Dungeons without dragons – Sevilla rooftops

Carving the skyline with an AGFA Precisa CT 100 and a Tungsten XPro films.

City with soul.

i Ole !

Bokeh in Paris

Bokeh is the Japanese word for blur. It is how your lens renders the points of light in out-of-focus areas of a picture.

The shape of the bokeh depends on the shape of your lens. So if you attach on your lens a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, the light will follow the pattern of the hole before hitting your lens. This is how to custom shape your bokeh.

Best results at full aperture (here f/1.8), to have the largest out-of-focus area.

Doomsday

They had a vision. They say it’s for today. The die is cast.

Nope, this ain’t Bugarach. Survivalist friends, duck in that jar!

Apocalyptic shots with an Agfa Precisa CT 100 film.

Purple blush

If  the ocean is blue because it reflects the sky, why is the sky blue if the space is dark? Can we still trust colours? Certainly not when shooting with a tungsten film. Under sunlight (warm color temperatures) light conditions, tungsten films will produce a  bold purple or pink tint.

The water is chilly in Portugal, but the surf’s up! Coxos wasn’t firing, but I had perfect sessions in Ribeira d’Ilhas and Arrifana. A boa vida, não e?

reggaEriceira

The vibe is cool in Ericeira.

 

Frozen dragonflies

I discovered macro photography with my first camera, a bridge with a super macro mode (with a min focus distance of 3 cm). I’m missing that immersion in the tiny world, now that I am shooting with a DSLR… and no proper macro lens. However you can cheat the macro mode. Just full zoom in and get as close as you can.

Welcome to macro for the poor!

Time compress

Do you see the past or the future?

Flying carpets in Agadir

Yep, it’s magic.

Taghazout surfing salam

In a picturesque surf town, ignoring globalism so far…

Surfer mirage

A lone surfer getting in the water at Anchor point.

Parallel universes with a Warhol touch.

Blues strike back

After a short trip in a strange orange world, let’s get back to the real world. Small but fun waves at Mystery point, la source and Anka point. Winter surfing on the rocks literally.

Surfer mirage is a double exposure, I shot the ruins of the Almadraba first and then i turned to the ocean and shot the spot.

Banana village

Redscale photography needs a lot of light. If you’re using a SLR cam you’ll have an exposure meter plus full access to shutter speed, aperture and ISO controls. You can nearly find an infinity of combinations for the desired exposure. Piece o’ cake.

However, lomo or toy cams often do not provide as much control. My Sprocket Rocket has only two apertures and one fixed shutter speed at 1/100 s (there is also the bulb mode, but no ISO control and no exposure meter at all). That leaves only a few combinations, so it’s harder to find a good exposure… To compensate the lack of ISO control, you can set it up to the biggest aperture (even on a sunny day), and try to include a source of light at an edge of the picture (beware of flare). If it’s still too dark, switch to the bulb mode (don’t forget your pocket tripod!). It’s a bit easier with the Holga because it can open to f/8, versus f/10.8 for the Sprocket Rocket. Just practice!

Taghazout redscale

A warmed stroll from Anchor Point to Taghazout heights.

In redscale photography the film is loaded backwards. The light has to pierce through the back of the film (the red layer), which is now on top.  The blue layer, consequently in the bottom, is left unexposed. The result is a dramatic color shift, with warm red, orange and yellow tints, depending on the exposure.

An under exposed redscale film will be dark with intense red and orange tones, while an over exposed one will be golden, with sparkling orange and yellow tones (sometimes you can also get greens and blues, but you will need a lot of light in order to pierce the thick filter). But there’s also a trick to find a correct exposure: always over expose it, from 1 to 3 stops!

Cloud trails

Long exposure gives life to your shots; it allows you to show motion on a static image.

I was staring at the clouds passing gently in the summer sky, and I wanted to do a long-expo time-lapse. I took 15 snapshots of 30 seconds long exposure, for a 450 secs aggregate.

(from top left corner to bottom right)

And the light breeze turns into a strong wind gust.

Trees & cranes

A height competition between cypresses and cranes. We’re back in the woods and also in summertime.

106° wide and wild.

HappyHanukaH

Fight darkness! Light candles, light souls!

Hysteric ball

A freaky version of the beach ball, and also the only ball game in the world without any rules or purpose.

Gather a bunch of over-enthusiastic Chinese people around a ball. As the ball-carrier shoots it up in the air, the catchers will start running and yelling in all directions; not always towards the ball. If you’re lucky enough to catch it, you will be surrounded silently until you shoot it up for another round.

They played that for 4 hours straight.

Beach bum

You can also escape from central Hong-Kong madness by going to the other side of the island. Hit Shek’O beach or Big Wave bay. Don’t bring your surfboard though, for this is just a marketing name. The bus road is very cool, snaking trough the hills, up and down to the beach.

I used an ISO 64 (tungsten white balance) expired film. Expired films can give surprising results and a slight pink tint. But combined with the ISO 64, usually enhancing blue tones, the pics got a full pink tint. There’s a french song saying “Je vois la vie en rose”.

Beach toggle

Back to colour, back to Kuta. Meet mister & miss icecream. ‘Miss icecream’ is a triple exposure. Multi-exposure rocks. Not everybody likes it though. Twisted minds do love it.

The pics in this post were shot in the Holga’s 4.5×6 rectangular format. However, the last one comes from another film, hence the 6×6 regular square format.

Bluescale

Still on the same journey, accross Lantau with my Holga.  This time I loaded an ISO 100 Provia film. According to your film, if you under or over expose it you can achieve different color tones.

Bluescale yes, but … in greens!

a Holga in Lantau

Just shooting around.

Redscale

Lantau island has a totally different feel from its crowded neighbour Hong-Kong.

