Imsticking's Leica D-Lux 4 Blog

The Largest Apple Store in the World Grand Opening

I decided to check out the new Apple Store in Covent Garden on Saturday. It was the grand opening of Apple's 300th and largest store in the world. Something special I think. I've never been to a grand opening before, but the temptation of another free Apple shirt was more than enough to get me up at 5:30am.

The best place to see great photographs of the inside of the new store is on the Apple UK Retail site and also on Electric Pig. They even have a video tour of the store. It was a great experience, and the staff go well out of their way to make you feel like you are the stars of the day. Two hours after the grand opening they were still doing mexican waves in a long tunnel for every customer that entered the store! Some of them must have lost their voices by the end of the day, I'm sure.

The first photograph, top, is of the guy behind me in the queue who I got chatting to. He was on holiday from New York with his wife and was super friendly. We chatted about Apple for ages and he thought the new store was really cool, even from the outside because unlike the ones in America this one was not made of glass! It would be cool to have a glass store in the UK, just for fun, but I've always thought the store on Regent Street was very stylish, outside and in, and something special. Enjoy the photographs, I'm not going to dissect them like I usually do, but I will post more soon, and they will be in color too! I'll updated this post to include the Silver Efex Pro preset files I used to process each and every photograph in this post, so check back later in the week if you are wanting some of them.

Filed under // Apple Leica London monochrome photography

August 8 2010

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Given to Fly

Giving to Fly - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

I was driving out to a shopping centre on Saturday and was a bit disappointed to see that most of the Second World War aircraft at the Lasham Gliding Club had been removed. I'm glad I got a few pictures of them earlier in the year, but it's still a loss to the community I feel. I wonder where they are being moved to. I had my Leica D-Lux 4 with me, so I pulled over on the way home to take some photographs of the last remain aircraft there.

I have no idea what type of aircraft it is besides kaput. My only guess would be a spitfire, but that's just a guess. Might just head out there again now, or tomorrow evening to see if I can take some abstract shots of the remains of what were I'm sure, aircraft that helped defend England during the Second World War.

Bull's Eye from the Sky - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

I've included the Silver Efex Pro presets at the end of this post for those of you interested in the processing of these images. The top image was actually processed twice. First with Ilford FP4 Plus 125 film. The results from that are seen in the image below. I then decided to use the preset from the image above to process it further and I really liked the result so much that I decided to go with that image as the main headline. The second process involved Ilford XP2 Super 200 film and I think the grain achieved mixing the two is quite remarkable in the sky of the top image. I think it's very cool! I like the photograph below too.

Giving to Fly - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

Processing and blogging inspiration courtesy of Pearl Jam - Given to Fly ♫ This is for me an Epic Pearl Jam song. My favourite lyric is right at the end of the song (but there are lots of cool parts to this track):

"And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky

A human being that was given to fly"

Click here to download:

Given to Fly FP4+125.sep (3 KB)

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WH291-XP2Super200.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Hampshire Leica monochrome photography transport

August 1 2010

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Waking Up Chawton Wood

Waking Up Chawton Wood - f/4 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

If you follow me on Twitter (and actually read my tweets), you'll more than likely know that I've been spending a fair amount of time in the pool lately. Something else I enjoy is mountain biking, although, the fewer the mountains the better, if you ask me. Not a mountain in sight in this photograph. It's no coincidence, believe me. I cycled out to Chawton Wood on Sunday and after about an hour in the saddle decided it was time to take a few quick shots (with my Leica D-Lux 4) of the wood (but more so, it was time for a rest).

Back when I was in high school, a time when Bryan Adams broke the record for having the longest number one in history, positioned at the top of the charts for 16 weeks straight (kinda impressive), I remember being captivated by the photography in the CD booklet. Reading through the album liner notes all I could find was Bryan's name. I was shocked. A wildly successful musician, and now this. Great. Clearly Bryan hasn't heard about giving others a chance. In fairness, he's probably spent a lot of time shooting while leading his rock 'n roll nomad lifestyle. Something he used to enjoy. Anyway, this blog isn't about Bryan, I think he's successful enough as it is without me helping his cause. Next thing you know, he'll be expecting a free plug once a week. Not happening buddy, not on this blog. Plus, I've bought most of your albums, I think I'm entitled a little space of my own online, don't you. Cool. Wow that Bryan Adams guy really tries to take over eh? Anyway I hate celebrity. Not celebrities, just the whole idea of being famous. I realise it's a tradeoff few get the opportunity to make, but it's a shitty tradeoff if you ask me.

