A Trip To The Orient

Posted By Mark on Sep 11, 2014

I’ve recently been looking through some of the public domain pictures scanned from books put online by the Internet Archive on Flickr and happened to spot a photo from a book called A Trip to the Orient, The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise by Robert Urie Jacob, published in 1907. The photos appealed to my love of street photography and travelling to exotic places. In addition to the pictures – you can see the full set tagged here – you can also, of course, read the book online: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31609/31609-h/31609-h.htm. Some quotes and photos appear below: An interesting feature of the book is the large number of illustrations made from artistic photographs, all of which have been kindly contributed by amateur photographers. It contains nearly two hundred illustrations of views or incidents in Funchal, Granada, Algiers, Malta, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, Luxor, Naples, and Nice, reproduced from photographs taken by Mr. L. O. Smith, Rev. G. B. Burnwood, Mr. Charles Louis Sicarde, Mr. Franklin D. Edmunds, Mr. Roberts LeBoutellier, Mrs. Charles S. Crosman, Miss M. Florence Pannebaker, Mr. Walter F. Price, Mr. S. L. Schumo, Mr. George C. Darling, Mr. Howard E. Pepper, Mr. John W. Converse, Mr. C. Edwin Webb, and Mr. Edwin Alban Bailey. It was yet early when we ascended the deck, but the sun was shining brightly. Funchal appeared like a beautiful picture. Overhead was the azure sky of a summer day; before us, stirred by a gentle breeze, glistened in blue and silver the waters of the harbor; on the curving shore, tier above tier, reflecting the sunshine, rose the white and yellow stone buildings of the city surmounted by roofs of red tiling; above the city, white cottages amidst a dense foliage of green shrubbery dotted the steep hillsides, and beyond, but seeming very near, higher mountains formed a dark and appropriate background. As twilight was settling down we arrived on schedule time at the white stone station in Granada where carriages stood in waiting to convey us to the hotels. The Spanish drivers strove to surpass each other in speed. Our coachman lashed his horses till they ran like a run-away team. Regardless of anyone in the streets, grazing wagons by the way, overtaking and passing carriages ahead, he gave us the wildest ride we had ever taken. This chariot race to the hotel, a distance of over a mile, happily ended without accident or collision. On the porch of the Mosque we put our feet into the loose slippers, a Moslem attendant tied them on as carefully as the clumsy things could be tied, and then, accompanied by him, we entered the...

Cabbage Faux Pas

Posted By Mark on Aug 26, 2014

The Notting Hill Carnival

Posted By Mark on Aug 25, 2014

We hadn’t planned to hit the Notting Hill Carnival because, not living in the capital, we don’t really tend to follow events happening up there. However, at fairly short notice we had a reason to visit London on Saturday and wanting to make the most of the trip we had a look around to see what else was going on in the city. Neither of us had been to a carnival before so this was going to be a new experience. How would I describe the Notting Hill Carnival? Crowded. In parts, very crowded. Loud. Very loud. Almost everywhere. And quite messy. Ankle-deep in discarded meat, corn cobs, containers, cans, and bags is not unusual. And the people – at least in the first area where we found ourselves – didn’t seem particularly happy. My wife wasn’t particularly pleased with the crowds or noise (although she said she could have tolerated them; they’re pretty much expected for carnivals, after all) or the lack of fun apparently being had by most people but it was the mess that she just couldn’t stand. Sadly, this meant that I grudgingly agreed to keep the visit to the carnival quite short but my “quite short” isn’t exactly the same as her’s. Our exit route would take us through quite a lot of the carnival as it turned out. All the things that my wife hated were the things I loved. Lots of people just being people in public is exactly what I like photographing. The floats and flashy outfits that everyone associates with a carnival parade do nothing for me but the grit and grime attract my eye. The following constitutes a very small selection of the photos I took of the Notting Hill Carnival in London on August 24th 2014. You can see the full selection of photos here: Notting Hill Carnival Photos. A little bit of that mess that disgusted my wife. And a smidge more. Usually when I see someone sleeping while surrounded by loud noises and lots of people I assume they’ve had too much to drink but it’s probably not the case in this particular instance. I hope. One of those lucky shots fired off while the camera was at waist height that caught a ray of sunlight through a woman’s sunglasses and a happy moment of carnival strangulation, possibly in retaliation for blowing that horn the kid’s holding. I get the feeling that my wife wouldn’t have minded so much experiencing the carnival atmosphere in a similar way; far above the crowds. I liked being in the thick of things. I’m not even going to hazard a...

