street

Oxford in the Sun

*Oxford in the Sun*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford Pan F

Last summer I did a bit of mad traveling going from Bordeaux to Paris to Mâcon to Paris again, to Vienna to Lyon to Marseille to Bordeaux to London/Oxford and back to Bordeaux, most of it for work and in the space of two weeks. It was too much. When I arrived in Oxford it was brutally hot, very unusually so for Britain, but very clear as well. Just outside the train station, I saw this row of beautiful old British houses, took out the camera, and voila.

Anonymous Lounging


*Anonymous Lounging*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Velvia 50

Lyon’s Hôtel Dieu is an ancient hospital that has been decommissioned and rehabilitated as a series of indoor parks, hotels and shops. Its classical architecture is both monumental and sparse. I took a few shots in there, taking advantage of the great light. Despite my chronic underexposure of the Fuji Velvia, some of them came out really nice, like this picture of a friend lounging anonymously on a deck chair in a courtyard.

Pestacle de Guignol

*Pestacle de Guignol*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Velvia 50

Lyon is the birthplace of Guignol, the French panto version of Punch and Judy. As I was walking the streets of the old Lyon in a brutal, brutal heat I saw this shop window with a Guignol dummy (at least I think it was a dummy), kids and on the side a guy working on a building. It was my first ever roll of Velvia 50 and I suspect I underexposed it some, but I quite like the warmth in the final photo nonetheless.

Moody Lantern Portrait

*Moody Lantern Portrait*
Fuji XT3

The beauty of really wide open lenses is that even at night you can do portraits with wonderful background bokeh. This guys was standing a few meters from me, and I waited a while for him to be looking in (roughly) my direction. This is the final shot I selected of a few and I really like it.

Keep Your Lantern Trimmed and Burning

*Keep your Lantern Trimmed and Burning*
Fuji XT3

I took a lot of portraits of lantern bearers. I was looking for interesting subjects, but also interesting moments. Here, I liked how the lantern light was directly lighting the young man’s face. Of and yes, the title is a bit of a nod to an old, old song…

The Dragon’s Head

*The Dragon’s Head*
Fuji XT3

Getting a good shot of the Dragon’s head is devilishly hard. Since it’s made of rope with only the teeth and eyelamps to actually understand what it is, you need the right angle. Also, it’s nighttime, there’s incense smoke everywhere, and it’s constantly in movement. So I was quite pleased with this shot, and quite thankful I took my f/1.2 lens with me (this was shot at 1.4). The rest of the shot is blurred, but hey, you have to imagine that everything is in motion!

A Dance with Dragons

*A Dance with Dragons*
Fuji XT3

Last week-end was the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance (nothing to do with George RR Martin, despite my facetious title). I had attended last year, with only my trusted 35mm x100F in hand, and while I got a few good shots including this great portrait I felt the need to revisit the event (which is fun in its own right anyway) and try to capture more diverse shots. I carried both my 56mm 1.2 and my 50-140 2.8 and both were put to great use. This is a broad shot of the wonderfully lit lantern display at the top of Wun Sha Street where the Dragon is dressed with incense sticks.

Devotional Light

*Devotional Light*
XPAN + Kodak Ektar 100

Inside St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna was a candle board. I decided to try and shoot a decent shot with 100 ISO film. Three attempts, and the last one came out not bad. It’s really tricky shooting in such low light at the best of times (the XPAN only opens at f/4) so I’m really happy it worked.

Austrian Press

*Austrian Press*
XPAN + Kodak Ektar 100

 At the very end of my half-day stroll in Vienna, I had only a few shots left in my Ektar roll, and I tried to use them, but I couldn’t. Still, I went for some pure street shots as opposed to the architectural stuff I had tried before. This was one of these shots.

Two humans, two golems

*Two Humans, Two Golems*
XPAN + Kodak Ektar 100

I don’t know if these two figures were supposed to represent golems (this was in Vienna after all, not in Prague), but they caught my eye, and when later, passing in front of them again, I saw this man and his son (I’m assuming) on their phones in the noon light, I thought « I have my shot ».