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Tag: monochrome

  • A change of perspective

    Many visitors to Tuscany bypass the town of Pietrasanta. There is no single, iconic sight associated with the town. The appeal comes from small galleries and workshops. Temporary exhibitions of sculpture, usually featuring the local Carrara marble. And partly, perhaps, that’s because there’s no direct train from the main tourist hubs – from Florence, Cinque…

  • Capturing atmosphere with expired Kodak TMAX P3200

    In 2005 I was still shooting film. Oh, I had a digital camera – the very capable Fujifilm Finepix E550 – but it was a compact, and I still loved the precision that came from the manual controls on my Canon EOS SLR.  It was a very fine balancing act. I was saving for a…

  • The photo I forgot

    Have you ever gone back to a photo you’d forgotten, and found yourself wondering … how did I forget that?  Of course your digital shoebox (and maybe an actual, real, shoebox if you’ve been taking photos as long as me) is full of photos you’ve forgotten. Occasionally you’ll go back to it, browse through, and…

  • Seeing beauty in the transformation of waste into energy

    Watching household rubbish being turned into electricity isn’t your average day out, but when my camera group was offered the opportunity to visit the Millerhill Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility, we enthusiastically accepted the invitation. We all arrived on a fine Autumn day, carefully reverse parking under the watchful gaze of the CCTV, and entered…

  • Opening up the shadows

    Around 2007, when Flickr was absolutely at its height, I uploaded this photo of Duffus Castle, Morayshire, to a group which was dedicated to photo critiques. The rules were simple: post a photo of your own which you wanted critiqued, and give a critique of the three preceding photos. One of the critiques I received…

  • Scotland Street Tunnel

    King George V Park is one of Edinburgh’s hidden spaces. Maybe not an obvious place for casual visitors because it’s just a local park – a green space for local folk who don’t have their own gardens, and a place for children to play. And it’s also, bizarrely, the site of a disused railway tunnel…

  • SEX before marriage = HELL after death

    Every year during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, preachers make their way to the city centre to spread their message of hell and damnation. This image from 2003 captures a fleeting moment of tension on the bustle of the Royal Mile. The image is anchored by the preacher’s placard bearing a stark message: SEX before marriage…

  • Cane chair, Kelso

    I have no clear memory of taking this photo. From my notes, I know that it was taken using Kodak T-Max Pro 400. And from the context – the photos on either side of the negative were all shot in and around Kelso – I presume that that’s the location. But beyond that, my memory…

  • Aberdeen Public Soup Kitchen

    In 1986, I didn’t really do street photography. My camera was a Zenit E – already a very heavy camera even before attaching the 58mm Helios lens. Somehow it never occurred to me to buy another lens so I was stuck with the 58mm focal length. The focal length was better suited for portrait work,…