Leaving San Francisco

This post has been delayed somewhat, catching up after having 4 weeks away and phone problems.

The photos for trip posts are all taken on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. Unfortunately, it has been running down the battery in just a few hours, even a new battery, for several months. It also runs the battery down while plugged in to the mains power if I try and use it. All this made posting to my blog and Twitter, etc a bit of a problem.

I just managed to edit some recent photos that I took on it and it will be replaced this week. Hooray!

We finished our photo trip to California and Canada with an evening in San Francisco after our jaunt around Napa Valley. Some new beers at the Mikkeler brew pub to try but no new photos around the city, I gave myself a few hours off!

We returned on Virgin Atlantic on 9th June, flying over the main SF bridges as we left.

Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco

Bay and Oakland Bridges

I have 72 rolls of exposed Ilford 120 film. Mostly FP4, but also 16 rolls of 400 Delta (rated at 500 ISO in case you're interested) and a few rolls of SFX infrared film. 20 rolls processed so far, just 52 to go, probably spread over 3 more days. It will be a while until I start scanning them. None of the film I took with me was subject to x-ray machines, Jan put a lot of effort into pre-arranging a hand search at Heathrow Airport. San Francisco and Vancouver Airports did hand searches as soon as we asked on arrival at the x-ray machine, as is usual in North America.

New Images of Vienna

In September 2014 we visited Vienna for the first time. I took 22 rolls of 120 film on my Mamiya 7 cameras, with 10 shots to a roll.

In order to put them on my website I have scanned the first batch of negatives and edited them in Photoshop to look like darkroom images. This is so that I can print them in the darkroom as needed.

Here are some of the photographs. Click here for the Vienna photos on my gallery website.

Freyung Passage at Night

Hofburg Palace Skyline

 Spanish Riding School Stables

 Prater Park Ferris Wheel at Dusk

 Upper Belvedere Palace Reflections

Cathedral and Haas Haus

Hofburg Statue at Dusk

City Hall at Night

Scafell Pike in the Sunshine

What a spectacular day we've had in the Lake District! Sunshine pretty much all day. We've come away for a few days taking photos.

Today we went up Scafell Pike, highest mountain in England, to take the pictures I would have taken in June if the weather had been better. Quite a contrast, in June it was heavy rain and thick cloud, today was sunshine with white fluffy clouds most of the day.

Also repeated a shot I took on a dull day many years ago. Great Gable reflected in a small lake. No reflections this time but a great sky.

The black and white picture I also took on my Mamiya 7 camera and Ilford FP4 film. Ran off 5 rolls in total with 10 negatives on each 7 x 6 cm.

Great Gable phone version

Mamiya 7 camera taking the proper photos

Crowds on Scafell Pike summit

Vienna in the Sunshine

Jolly nice day in Vienna today. We took lots of photos. New places as well as some previously visited in poor weather in last 2 days.

I have some decent shots and hopefully they will appeal to people who know Vienna. Coincidentally someone asked for pictures of Vienna at our last show, at Crowthorne in August.

One of the places revisited was Karlskirche, with a reflection today.

So many iconic buildings in Vienna have scaffolding and shrouds around all or part of them. Tricky finding angles to avoid the distractions.

Jan was pleased too as we found time to visit the Hotel Sacher for the very special Sachertorte. It was excellent, allegedly!

Home tomorrow.

Vienna Wet and Dry

Today was a big day for us in more ways than one. Lots to photograph after the day time washout yesterday and lots of walking. In fact Jan's Fitbit said we walked just over 20 miles!

The distance came from walking to the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel in Prater Park. This is the one in The Third Man film and is one of the main tourist attractions so was on the shooting list for 2 reasons.

I wanted day and night photos so we went over this morning as it was dry with rain forecast later. Then we walked there again late afternoon, in the rain, arriving in time for dusk which then led into the night photos, between showers.

In all I spent well over an hour this morning and an hour this evening photographing the wheel.

It was a half decent day between showers so I photographed lots of the iconic buildings too.

Forgot to take stuff on my phone so just a couple of shots from Belvedere.

Tomorrow is also forecast to be changeable so fingers crossed for more good skies.

In total I took 11 rolls of Ilford FP4 120 film, making a total of 13 with last night's 2 rolls.

Analogue Photography Alive and Kicking in Vienna

On our way back to our hotel for a break in the photography proceedings I noticed this shop window. Analogue photography is obviously still thriving here.

A large part of the shop window was given over to Ilford pinhole cameras, all three of them!

I'm not the only dinosaur in Vienna!

