A lot of good photographs sit behind glass. Fish in an aquarium tank, a helmet in a museum case, a street seen from a café window, a city from an observation deck. Most of them come back from the camera with a ghost of the photographer's own jacket across the frame, a green cast, and the autofocus locked on a smudge. None of that is the glass's fault. It's how we stand in front … [Read more...] about Photographing Through Glass at Aquariums, Museums and Windows Without the Reflections
travel photography
Photographing Bayonne From Pont Marengo: The Nive Quays and the Musée Basque in Winter Light
Pont Marengo crosses the Nive in Bayonne between Grand Bayonne and Petit Bayonne, and it's one of the best places in town to stand with a camera. This winter frame looks across to the Maison Dagourette on the Petit Bayonne side, the old merchant's house that holds the Musée Basque et de l'histoire de Bayonne, with an exhibition banner for the painter Javier Ciga hanging on its … [Read more...] about Photographing Bayonne From Pont Marengo: The Nive Quays and the Musée Basque in Winter Light
Photographing Puerta del Sol in Madrid: The Bear Statue, the Crowds and Hard Low Sun
El Oso y el Madroño, the bear reaching up into a strawberry tree, is the statue everyone in Madrid uses as a meeting point. In this vertical frame it stands mid-picture on its granite plinth, with the curved façades of Puerta del Sol and a Tío Pepe sign behind it. In the near foreground a photographer in a camo cap works from a tripod with her back to the camera, and a woman in … [Read more...] about Photographing Puerta del Sol in Madrid: The Bear Statue, the Crowds and Hard Low Sun
Photographing the Prague Astronomical Clock at Night: Dial Lighting and the Bird Netting Problem
At night the lower dial of the Prague astronomical clock is lit warm against a dark tower. This frame takes in the calendar dial: the month and zodiac medallions around the edge, the Old Town coat of arms at the centre, the archangel with sword and shield standing to the left and the chronicler with his book to the right. Across the whole thing runs a fine mesh of anti-bird … [Read more...] about Photographing the Prague Astronomical Clock at Night: Dial Lighting and the Bird Netting Problem
Photographing Pena Palace in Sintra: The Terrace Shot, the Crowds and the Midday Sun
Pena Palace sits on top of the Sintra hills with its walls painted in flat blocks of red and yellow. This frame is from one of the terraces. The red rendered wall fills the right third and stops on a hard vertical edge. To the left, five visitors lean on a crenellated parapet with their backs to the camera, looking out over the forest toward the coastal plain. The sun is almost … [Read more...] about Photographing Pena Palace in Sintra: The Terrace Shot, the Crowds and the Midday Sun