Off Clyde

This is probably the last image that I'll post from the Clyde set.

My Best Clyde

This is probably my favourite image of the Glasgow series. One or two more to go.

The Bridge on the River Clyde

The next image in the Glasgow waterfront series. This one was made looking downriver from the Tradeston Bridge - that's the M8 in the distance.

Bonnie and Clyde

The second image in the Glasgow waterfront series. This is probably my least favourite of those that made the cut.

Right Turn, Clyde

Recently, I spent a couple of days in Scotland. I was working, but I still managed to find some time for photography. Fortunately, a colleague had suggested that I take a camera with me - why this didn't occur to me anyway is a bit of a mystery, but in any case, I packed my RX100. 

On day one, I was in central Glasgow. After my meeting, I had to walk along the Broomielaw, beside the River Clyde, to the pick up point for the hire car. This was in the late afternoon and the river was very still. I made a number of images which I think are successful, like the one above.

On the second day, I was on Loch Lomond, with some time available in the early afternoon. There was snow on the ground and low cloud which added to the overall drama of the scenery. Again, I made some more images, but this time, none of them were successful.

Now, in my view this result is counter-intuitive. A reasonable person would, I think, conclude that the second day, with access to some of the most imposing scenery in the UK, would provide much greater opportunities to produce the better images.

So what happened?

There are various possibilities. The RX100 isn't the most versatile camera for landscape. And I'm not very familiar with the area I was visiting. But these have the ring of excuses and I have to face the fact that I might just be crap at landscape photography. It does have a reputation as the most difficult photographic genre - although I suspect that war reportage may be quite tricky also.

Anyway, I'll post the images from day one, in the order they were made, rather than in some sort of order of merit, as I would normally do. A sort of virtual walk along the Clyde.

Cathedral City

During a few days in Liverpool recently, we made a visit to the Anglican Cathedral, where I made this image with my RX100. I've employed my patented poor man's HDR technique to get some detail into the windows.

Busking It

As you may imagine, there are plenty of street buskers around at the Brecon Jazz Festival - this is an image of one pair. I have no impression at all of the music they were playing, so it probably wasn't up to much.

Anyway, based on my extensive experience, I now proudly present four reasons why a jazz gig is better than a rock gig:

You get to sit down. This makes me sound like an old git, but there are some practical advantages to seated shows. You can see the stage for one thing - this isn't always true when everyone's standing and you're five foot seven like me. And in a standing crowd you're always being jostled by people coming and going - to the bar, the toilets, or wherever - which drives you to distraction when you're trying to concentrate on the performance.

The volume levels are bearable. After a rock gig, my hearing usually takes a couple of days to recover. Where's the need for that? 

The bands are punctual. I have commitments. Despite this, I've bought your album and made the time to take in your local show. The least that you can do is acknowledge this by turning up on time and playing for the advertised duration. Rock bands don't seem to be able to grasp this simple principle of etiquette.

The musicians can play. This was brought home to me quite forceably at Brecon. I was walking back to my car after the last show and passing a pub, I heard a rock band brutally butchering "Sweet Child of Mine". The (female) singer couldn't sing and the guitarist couldn't guitar - the whole thing was a waste of time and effort for all concerned, both band and audience. You don't get that with jazz.

Brecon the Rules

This year, I managed to take in the final day of the Brecon Jazz Festival, and my new RX100 went along with me.

Firstly, in case you don't know, Brecon Jazz isn't a 'real' festival, where you sit in a field and listen to bands that you've never heard of, performing on a stage half a mile away. No, Brecon is much more civilised that that. Its basically three days during which a whole bunch of gigs happen in a few venues dotted around the town and you buy tickets to the ones you want to see.

There is other stuff going on in the pubs - which is mostly rock and blues, but who's counting - and a few open air events, but the real action is at the Memorial Hall or the Theatre or the other indoor venues.

Anyway, I made it to a couple of shows, one of which was Phronesis, the final gig of the weekend.  I made a few images with the RX100, of which this is one. It was taken at the long end of the zoom, ISO500, 1/60, f/2.8, manually focused at infinity so that he autofocus light didn't flash.

Its acceptable, but only just. The composition is not good, but I was sitting where I was sitting. I also saw Sons of Kemet, but I sat way too far from the stage to make any good images in that case. I guess that I have a lot to learn about photographing live jazz.

New Camera Alert

So I finally took the plunge and bought an RX100 - the MIII rather than the MIV. This is one of the first images that I made with it, of Cheddar Reservoir and Brent Knoll, viewed from the top of Cheddar Gorge.

Initial impressions are pretty good, although it turns out to be fairly useless for macro work, so the Alpha 77 still has a use, which is nice to know...

More images from the RX100 shortly.