Vienna in the Rain

Jan and I are in Vienna for a few days. We seem to be just in time to catch the monsoon season! Lots of rain.

We arrived here late morning. There was a 2 hour spell in early evening just as it was going dark when it stopped raining and we even saw clear sky for a few minutes.

I ran off 2 rolls of Ilford FP4 120 film with my Mamiya 7 camera around the Hofburg area, New Town Hall and the cathedral.

I took a few on my phone too, converted to black and white in Snapseed,  to give you an idea of what it's like.

Thunderstorms, heavy rain and sunny spells are forecast for the next 2 days. I get the impression the forecasters are hedging their bets!

New Images of the Shard in London

I have just scanned 7 new images of the exterior of the Shard in London and added them to the website. Here's a selection. They were all taken on 10th January with quite a good sky at times but rain stopped play from 3pm to 6pm. Just 1 night shot as it eased off on our way home.

London Shard at Night from near London Bridge

Shard on Stilts

Shard Panoramic

Shard and Trees

New Images of Manchester

In amongst the new images of London are 3 new images of Manchester. They are all shown here and are on the main website.

Beetham Tower / Hilton Hotel

Castlefield Merchants Bridge Reflections

New Images of London

Not wanting to be idle over the break we decided to go down to London just after Christmas to take photos!

Fortunately we had reasonable weather, except for some light rain as we arrived. I mainly concentrated on shots I hadn't already taken, like the Royal Opera House and Hungerford Bridge. Here are a few examples. More on the website.

I will be taking more this Friday 10th January. We have an offer to take photos from the Shard so keeping fingers crossed it's clear, forecast so far looks good. I will do some more around the base of it too.

Shard Framed

Young Dancer Sculpture and Royal Opera House

London Eye and Hungerford Bridge

New Images of Bruges

I added 22 new images of Bruges to my web site before Christmas. A mix of daytime and quite a few taken at night. Here is a selection. Follow this link to the Bruges page on my web site.

All available as fine art darkroom prints in various sizes.

Canal from Rozenhoedkai at Night

Church Reflections in Dijver Canal at Night

Canal at Night from Blinde Ezelstraat Bridge

Grote Markt and Belltower at Night

Taken the night before Wigan Athletic arrived for their UEFA cup game and transformed the square with their flags and banners!

Canal from Rozenhoedkai

Grote Markt Panorama

Boat on Canal near Jan Van Eyck Square

 Jerusalem Church and Lamp

Bonne Chiere Windmill

New Photo of the Shard

New photo of the Shard, this one taken on my phone but proper one taken using my Mamiya 7.

Great day for photos in London today. We finished our whistle stop photo trip with shots of the Shard, Monument, Guildhall, the art deco Daily Express building on Fleet Street, Royal Courts of Justice and the Royal Opera House.

15 rolls of 120 Ilford FP4 to process from the 2 days. It will be a few weeks until they reach the website.

Photo Trip to London

We are in London for a day or so taking photos to add to my picture library. Today was wet and dull until early afternoon and then really good light until dark.

Smithfield and Spitalfields (image attached taken on phone to show what I took on my Mamiya 7) Markets were first. In fact I did Smithfield twice as the light improved so much. Then the Old Bailey, St Pauls (as if I don't have enough already!), then on to the Millennium Bridge for a shot towards the Tate on the south side. Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated the numbers of people who would be there. It was impossible to get the shot. The bridge was a solid mass of people.

We moved on to the Waterloo Bridge for shots along the Thames in both directions. The Hungerford Bridge with London Eye behind was the view I wanted but the other direction to St Pauls (yet another one!) and the Shard was good too. More shots of Hungerford Bridge followed as it went dark but I was thwarted at Westminster Bridge as it wasn't lit apart from a few street lights, nor was the Houses of Parliament apart from Big Ben. Have made a note to return at dusk on a future trip.

8 rolls in total, that's 80 negatives with quite a few duplicates, just in case. A good start.

Tomorrow the forecast is good until mid afternoon so heading straight to Shard for a vertical panorama from below. The rest of the day will depend on the weather and time.

New Images of Berlin

In July we visited Berlin for a few days, all planned around taking photographs of the city. The films have been processed a while and here is a taster of them. More on my web site.

Brandenburg Gate at Night

Bode Museum at Dusk

St Nikolai Church and Cafe Sign

Berlin Wall on Bernauerstrasse

Holocaust Memorial and Tree

 Reichstag Building at Night

Berlin Sign and Lamp

Bundestag Film 'To the German People'