Ian's-tagram

Daniel Maigné has been invited back to the Abbey of Flaran with a new exhibition entitled « Cathédrale (s) ». He was last there 8 years ago with the initial exhibition of the « Profondeur de Champs » series which he helped get off the ground, and continues as a yearly event inviting different artists each year.

The opening night was last night – and I was invited. (It helps that I know the artist of course…)

Daniel lives in a house a short distance from the Cathedral in Lombez, and a window on the second floor of the house looks out on the imposing 13 century  cathedral tower. Over a number of years, he has built up a catalogue of images, all based on the shape and form of the tower, across the seasons, and this work was presented yesterday.

I found the exhibition beautiful, and well balanced (not too much, just enough) and would recommend a visit (to anyone living in the department at least!) As for the image below, much of the glass in Daniels windows is original and more than 300 years old. In this triptych the focus was on the glass, rather than the tower.

Despite what my iPhone picture might make you think, this is not a composite image – it was taken from the far side of his house, and the black bars are the wood in-between the original glass window panes dating from the period of Louis 14th.

It was the end-of-year fête at our nieces primary school today – the kermesse is a French tradition and must not be missed – her primary school groups children from 2 districts and so there were nearly 100 children present – now multiply that by parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents etc. Seemed like thousands of us packed into the school hall…

This image is from the end of Louna’s (our niece) activity – she wisely decided she was safer inside the tube!

One more year and she’ll be in secondary school – time is flying…

Reports from  Scotland regarding the rumors of new photographic evidence of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster have been denied by a spokesman in Inverness today…

William Leymergie has FINALLY left the breakfast television show on France 2.  Made my day, if not entire week! Almost makes getting up in the morning an interesting idea…

 

I think we are going to have to redefine this word – I mean, they do still exist, even in paper/print form, but some of the « title’s » have lost so much credibility.

Take this one for example.

This used to be called a newspaper – now it’s referred to as a ‘tabloid‘ (a bit like celluloid, but used to cover tables, litter trays, the bottom of bird cages etc.)

Newspapers used to employ journalists who went around collecting news and then writing about it for the general public to read, and so inform themselves of what was happening around them.

Tabloids like the Daily Mail don’t have to employ real journalists as they have a staff of writers, with very active imaginations, who either invent things for their readers, or ‘interpret’ photographs with funny captions to amuse everyone.

An example of an image, and the caption obviously written by someone high on magic mushrooms:

« Jolly holiday! Never-before-seen photos capture the Royal Family being greeted by crowds in Scotland in the 1950s (and reveal the Queen Mother’s close bond with her grandson Prince Charles) »

I couldn’t invent this if I tried! If you’re really lucky you also get a thing called a « Katie Hopkins » a sort of failed Big Brother candidate who has an opinion on everything, but mostly what people couldn’t care a less about. Even after a lobotomy operation earlier this year it still goes on and on and on about, well, pretty much anything and everything – I can’t help thinking it would make a wonderful Queen or Prime Minister or road sweeper. Sadly the ‘off’ button has yet to be found – but it’s amusing I suppose in small doses.

If you have an imagination, shout a lot and can use a keyboard, I strongly suggest trying to get work with a journal such as this – after all, no spelling or punctuation skills needed, just make up all sorts of guff and get it published. Can’t think why I didn’t think of this myself…

They’re still out there – and they’re growing…Who, might you ask?

These idiots…

This is part of the clan Kardashian (There are loads: Kylie, Kim, Klitoris etc.) – they do very little, but earn money BIG time. Seemingly kept afloat by the worlds implant industry (breasts, lips, bottoms etc.) they spend their time flaunting their distended bodies all over the world’s press. The midget to the left has an arse the size of Dorset and an IQ in single digits, and the one giving « the finger » ain’t too bright neither! The one in the middle is learning to touch her chin with her tongue – beats working for a living.

Each and every one of the clan claims to be a ‘style’ icon, which I suppose is true in a way – however, the actual ‘style’ has yet to be realistically defined – ugly comes to mind – the midget has actually been seen parading around in some interesting ‘designer’ curtains…shame no-one thought to close them.

Come to think of it, this was probably the reason their step-father decided it was time to become a woman…

This is an unusual image.

We were visiting MAAT – the Contemporary Art Museum in Lisbon, and came across an exhibit explaining light, heat etc. and infront of us was projected a real-time image of us, filmed by a heat-sensitive camera. Great fun.

For once UPS actually managed to deliver a parcel to the correct address, and yesterday I finally received my new lens. It’s a beaut! Very well made, with the focusing mechanism smooth and well balanced. Sadly yesterday was a day of very mixed lighting and little available time, so my initial test shots are meaningless to anyone other than myself.

To fully understand the wide angle properties of this lens you’d normally have to compare this shot with the same scene taken with a less extreme lens. Which I didn’t have time to take… A full set of comparable images will be available soon…

Suffice it to say I like: The size and weight, the infinity ‘stop’ (very useful in night-time photography) the hyperfocal distance scale (as it’s a manual focus lens) and the general build quality.

I’m waiting for the gelatin ND filters to arrive – then we’ll have some more fun!

This example was taken almost directly into the sun (fairly obvious really) and I’m impressed with the fact that there is very little flare – a well corrected/coated lens.

Todays image involved a little planning…

This is the Vasco da Gama bridge which spans the Tage river basin on which Lisbon is built. The older Western part is more important in terms of it’s size, but the Eastern edge of the basin is fast developing and the 12klm long bridge linking the two sides was opened to the public in 1998.

Before visiting Portugal I had seen a photograph of this bridge taken in the early morning, and it looked worthwhile to visit. I checked the time of the sunrise (6h11) and the approximate angle relative to the bridge (thank you Google Maps) and decided that it would be feasible. What I hadn’t counted on was the scale of our map of Lisbon – what I thought would be a half hour walk from our hostel was in fact an hours bus ride plus a half hour walk!

With WiFi available everywhere in Portugal, we checked for buses, metro, trams and sure enough there was a night bus that ran every hour – so I left the hotel (alone I might add) at 4am to walk down to the bus stop, where I caught the bus with a surprising number of other people (most of whom got off at the airport, presumably shift workers) and thanks to my bus pass, paid 1.30€ for my hours trip. When I arrived at the terminus, the dawn was breaking so it wasn’t too difficult to decide which way to orient myself and I walked along the riverfront to the bridge.

Interestingly I was not the only photographer there that morning – there were at least 3 others. Anyway, I think it was worth it…of course, when I go back to the hotel, it was just in time for breakfast – that’s planning!

In the unlikely event anyone is actually interested, here’s a little of the history surrounding some of my recent images. One a day…

This is the Place Luís da Camoēs in Lisbon, facing West. Our hostel overlooked this very animated square, with an ebb and flow of people and activity virtually 24 hours a day. One morning, as we were leaving the square to explore Lisbon, an elderly lady (Why is it always elderly ladies who feed wild birds?) poured a large amount of corn on the ground for the pigeons.

Pigeons eating infront of a monument really isn’t anything to write home about, so I decided to liven things up a little. Take the focus and frame the shot, finger on the shutter button, stamp foot – marvelous!