The theme for the weekly lens artists challenge is ‘home sweet home‘. In the middle ages one had to pay tax (toll) to use the canal to enter goods into a city. This is a toll house in Oegstgeest at the Leidsevaart or Trekvaart. I am not following the brief, pointing to the places people should visit in The Netherlands. They are well known, and the paths towards them are flattened by millions of tourists. I just point to small places telling a bit about my flat country.
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Modern camera’s and even smartphones offer possibilities to take photo’s in poor light conditions. That can be at night or dusk, dawn, but also in poorly lit situations like a museum, church etc. In the old days of film the limits where much tighter. When light was not plenty available there were two options: making the film more sensitive (a few stops) and develop longer. Or flash. I hate flashing, so I always tried to work with existing light. Nowadays that is much more easy with digital technology. Here a photo mady by iPhone on an evening just after dusk.
About the B4 retouch series: I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
This challenge sends me back to the days of film. Ample of good objects around, but did they come out on film the way I hoped? In those days you could not check the backside of your camera, and try a few settings and tweaks to find out what worked best. It was shoot and go. Film was expensive so most of the time it was a lucky shot based on intuition and experience. Most of them came out ok, some really were disappointing.
The photo above has a story behind it that comes close to this theme. At the end of the post is the scanned negative of the original photo. I am not sure the edited one above is a keeper, but it shows my line of thought and the original intention of framing this rock wall in a forest in the Ardennes. It did not strike me as a spot I would go for a pick nick. The road next to it, mud, rock, nothing to see but passing cars. But the details of the rock and the trees, with the strange object of the pick nick table triggered my shutter. This photo was kept on archive for a long time. It was in my secondary school notebook (the time we actually wrote with pens on paper). And recently when I was scanning my archive from negative it popped up again.
In a way I do like the object. It is kind of sinister and powerful. I wonder about your thoughts on it.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
The picture was originally shot with Pentax K1000 on Kodak TriX, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The B4 retouch series I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.
The picture was originally shot with Pentax ME super II on Kodak TriX, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The Pas Opweg leading to the Hidden Village in the forest near Nunspeet. In 1943 – 1944 the Dutch resistance build a village where people, wanted by the Germans, could hide. We are lucky to have thousands of kilometers of free bicycle lanes in The Netherlands. And riding an e-bike for the first time in my life in this forest was a wonderful experience.