Street Photography By Marie Laigneau

Posted By Mark on Aug 19, 2014

Someone who almost always gets a +1 from me whenever her photos appear on her Google+ stream and I spot them, Marie Laigneau is a prolific street photographer based in Chicago. Just recently she’s been shooting in Japan too, an area of the world I really need to get back to in order to get my street photography vibe back, and I felt compelled to showcase some of her pictures from there as well as a few older ones too. An outstanding composition and even if your eyes are drawn to the face bottom left instantly you can still spend a few seconds staring everywhere else looking at the layers in the reflections and through the glass. My greatest desire and greatest fear in one photo: night street photography and eye contact! Another one in a similar vein and this one looks like there’s a story waiting to be told from the moment after the shot. It also highlights that I really shouldn’t be so hung up on getting sharp shots myself. Where to start? There’s light, there’s shadow, there’s fabulous framing, there are great lines drawing the eyes this way and that, there’s a wonderful subject, there are great contrasts between the near-monochrome background and the vibrant colours in front. I like this shot a lot. This photo reminds me so much of film photographs from the 1970s and 1980s and that speaks warmly to my retro heart. The subject matter is excellent and there’s just something about the woman on the right facing away from the camera that stands out. Another beautifully-framed shot and a great moment of concentration captured. To finish with, another one of Marie’s black-and-white shots and the reason I like this is because it looks to me like the subject is forming some thought bubbles. It’s a great pose and a great composition. All of Marie’s photos can be found on Google+ and there’s more to see on her website http://marielaigneau.com/...

Socks And Sandals

Posted By Mark on Aug 16, 2014

Please be aware that legislation that comes into force today – the 16th of August, 2014 – now makes the wearing of socks with sandals a capital offence in this zone (Habitat Zone F). The Public Foot Attire Beautification Act (2014) outlines the minimum punishment for any single infringement to be disembowelment, beheading, then belegging. Belegging is defined within the Act as "the removal of the limbs below the waist using a sharpened spatula and/or emery board." Lesser offences within the Act include the wearing of socks pulled up greater than an inch above the shoe height. Punishment for this particular crime are discretionary depending on the level of public horror but can include up to 25 years of hard labour in Blackpool (Punishment Zone B). Please be further aware that legislation due to soon come into force in this zone (Habitat Zone F) will also prohibit men from wearing shorts that do not reach the knee and will carry a mandatory punishment of emasculation. Thank you for your attention. Your fellow citizens appreciate your adherence to the Act. Google+: View post on...

Surveillance

Posted By Mark on Aug 10, 2014

The van had been parked out there for days, made to look as if the owner or owners were elsewhere but we noticed tiny movements. We recorded them using an HD camera and passed them through a custom piece of software that recreated a simulation of the van's interior based on them. Two people, it reckoned, seated, occasionally turning in their swivel chairs, sometimes eating a little, sometimes drinking a little, sometimes performing that action that usually follows eating and drinking into a bag of some description. The atmospheric breakdown did not make for nice reading. Sleep, it seemed, was dissuaded using pills. One of the two people was claustrophobic but fighting through his fear because he needed the money the job was paying. The second person was depressed because nobody had remembered his birthday. It was a pretty detailed simulation. We didn't know what they were after, why they had targeted us. We only knew that we didn't like being the subjects of surveillance and that inside that van it was… unpleasant. And so we decided to address both issues. Overnight we baked a special cake and had it delivered to the van. The icing read "Sorry I forgot your birthday Tony." The courier knocked on the rear of the van several times before the doors were opened enough to accept the gift. We started up the HD recording again as the courier left, clutching his hand to his nose. We stopped recording when we heard a dull thump and saw the vehicle's panel closest to us buckle outwards slightly. The simulation confirmed what we already knew: Tony was overjoyed that Graham had arranged for the cake although he admonished his junior partner for potentially ruining the surveillance. Graham hoped that Tony would favour him in any future promotion talks and so took the credit for the iced sponge. As Tony made the first slice, however, he exposed the cake's innards to the chemistry in the van's air. The reaction was intense as the cake expanded to over a thousand times its original size in the span of seconds. Every hole, every gap, every tiny crevice became clogged with cake. Tony and Graham suffered just as much as the van but they did eventually eat their way clear. Graham's claustrophobia was cured but neither man would return to the world of surveillance again. Google+: View post on...