole Forest” : Lisbon, Portugal, 4th September 2011
My first full day in Lisbon, and only vaguely remembering the layout and features of the city from my previous visit an astonishing twenty-two years previously, I headed down to the sea to get my bearings.
Except that it isn’t the sea, it’s an extremely wide river called the Tagus which you can just make out on the horizon in the picture above.
This large open plaza is known as Praça do Comércio, an impressive square flanked by a palace, bisected on one side by an old tram line with its quaint old carriages, with a large statue of some dignitary or other from the glorious past in the centre, all drenched in a kind of fading grandeur befitting the once empire-building nation’s decline into a tiny Iberian pocket.
Of more appeal to me in one corner was a cluster of flagpoles flying the national flag, and standing among them I felt like I was in some weird kind of forest, the effect doubled with the shadows.
I’m embarrassed to tell you just how many photos I took here, none of which really came out as I’d envisioned, but this was the best of the bunch.
As usual, you can view a larger version of this photograph here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged bridge, canal, cross-processing, plank, rail, shadow, silhouette, wood on November 18, 2011 | 2 Comments »
“Canal Bridge” : Strasbourg, France, 31st August 2011
Most of the traffic on the canals of Strasbourg these days is tourist-related, but the locks all work, and so does this old swing bridge, as I found out when I was just about to cross.
Talking of ‘cross’, I treated this image with cross processing, a term dating from the days of film when one could develop a roll of one type in the chemicals for another, resulting in weird and unpredictable results.
This can all be simulated digitally now, and I must admit I use it quite a bit
See the larger version of the photo here.