Waking Up Chawton Wood - f/4 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

So anyway, before I even rode out to the wood yesterday I thought I'd process whatever photographs I took, keeping in mind those images in the CD booklet. So that explains the first image. As for the color version above, I just happen to enjoy looking at it in color too. Not a surprise considering I used to bike out to the wood about 4 times a week several years ago. I forget the year, but it's easy to look up, because I as I recall it was a remarkably good summer, and well, how hard is that to spot in England's weather history?

If you're interested in the processing of the black and white, I used Kodak 400T MAX Pro film in Silver Efex Pro and modified the first Coffee tone preset (I think). Download the preset file at the end of the post for a closer look at the details in Silver Efex Pro.

Before I forget, check out Bryan's really awesome work on his photography site BryanAdamsPhotography.com

Click here to download:

ChawtonWoodK400TMAXPro.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Leica monochrome nature photography

July 26 2010

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Leica Notting Hill Film Location

RAW conversion with Silver Efex Pro - f/2 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

I went to Notting Hill two weekends ago to shoot a number of locations from the movie Notting Hill. The last time I'd been to Notting Hill must have been a good 10 years ago. Needless to say I don't remember which shops were where, so it very much felt like I was discovering it for the first time.

Leica D-Lux 4 JPEG - f/2 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

I've always been just slightly jealous of the quality of the black and white JPEGs the Leica D-Lux 4 produces along with the RAW files that I save with every shot. I thought that for once, I would try to replicate the black and white JPEG's by processing the RAW files with Capture One 5 PRO and Silver Efex Pro. The first image of each pair is my version processed from the RAW file, and the second, the actual JPEG the Leica D-Lux 4 produced. You'll see that they are in fact different. My version's are a little bit more contrasty and I prefer the darks a little darker.

The location in this first photograph is from one of the earliest scenes in the movie where William Thacker (Hugh Grant) accidentally bumps into Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) with is orange juice on the corner of the sidewalk. And as you can see that boarded up corner shop is now a Coffee Republic.

The second photograph is of the rather famous front door to William's flat. The door is no longer blue. It's actually black, and it made my day when, while looking for decent angles for a good shot, the door opened and out came some guy on the phone! I felt like the two of us were re in-acting the paparazzi scene that occurred the morning after. One big difference. I would never ever become a pap. It think it's despicable stalking people as they try to live their personal lives. I actually had to hold my breath as this guy crossed the street and walked directly towards me. I thought, "Oh God". He got about 2 meters from me, turn towards the flat, bobbed his head from side to side, and smiled at me as he continued on his way. Phew!

RAW conversion with Silver Efex Pro - f/4 at 9.3mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 sec

Leica D-Lux 4 JPEG - f/4 at 9.3mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 sec

I've included the Silver Efex Pro presets below for both of the processed RAW versions I created. If you're curious, I've processed them with Ilford PAN F Plus 50 film.

If you'd like to go on a DIY tour of the movie's film locations, the resource I used and the best I found while doing some hunting on the web was on the site movie-locations.com. I did take photographs of four other locations in and around Notting Hill and my post those soon too. The only reason I hesitate is because they aren't the most remarkable subjects to photograph, hence not the most remarkable photographs. I know, these aren't either.

I am still using Exif Everywhere for Mac. It lives in my Dock and I just drag and drop an image onto it to get the EXIF info. It's a brilliant little application.

Click here to download:

NottingHillRepBWF+50.sep (3 KB)

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ThackerPANF+50BW.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Film Leica London Notting Hill monochrome photography

July 24 2010

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Gumball Raccoon and the Kodachrome Tribute

Gumball Raccoon Kodachrome - 12.8mm at f/2.8, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 sec

The Associated Press carried a story last week about Kodachrome film. A film that has been produced by Eastman Kodak since 1935. That's a 74 year run up until roughly June 22nd 2009 when Kodak announced that they would stop producing the film. Kodachrome became first commercially successful color film in the world. It's a real shame that sales had declined to the point where producing it became a liability for the company.

Back to the original story and that is one of photojournalist Steve McCurry, who I greatly regret not seeing talk at the National Portrait Gallery about a month ago. Steve was a photojournalist for National Geographic for 30 years, and has been shooting with Kodachrome film for 35 years. What a 'job'! And if you're wondering exactly how many frames with Kodachrome he's shot, you'll probably be shocked to know he has more than 800,000 images in his lab. WOW. A big chunk of one million images. No surprise then that Steve was the man given the last few rolls of Kodachrome film, and last week Monday he developed 36 slides in Parsons, Kansas. Why Parsons, Kansas? Well Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons is the last place on earth you could have your Kodachrome film developed. If you had any, that was. They will stop developing Kodachrome film on the 10th December 2010, so you better get in fast.

