Where is Gordypops?

coexistence?

gordypops — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:29:28 +0000

I had a conversation the other day about the fact that if I were jewish, I don’t think I could live in a German speaking country, even now. Switzerland’s history in WWII wasn’t exactly squeaky clean on the matter of the holocaust. I am frequently aware of an inherent racism in these parts. All the more shocking that the people who are doing it don’t see it.

It takes a big heart to forgive. Something for us all to learn. It would solve so many problems if more of us could just forgive. But we should also speak out if we see discrimination in it’s many forms. We should call it out for the ugly thing it is.

Streets

gordypops — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:50:17 +0000

The streets are turning all grey and brown round here. I find myself wandering around half-blind in darkness, feeling the way tentatively along icy concrete walls. There’s noone to bump into and the cold is beginning to nibble my bones like a hungry rat finding scraps of sustenance on a decayed lamb chop.

Imbergässlein

gordypops — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:32:28 +0000

I must have photographed this alley in Basel about 100 million times. It’s on the way from my home to the Rote Engel which serves big cups of coffee, so I go there a lot. Too much even. Maybe I need to find another place so as I get some new photographs. Which reminds me I was musing about starting a Café blog……

Dark Days

gordypops — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:56:41 +0000

Sun is already down at 16:45 CET here in Basel. Dark days. I’m just waiting for the snow.

Fujifilm X100

gordypops — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:42:49 +0000

I’m going off on a bit of an adventure next year. Probably the biggest holiday I’ve ever had if I don’t include my stay in Mexico some years ago. I decided I wanted something a bit smaller than my DSLR so started shopping around to see what was out there. I was looking for something that let me do some things manually and was a bridge between a point and shoot and SLR. I checked a few of the four thirds options, but somehow felt too much stuff is buried in menus. I’d known about the Fujifilm camera for a while and saw it in a shop and gave it a wee look. Thing is I found I didn’t actually want to hand it back to the shop assistant. I can’t quite describe it. It has this sticky quality when you get it in your hands, you just want to go out and photograph with the damn thing. So, I bought one. And here it is complete with a cheap case I got for it on ebay.

There are actually quite a few things about this camera that I wish Fujifilm had done differently or better. Top of my list is the manual focus. I wish somehow that they could have made this fully mechanical rather than the electrically drive focus system. If they’d done that the camera would be absolutely perfect for me. I also find the autofocus can be a bit wierd at times if you want to selectively focus. But I found a good way round that. Point the camera at the thing you want focussed then depress the shutter button so as the autofocus locks on it, then frame your shot and press all the way to take the picture. This also is a way round my other criticism that the camera can be a little sluggish compared to an slr in getting exactly the shot you want. Depress the shutter button so as it locks the focus and then when you see the shot you want in your frame press it all the way. Much quicker. i don’t know if I maybe read the manual too fleetingly to catch this tip, but I share it with you here anyway. Also, the battery runs down faster than I’m used to on my Canon 500D. You’ll need a spare, trust me on that.

Now one thing that might bother a lot of people is the 23mm fixed unchangeable lense. For me it’s not a problem at all. Coming from mainly only using primes on my SLR I actually like this limitation. It’s a pretty wide one so you’ll be able to get most of the shots you want.

It’s great being able to switch the aperture, film speed and exposure compensation directly on the camera without going through menus. For me an absolute must!

I must mention that I love retro look and feel and if you do too, then this camera is not going to disappoint you. Fujifilm really made something that has a hybrid feel of an old camera with all the benefits of digital. And it feels nice and solid with its metal casing. No complaints there! I get asked a lot if it’s an old film camera

The photos have a certain quality that I like too. I suggest looking at pictures on flickr.com taken with this camera if you want to be sure, or check out the more recent photos in my facebook photos - facebook.com/thegordonbell – the lastest stuff in the album ‘pointless’ has some. The film simulations might not be for everyone, but I like them a lot. A special favourite of mine is with any of the black and white settings and the flash for taking shots at night.

You’re certainly going to read about the viewfinder in a lot of reviews. I concur that it works great. I use it on electric pretty much all the time. It is great not having to use the back screen unless you want to.

The best thing I can probably say about this camera is that the shots you see of it here were taken with my Canon 500D, and I really do like that camera, but those are pretty much the first shots I’ve taken with it since this camera arrived a month ago. Go figure. You’ll want to take lots of photos with it if you get one and surely that’s a good thing.

Chrischona – Inzlingen – Riehen

gordypops — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:01:11 +0000

A fairly easy walk you can do on a quiet day in Basel is to take tram 6 out to Bettingerstrasse stop in Riehen and then take bus 32 (stop is just round the corner from the tram stop) up the hill to Chrischona. If you walk round to the North side of the hill with the church on it there’s a path through the woods crossing into Germany and over into Inzlingen. It’s very rural and you might even see some highland cows on the way. I recommend coffee and cake in the moated castle before the walk back round the hill to Riehen (there is a rather infrequent bus if you’re feeling lazy). Takes 2 to 3 hours.

Zürich – Last Days of Summer

gordypops — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:39:09 +0000

I went for a daytrip to Zürich yesterday. Lunch with a dear friend, a bit of shopping, a band practice and rounded it off checking some music in Café Henrici. It was quite lovely. The weather will turn this weekend I fear for the last time, taking us into Winter.

On another tangent: I’m thinking of blogging about café bars.

Pinhole shots

gordypops — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:32:09 +0000

OK, I got my first film back as negatives which has been duly scanned, and all in all I must say I’m pleased with my self built camera Blackcurrant v.1. It has a decent wide angle to it which is what I wanted. I still vastly underexpose inside which makes me wonder if it’s even worth taking shots of this nature indoors. Of course the sharpness is non existant, but hey, this is pinhole photography.

I can see I’ll be taking a few more of these to experiment. A few basic photography rules that modern photography tech often forgives are making themselves apparent. For a start shooting with the sun at your back seems to be crucial if it’s any kind of portrait shot.

Here’s a couple of shots off the reel. One’s a self portrait. The exposure is so slow you just open the shutter and go and sit infront of the camera for a while then get up and close the shutter again. The other is the lake of Zürich.

Blackcurrant v.1

gordypops — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:23:19 +0000

I’m vastly in danger of becoming “man in a shed”. Did I say in danger? I think it is perhaps an age thing. I was given a book about adventures in pinhole photography by John Evans for my birthday. It came with a small kit for making your own pinhole camera from cardboard cutouts. So I made that and it was like some kind of door has been opened. I must confessed I’m a bit hooked on this. Of course it has only been a matter of time before I decided to build one of my own. So, today I converted a blackcurrant pastille tin into a pinhole camera. I’m not sure how the photos are going to turn out. Anyway, here is Blackcurrant v.1. I’m actually rather proud of it. This must be surely the beginning of the end.

I’ll post some photos from it soon, meanwhile here’s one from the kit camera. Sometimes they’re a bit hard to work out so I have to take notes!

Christina Maria

gordypops — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:13:07 +0000

I went down to Montreux Jazz 2011 and filmed Christina Maria a couple of weeks ago. I’m fairly pleased with the results. My filming’s not the best, I find it a little too shakey and also the stage was a high one so there’s not much height change on the footage. I also feel I could have used my 100mm this time to get that bit closer and play with the focus. But, I love the sound on the vids. I managed to get the desk sound and mixed it up with my external recorder.
Anyway, enjoy this one taken with a 28mm:-