The first article I wrote on the Ricoh GRD4 dates from October 2016. It was 5 years ago ! It is as old as this Blog that I have kept for many years. I have written many articles about this camera … Surely too many, but that’s how it is. I like it a lot and although I have used other cameras, I always end up coming back to it. I started 2021 with the Ricoh GRD4 until March when I discovered the Fujifilm XF10. I don’t know if it’s the allure of novelty or just stepping out of my comfort zone, but I’ve only shot with the Fujifilm XF10 since April.
Continue reading Ricoh GRD4 : the living dead camera
Tag Archives: Black & White
Ungrateful Street Photography
I sent this photo to John Harper today. I had taken it the day before and it is by no means a Glory Shot. It’s just a photo that made me smile. From quite a distance I saw this woman who had the same gesture as children when they play cops and robbers. Finally, I don’t know if the children still play this, but me in my time (just after the dinosaurs disappeared …), we just had fun like that. To come back to this photo, I took it while I was hanging out near the small market. Surely the end of a robbery that has taken place. A masked woman, as the mobsters can be with her still smoking pistol, goes off with her booty, surely made up of zucchini, tomatoes or other vegetables ! Fortunately, no victims to be deplored. I went to the market and everyone was fine.
Continue reading Ungrateful Street Photography
Behind this shot : the wheelchair
It’s been a while since I wrote anything and even longer since I did a Behind This Shot. I took this photo yesterday. I was just parked in a somewhat shabby parking lot and heading to a store to pick up a document. The parking lot is right next to an old car wash facility. It is abandoned, but the structure of the installation is still there. I often pass by this place and thought this station was still in operation. But it is obvious that no one comes here anymore, at least not to have their vehicle cleaned. Old car batteries and all kinds of auto parts are lying around.
Off the beaten tracks !
Since I take pictures in the streets of Saint-Denis, I almost always hang out in the same place. I tirelessly walk the Maréchal Leclerc street. I can almost say that over 75% of my photos are taken on this major thoroughfare that crosses the city. It is the largest shopping street in Saint-Denis. To be honest, it is not very beautiful. The facades of the stores are not very attractive. But it’s a street that attracts a lot of people. A few stands along this street occasionally attract people and offer some interesting opportunities.
Comic Street Photography
Strictly speaking, it has been over a month since I did any street photography. My last outing must be on June 23. It was Joachim’s last day of school and Ronan also decided to cut his school year short soon after. He was right ! He had already missed the first 3 months because of his leg in a plaster, it was useless to go all the way … In short, that didn’t bother me because they had had a busy year and they had deserved to be have a small rest. It wasn’t premeditated, but I also stopped doing street photography.
Going Wild !
So far, the only photos I have shared with you from Reunion Island were either photos of the city of Saint-Denis or photos of the beach. We spend a lot of time at the beach because my kids love it and we go there almost every vacation. Moreover, even in winter, we like to spend a little time in the west of the island at the lagoon. This year again, we went to spend a week at La Saline with our feet in the water. I had started to write a Blog about the beginning of the children’s holidays but I put it in the trash because I was tired of always sharing pictures of beaches with you. However, here are some of the ones made last week. (I’m not with a contradiction …)
Continue reading Going Wild !
What will you leave behind when you die ?
A few days ago, I shared the June slideshow on my YouTube channel. During a discussion about all the photos being in color, John Harper told me sad news about a photographer we both knew. Lindsay Zee, an Australian photographer that I had met in 2016 on the 500px platform had left us. We had lost sight of each other since I cut all ties with social networks. We managed to chat a bit when I was on Facebook, but I haven’t heard from him since. I can’t say that he was a friend in the sense that I had never met him and that our exchanges were almost always limited to comments on our respective photos, but he was someone I appreciated and it seems to me that we could have been friends if we had left this digital sphere. It’s always weird to have this kind of news. I didn’t know him, but hearing that someone is gone for good is always sad …
YouTube interview
You don’t know, but last Saturday I did a Live YouTube with Alex Coghe of over an hour. It is a new project that he has launched. It was like a live interview where some of my photos were shown. I was led to say more about them. It was quite a fun thing and I thank Alex for showcasing my photos and my work. He is someone whose approach of the streets and whose work I really appreciate. I hadn’t specially prepared things for this interview. I had quickly writen a few notes on a piece of paper which I reread several times, but that was it.
May 2021 slideshow
You probably don’t know it, but since August of last year, I have been sharing at the beginning of the month a slideshow of my work done the previous month. All this of course on my YouTube channel. Besides, there are a lot of photos that are found in these slideshows and nowhere else. I don’t write enough Blogs to share all of my photos. The interest of these slideshows was precisely to put them forward. Over the months, I realized that these slideshows would benefit from being rather short. Because I shared too many ordinary photos. I arrived at a narrower selection of 20 photos and I do not exclude going below …
Continue reading May 2021 slideshow
And for what ?
Friday the 28th of May, it’s a day off for me and I’m on a shopping chore … Well of course, it’s for a good cause, it’s Mother’s Day Sunday and as I don’t particularly like shopping, I always wait until the last moment to stick to it. I have to find a present for my mother, for my aunt, for my wife. Every time I walked into a store, I would run up to the saleswoman to ask her for help. Anyway, they could see that I was hard pressed … In the end, I was pretty good because I didn’t take that long. I also had an appointment for lunch with Gwen. I had picked up some stuff in a little cafe that we like and here I am crossing the city loaded like a donkey with a basket full of food and bags in my arms. Besides, I put my Fujifilm XF10 in my pocket because I needed both arms and hands to carry everything. Continue reading And for what ?
