Since the beginning of the year, I have started shooting again with my Ricoh GRD IV. One of the reasons I mentioned was that I needed to get back to what I know well to help me enjoy the streets again. For several weeks now, things have been going well. I don’t really ask myself any more questions. I take pictures and that’s it. What I realise is that in the end I started shooting with the Ricoh GRD IV again, simply because I love this camera.
Continue reading Black & White saturday
In recent weeks, we have heard a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI). A bit of everything. It started with ChatGPT. Then we started talking about software like Midjourney. I know almost nothing about these programs, but I hear about them and John Harper passed me a few links with pictures made by AI. It’s pretty amazing and impressive. John has written a very good article on the subject here. Go and have a look.
For those who don’t know, Paul Ricoeur is a French philosopher. Macron, the French president, says that it was Ricoeur who made him want to enter politics. Myth or reality? What is certain is that Macron was close to him when he wrote his last book “Memory, History and Oblivion”. I’m not going to say more than that because I don’t know him very well and when you know that I got 06/20 in philosophy at the baccalaureate, you won’t want to see me debating on the subject… This photo was taken during the last strike against the pension reform. That’s what’s interesting about such events. People use a lot of imagination for the occasion. I stopped and googled Macron and Ricoeur to get the message…
Continue reading Macron, you’re a disgrace to Ricoeur !
In my previous blog, I told you that I was going to try to do everything I could to rediscover the pleasure of walking the streets of Saint-Denis to document them. For almost 7 years now, I have been indulging in this practice that many people have difficulty understanding. Street Photography. What is the point of taking pictures of strangers ? Of course, if you are a frequent visitor to this Blog, I will be pushing open doors by explaining to you what this practice consists of. I have already exchanged with friends or even strangers and I must say that it is complicated to explain Street Photography. At best, you look like a madman, at worst, like a perverted voyeur who takes pictures underhandedly …
Continue reading Street Photography : The path to recovery
My only resolution for this new year was to reconnect with the street. To enjoy taking pictures again and especially to spend more time on the street. Enzo Ferrari rightly said that to win a race, you had to start by finishing it… In Street Photography, it’s a bit the same. To do it, you have to be in the street!
Continue reading Reconnecting with street
Yesterday I received John Harper’s newsletter about his usual December TWELVE which concludes the current photographic year. A bit of pressure as it’s been a while since I’ve written and photographed too. But I also wanted to write this last Blog of this year because as you may have noticed, I have not been very active since July this year. I even feel like this year ended in July as far as I’m concerned… Anyway, I didn’t want to end this year without publishing a last blogpost!
Continue reading Looking back 2022
I recently bought a used Ricoh GRD IV. Another one you might say… The previous one had been damaged in a stupid fall (Blog here). The camera had hit the ground hard and didn’t seem to have any apparent damage. I did notice that the left side of my pictures were still blurry. In addition, small dust spots had appeared. It was impossible to close the aperture beyond f4, otherwise the dust was visible. That’s why I went on the hunt for a new GRD IV. I found it on leboncoin. But there too, I realised that there was a problem when I used the camera at f 2.8. Still a sharpness problem that doesn’t appear at f1.9 or other apertures. The camera is usable but I don’t have to use f2.8.
Continue reading New beginning
I’ve been doing street photography for more than 6 years. That’s not much when I see that some people have decades behind them … I’ve also been blogging for 6 years. As soon as I started to share my photos on the internet, I felt the need to write too. Not necessarily to write about my photos but to talk about what I was doing in the street. It was like a kind of photographic notebook where I wrote down all the questions I was asking myself, my process of evolution as a street photographer. The first four years were very rich in content. It was during this period that I wrote, in my opinion, my most interesting Blogs.
Continue reading Looking back …
For some time now, I have been using my Fuji xE2 more and more, which was my first hybrid digital camera. I had switched from the D200 to the Fuji. Since I had entered the Ricoh sphere, the Fuji XE2 had been put back in the wardrobe. Even for photos of my family, the GRD IV was king. I think I started using my old Fuji again because Joachim asked me to take pictures of him for his Instagram account. Like all teenagers, Joachim puts himself on display in his photos. He literally poses and I thought I could use my old Nikon lenses which are better suited for portraits. That’s how I ended up buying the 7 Artisan 35mm at f0.95
Continue reading The best of both worlds
Sometimes things don’t add up to much… After work today, I wondered if I was going to go home before picking up the kids from school. I remembered that I hadn’t been hanging out in Saint-Denis this week. The weather had been rather capricious and we’d had a lot of showers over the last few days. But I forced myself to go anyway. Without much conviction I parked for lunch.
Continue reading Bee in the city