So what's on that last roll of film, and what's going to happen to the prints? Well National Geographic decided to (what else but) document the journey of that last roll right down to it being processed. Steve began shooting with it in New York, and then travelled to India and then back to New York shooting iconic filmmaking personalities along the way. This journey with the film took Steve 2 months The last three frames, he shot in Parsons. I hope the very last one was in Dwayne's Photo Service.

If National Geographic do indeed publish the story of the last roll of Kodachrome, it'll more than likely be a spread in a Spring 2011 issue, but will only consist of 4 - 6 images off the roll. If you want to see the entire roll, you'll have to visit the George Eastman House, the International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester New York, where Kodak are based.

Kodak have decided to celebrate the films history with an online gallery of iconic images shot with the film. If you'd like to see them, head over to Kodak's Kodachrome Tribute. If you are a indeed a Kodachrome shooter, you are going to have to look towards other Kodak color films such as KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME E100G or EKTAR 100.

Gumball Raccoon Tri-X - 12.8mm at f/2.8, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 sec

I took this shot last weekend Saturday after quite a long and hot shoot in Notting Hill, London, where I'd decided to go and shoot as many of the "Notting Hill" movie's film locations as I could. The top image has been 'shopped with a Kodachrome film type in Photo Tools Pro. It's also been cross processed to bring out the blues and greens. The image above was processed from the top effected image and I used Silver Efex Pro to apply a Kodak Tri-X film and a very light blue toner thereafter. You can download the SFX preset at the end of this blog post.

Why did he take this photo?

Blogging inspiration comes from a video recording of a U2 gig I was at in Jo'burg, South Africa in 1997, the song "Gone ♫".

Click here to download:

Gumball Tri-X Bluetone.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Leica London kodachrome monochrome photography street

July 18 2010

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Incident At The Window

Incident At The Window - 5.1mm at f/2.2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

This first photograph was shot on the same day I took a series of shop window photographs and blogged about earlier in a post titled "In a West End Town". The title of this blog post is taken from the title of the story pasted at the bottom of the door. I have a close up of it I may process and publish for you to read.

I love shooting with a really low ISO. You can get some really great results with the Leica D-Lux 4. You have to keep the shutter open a bit longer, but that only allows the sensor to drink up all that wonderful light, without generating (any/much) noise. Something else I keep getting consistently good results with is adding a lot of structure to Ilford film in Silver Efex Pro. I like the tones that film generates. The tonal range seems a bit narrower than with something like Kodak Tri-X. I could be wrong of course. I'm just going by what I see with my eyes, at this stage.

That pretty much sums up how I processed this photograph above. I've applied a very dark Sepia tone to it. Preset 18 with the saturation backed off down to around 35. Check out the preset file at the end of this post for the details. One thing I didn't apply or experiment with were color filters.

The Darkest Line - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/200sec

I thought I'd publish the black and white version of The District Line image I posted a few days ago. I ran this through Silver Efex Pro and spent most of my time concentrating on the light in the shadows. I thought it would be better to bring out some of the sides of the train hoping it would give more depth to the image. The area I'm attracted to most in this photograph is the foreground with the two young women waiting for the train to pull into the station. The way the light touches the crumpled jeans looks really cool to me.

I've kept the post processing really simple for this photograph. It's Kodak Tri-X film and no toning of any sort. Help yourself to the Silver Efex Pro preset file below.

Click here to download:

IncedentfordXP2Super400Sepia.sep (3 KB)

Click here to download:

Tri-X Train.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Leica London monochrome photography street transport

July 8 2010

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Where The Bright Lights and The Big City Meet

Zumm Zumm - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/60 sec

Ever since returning from a brief trip to New York in the spring of 2000, I've always likened London to a massive, sprawled out village rather than a big city. I still think of it this way today. I'm not sure these photographs do a good job of capturing this village feel, but I suppose I could do a lot worse, such as venturing into The City. Regardless, these shots were captured the weekend before last in Soho and Piccadilly Circus around 6pm.

Visually, in the Western world at least, we are trained, through reading, to look at a scene from left to right. In the photograph above, the direction in which the cyclist on the left is looking further persuades us to move our eyes to the right, where we discover yet another rickshaw and a cyclist who is looking directly at us. A person looking directly at the camera, is the strongest attachment that can form between viewer and subject. I'm not sure attachment is the right word, but I'm sure you get the gist.

