adetorrent; photography, lifestyle.

I have a lot of respect for artists, especially painters.  Painting is a slow and meticulous process. Often you already have the image of what you're creating in your head, but you are just taking your time in bringing it to life.  I do a bit of painting myself, but nothing of the quality of the stuff I see around the streets of London.  Sometimes I'd see a piece of artwork and wonder who created it, how, when, why, and so on.  This is why I was extremely pleased to catch Desi Civera in the act. Well, actually, she'd just finished this work when I arrived. I was totally blown away by the work. I was also impressed by her kind polite personality.  What an awesome artist. Check out her work here: Instagram Tumblr

It took long enough, but I finally got to try out the famous Olympus Trip 35 . Having used the Olympus 35 RC, RD and SP, the Trip felt both familiar and strange at first.  Familiar because of the form factor and size of the camera - it felt just like the RC in the hand.  It has the classic metal and black 1970's compact camera/rangefinder design.  The 40mm f2.8 lens also sits somewhere between the RC and RD range. That's about it. I took the Trip on a, er, trip to picturesque Eastbourne sometime this summer to test it out.  The first thing I missed was the rangefinder - there is none. Instead, it is a zone-focus camera with icons to guide you, or actual distances if you know what you're doing. I used the icons. I had problems nailing focus at first, especially just after shooting something closer up, and then forgetting to adjust the focus for something far away. Yes the camera is fully auto, but it is NOT focus-free. I often forgot that and treate...

Some more photos from the reverse alchemy roll. I remember watching these three coots play.  One of them started getting ignored by the other two, and eventually swam away.  Not long after, one of the two left also left abruptly, leaving just one in absolute solitude. I'm quite sure I am projecting human emotions unto birds, but the whole affair played out like some kind of broken friendship drama to me.  

I'm sure I'm not the only one that loves taking photos of coffee cups, preferably with coffee in them. I don't know why this is. Something about coffee just wants to be photographed. Is it because a lot of photography lovers (creatives generally) spend a lot of time in cafes?  No idea. For me, it's one of the subjects for testing out a new lens, or a new camera. Here is the one I took with the Spotmatic and Super-Takmar f1.4 lens.

Teguise.  It's a tranquil, charming little town in the middle of Lanzarote.  Six days of the week the town is a peaceful, extremely quiet place.  On Sunday it becomes one of the busiest market towns in Europe. Thousands of traders, tens of thousands of visitors and a few animals descend on Teguise from around 9 am to 2 pm - The Tequise Sunday Market. I learnt that in fact Teguise was the old capital of Lanzarote. It made sense to me as it has some of the oldest buildings on the island.  Apparently it is also referred to as "la Villa".  The architecture is also really beautiful. Intricate carvings can be seen around the doors and windows of many buildings dating back to the 17th century. Another thing that happens on Sundays is the town becomes extremely colourful. Like everywhere else on Lanzarote, most of the buildings are whitewashed with either blue, green or unpainted wooden doors and windows. On market day however, you get pink, red, lilac, i...

Nowadays we have become so disconnected from the planet.  Not only in terms of the bigger picture of what we're doing to the environment, but actually literally.  We hardly ever touch the earth, unlike our ancestors who were in almost constant contact with it.  We wear shoes all the time, we live in highly sanitised environments, many on high-rise buildings from which we can get into a car and drive around on cemented/paved/tarred roads to other buildings. I've read about many articles about the effect this is having on us - some based on clear science, some on spirituality. What ever the case may be, I find it at least therapeutic to just take off my shoes and walk barefoot on some grass.  It does make me feel quite literally grounded .

Happy World Photography day. Today I'm out and about with this gem, the Olympus OM-1. I'm already an Olympus lover, but I'd only been using oly rangefinders.  I have to say I've quickly fallen in love with the OM-1.  The first roll is still in there, 8 frames to go I believe, but that wont be the case for long.  Heck, I've got another roll waiting to go in straight away. Enjoy photography. Take photos, love the gear. I feel privileged to be alive in the days when these cameras (and the freedom to use them) are available to us in such abundance.