Ingredients: a red scale film and a Holga. Set it up on ‘sunny days’ aperture (f/11) to under-expose the clichés and enhance the red tint.

Newcomers

September, holidays are over. The luckiest go back to school or uni, the remainder back to work. Life restarts, so does the stalk!  I’ve got 2 new cameras, a Holga and a panoramic Sprocket Rocket. Nerdies can have a look in the “new shooting toys” page for more info.

in da club

Action with hips of contrast, hue and saturation.

in da club

Obsessed with lights and colours?

Put your hands up.

pontoon lakeside

Different angles, filters and effects over the same subject.

What’s your flavour?

Spectral

At le Sacré Coeur at midnight, ghosts party out.

Shot with a Holga-like filter. The high saturation with burned whites and a bluish glow give it a spectral/dramatic atmosphere.

au Rosa, à la bonne heure

Chilled Paris with a Kenyan touch.

au Rosa, à la bonne heure

Shot right outside from le ‘Rosa Bonheur’, a trendy bar in Paris 19e, overlooking le Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

Bring your girlfriend/target there!

crystal ball

Your oracle for a brighter future.

pic 1: the raw; pic 2: cropped & edited

happy drifting

You don’t always need to travel to find exotic spots.

Paris can be cool in summer.

Nb: shot from an iPhone (edited with Photoshop). Amazing what this stuff can do!

Sounds & lights festival

All mixed up

Pourim balagan

Do no trust appearances!

Lost in translation

Somewhere in Australia from ground, sea and sky.

You’ll have to follow these routes to get to Fraser Island. There should be some hidden treasure chest below the Maheno shipwreck. Dig a hole where you see an ‘X’ on your map.

E&T rocking @ la Bellevilloise

For those who missed the event, here’s a replay. Let me introduce my friends, Eric (the rasta singer) &  Thomas (the guitarist). They can boast being Indivisible… and that’s also the title of their new album. Wish them good luck – buy the f****** disc!

Aye aye sir.

High five

“Until the colour of a man’s skin is of  no more significance than the colour of his eyes”

Haile Selassie the 1st.

What’s the colour of his soul?

Misty says

It’s a hard knock life.

Not too fast after breakfast/ slow in the arvo’

the BaliSurfPost cover sketch

When you’re surfing in Bali, as soon as you get out of the water, you have all these leech-photographers jumping on you to sell you the pics they’ve shot from your session. You were going to buy them anyways.

Pic 1: the dirty ‘raw’; pic 2:cleaned; pic 3: cropped; pic 4: edited

Or how to become famous in a couple secs.

a stroll in Serangan/Turtle island

In a small fishermen village, far from time and stress.

 Pure Balinese folklore.

mt. Bromo’s sunrise

I’m not really a morning person.

Hopefully i didn’t snooze the alarm clock that day.

Get wet

Chronicles of a wipeout, comics style.

Get wet

This time the stalk takes you surfing. A mix of waves from Bondi and Bali, duck or die!

A 250 mm (or more) lens is pretty convenient when you want to shoot from a distance.

An escape in Java east – Up in smoke detour

Are you still thinking about that cone?

2nd day of the trek, gunung Ijen, another volcano that’s still in activity. The villagers work there in a sulphur exploitation, bringing back huge blocks of sulphur from deep inside the crater of the volcano.. They are paid around 80000 indo rupiahs (that’s around 8 dollars)  for a hundred kilos…

The typical day starts  at dawn. There are 3 kms uphill to reach the crest of the volcano. Stunning views over the foggy volcano slopes; takes around an hour. Then go down  inside the crater in the most narrow and sinuous path. 30 mins if you’re agile. Brave the toxic smoke from the melting blocks  as you get closer to the crater and its acid lake. Then extract melting sulphur blocks, let them cool down and load in average 70 or 80 kilos in a bamboo basket. 100 for the strongest. Now you’ll have to climb back in the same deadly path, all the way up  to the crest. This time that’s more than an hour… And finally the 3 kms downhill, back to the starting point. Looks easy but it’s the worst part. You’re already worn out, and the weight of the basket pulls you down so you have to slow yourself down with you thighs all the way down. Another hour.

They say somes dudes can do it twice a day (or is it just a legend to motivate them?).

That’s it, you’ve deserved your 8 bucks. Don’t complain about your job!

An escape in Java east – Smokin’ cone

Sorry if I gave you fake hopes, the cone we’re talking about here is mount Bromo’s.

The trek starts early in the morning. You have to get up at 4 a.m and climb the Penanjakan to catch the sunrise and get an overall view of gunung Bromo. Then you get to Bromo: take the jeep,  ride a horse and climb a thousand steps before you eventually reach the volcano’s crater. Smokin’.

36°C on the ground but only 6 at the top… and of course I was the only one wearing shorts. The true blue tourist.

Bali & the Gilis

And that’s what they call winter.

Temples on the west side of Bali have magnificient sunsets, like Tanah Lot (in this post) or Uluwatu.

Rugged sunset in Kuta

Messy surfing conditions, but worth a paddle just for the scene.

Did I mention the 29°C water temp?

Long time no post/ hey mr. officer

Explicit lyrics

Hit the road

If you feel stuck in the same place you’ve got to hit the road. Look at the dynamic given by the stripes on the ground.

That’s adventure calling.

Indy caves

Got this shot in Israel, some 40 km from Jerusalem. The Tsidonites used to breed doves in these caves to offer sacrifices. To me it looks like a scene from an adventure movie, with spears shooting from the walls and this giant rock ball running into you…

Nothing to envy Indiana Jones!

Smoke on the water / Happy new year

You’re not living in Sydney? You wonder how cool were the fireworks? You hit the g-spot.

3,2,1,…