This photograph of the rickshaws was shot from the hip. No looking at the electronic viewfinder, no composing, just feel it and shoot. What a rush.

The Big Swing - 21.8mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400sec

The first 2 photographs have been processed with Ilford film in Silver Efex Pro and the bottom photograph was processed with Kodak Tri-X film. I've applied a copper tone to all 3 photographs, a toner I don't use very often, but quite like the way these turned out using Preset 10. Check out the Silver Efex Pro preset at the end of this post. I like the tonal gradation in the seat in this photograph below. It makes the image, if you ask me. Maybe it's the fact that I shot them all with a Leica D-Lux 4.

Drive By - 12.1mm at f/2, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/400 sec

Blogging inspiration courtesy of U2 - Desire ♫

Click here to download:

Breakford XP2S400 Copper.sep (4 KB)

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RickshawByTriX400TXProCopper.sep (4 KB)

Filed under // Leica London monochrome photography

June 28 2010

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No Purchase

Calling Home - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/320 sec

I had to dash to the Apple Store after work today. No purchase this time, simply returning something I didn't need. Was it a 30" Cinema Display? Hardly! You could never have too many of those. Apple have a 14 day return policy on all item purchased, just as long as you don't actually unwrap those items. I quite like the new Mac Mini that was released a few weeks back. A great little machine to sit under the 50" HD TV. I splashed out on a £14 HDMI cable this week (apart from the new iPhone 4), and I think a Mac Mini sitting under the TV with all my music and HD movies would be pretty cool. Then I could finally make good use of the EyeTV Hybrid I've had for about a year and not been able to setup permanently, and use my old iPhone 3G as a universal remote.

Presented in the order in which they were shot (with my Leica D-Lux 4), around Oxford Circus there's not a huge amount to say about them. So I'll keep this short because I'm off to Wimbledon tomorrow morning, and if I don't wimp out, I'll be setting my alarm for 4am.

Repairing London - 12.8mm at f/2.8, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/40 sec

Would you like it in a bag? - 11.1mm at f/2.8, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/60 sec

Miles Away - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/30 sec

Filed under // Leica London monochrome photography street

June 25 2010

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Crystal's Room

Crystal's Room - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250s

I found myself walking through Leicester Square early on Saturday evening. It wasn't exactly by choice, especially as it was really busy. Somehow I managed to catch a lull in the throng, so my own photography is calling me a liar, but that's OK. There was a free concert, a West End Live gig, on in the actual square which is to the left of this photograph. The fact that it was free might give you a clue as to my impressions of the talent. Before all of this I went to the Saatchi Gallery, again not exactly my first choice. I'd gone down to Sloane Square because I know there are a few other galleries on Kings Road that regularly exhibit really great photographer's work. Turned out they were quite dull from their description in the latest BLACK+WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY magazine, so I think next weekend may just be a double-header: Wimbledon on Saturday and a most excellent (honestly I'm not a fan of Bill and Ted) photography exhibit on Sunday.

A world away from the free live music was this young woman. Clearly setting her own agenda and while I'm not sure anyone can really claim to have a style that is uniquely their's in 2010, I'm still impressed by her lack of attention to what's in the fashion magazines that a lot of women seem to follow as if they simply couldn't dress themselves without them. That still fascinates me. That part of the human psyche that drives people to want to conform and feel accepted by wearing what everyone else has allowed themselves to be told to wear by fashion "experts".

Anyway, enough of that rant. I used to have my hair long and buzzed on a number 2 around the sides and back, but not quite this extreme.

I really do love this split tone I've applied to this photograph using Silver Efex Pro. It's at the bottom of this post, as usual for those who want to play around with Kodak FP4 Plus 125 film, or the split toner preset 3 that you see applied to this image. Just bear in mind that I've put it through a green filter, so you may want to neutralise that before you get started. Shot with my D-Lux 4, what else? For now anyway!

Click here to download:

CrystalK-FP4+125GreenSplit.sep (3 KB)

Filed under // Leica London monochrome photography street

June 21 2010

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St James Noise

Filed under // Leica abstract monochrome photography

June 18 2010

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I post it here and it sticks.

The Largest Apple Store in the World Grand Opening

Given to Fly

Waking Up Chawton Wood

Leica Notting Hill Film Location

Gumball Raccoon and the Kodachrome Tribute

Incident At The Window

Where The Bright Lights and The Big City Meet

No Purchase

Crystal's Room

St James Noise

Ray Scott

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Cancer Support

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