SS Rotterdam (Now a hotel) can be seen to the left in this shot.
Tag: travel
Rotterdam Harbour
Not Exactly Black and white.I liked the colours in this shot,the way the grad filter matches the ships blue. However what really makes the shot for me is the bike.
Rotterdam Tram
I came across this wonderful old tram while waiting for the river cruise boat. Photo wise the selective colouration is done in Silver Efex pro 2 the rest inColor Efex pro 4 (pre-google) It’s not my usual style but I kind of liked this one enough to share it.
LACOCK ABBEY
On a hot and sunny August day in 1835 Henry Fox-Talbot carefully treated a small piece of paper no bigger than a postage stamp with a solution of sodium chloride. That’s simple table salt. When the paper was dry he added a coat of silver nitrate and this combined with the earlier coating to make silver chloride.
He placed the paper inside a little wooden box made for him by a local carpenter (His wife called it his Mousetrap) .
Using a microscope eyepiece to focus the light he placed the camera in front of a window of his home Lacock Abbey .
The exact timing of the exposure was uncharacteristically not recorded but estimates are everything from 15 mins to an hour.
He had produced a perfect paper negative (The worlds first) of the lattice window and the tress outside. However instead of celebrating and shouting to the world about his discovery he said nothing. He didn’t even mention it in his diaries.
Like all lords of the manor he had other things to do and many distractions like writing a paper for the Royal Society.
Imagine his face when in January 1839 in Paris Francois Arago announced Louis Daguuerres processes Dauerreotype to the world.
The rest as they say is history.
I have posted earlier this year about the book Capturing the Light I read while on my holidays in England. Having read it I found that Lacock Abbey was only a two and a half hour drive from where I was staying. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a visit to the birthplace of photography in the UK.
Lacock Abbey and village are no strangers to film and television. Harry Potter and Cranford have been filmed there to name two. However I have to say that the village itself is a beautiful disappointment. It’s so full of resident’s cars that it’s impossible to get any meaningful images. The Abbey on the other hand is much better and you are allowed to take photos inside the abbey and are in fact encouraged to do so.
There is a small photographic museum and a gallery at the entrance and you can wander freely in the grounds and the house.
All-in-all a great day out for a photography buff and his family.
Here is a link to Lacocks site.
PS. I forgot to add that the book I mentioned is co-authoured by the curator of the museum at Lacock Roger Watson.
All images are taken by me and can be enlarged by clicking on them :0)
SS Rotterdam
My Home this past weekend.T
he fifth SS Rotterdam, known as “The Grande Dame”, was launched by Queen Juliana in a gala ceremony on 13 September 1958, and completed the following summer. The Rotterdam was the last great Dutch “ship of state”, employing the finest artisans from the Netherlands in her construction and fitting out process.[2] Her career spanned forty-one years. She sailed from 1959 until her final retirement in September 2000.
Hirtshals Harbour
I managed two shots just before the heavens really opened up and we had to dash for shelter.
The Church of St Laurence. Denmark
The church of St Laurence. Better known to Danes as “Tilsandede Kirke” or Sand buried church. The church has been in existence since the 13th century first recorded mention in 1387.
In 1795 the Danish King Christian VII gave permission for the church to be closed. It could not be protected from the enormous amounts of drifting sand.
The tower itself dates from the 15th century. However it was rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries. Following the demolition of the church the tower was left as a landmark for ships at sea and was whitewashed. The last burial in the church graveyard took place in 1810
Martin Parr Moment
This shot reminds me a lot of Martin Parr and his work. I find using a wide angle to take shots of people is a lot of fun. You have to get in close and they think that you are shooting something else. Peoples perception of a camera is very 50 mm. In other words if you are not pointing directly at them it’s not me you are photographing.
My Photographic World 