Headed for the weekend

It was one of those days dictated by work today.
Several steps forwards, several back...wondered why I bother.

I'm not a street photographer and I missed several interesting (better) opportunities but this lady sums up my feelings for the day.

ISO200, f/2.8, 1/170s, RAW

Trip

I bought this reconditioned Olympus Trip 35 at Arundel Photographica, which is a fantastic little antique camera shop, brimming with cameras.
I've taken a few shots but perhaps only 3 out of 36, so it will be a while before I see any results.
I used to enjoy using colour print film when I first started out, then tried some B&W before settling for slide (mainly - and inexplicably) Kodachrome 64.
With fewer colour print processing choices nowadays and Kodachrome a museum-piece, I opted for B&W.
Also, I never find it easy to choose B&W when I'm using digital, so I'm looking forward to the results.

I used a cable release on the X100s and light-painting, with somewhat hit-and-miss results.

Olympus Trip 35
ISO200, f/5.6, 3.2s, RAW

Waiting for clothes

I took this on what will probably me one of my last days in our house in Greenwich.
Of course it shows nothing of the village itself, but these colourful clothes pegs remind me of one element of my time in that house.
I'll miss Greenwich, despite the tourism and the short (sometimes long) hike to the station and back. It was green and a very friendly, fresh change from the grey monotony of my office environs.

ISO800, f/5.6, 1/30s, RAW

Open for business

Although great B&W pictures can be stunning, I'm a sucker for colour.
Strong colours such as deep reds and blues are particularly appealing.
I'm not sure exactly why this is and I don't believe it has any deep, scientific meaning or subliminal messaging behind it (think MacDonald's red).
This one works for me because the stones are grey and the red seats really contrast against them, accented by the white tables.

ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/250

Meeting the wall

I took a proper lunch break today.
Lunch used to be for wimps until I realised that it (the lack of a proper break) was having a detrimental effect on my psychological state and photography.
Nevermind my psychological state but photography? No!

ISO200, f/2.8, 1/100s

No photos

I came across this sign (and poser) in the East End.
Luckily it's a joke but hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come.

Crossing stripes

I took this one a few weeks ago at West Wittering.

I think we need to ration these sunny photos so that we evenly counteract this period of wintry weather.

Crossing stripes.

Considerations

We came across our friend as we made our way out for a short walk on Sunday.
The wall was about 2m high but he kept following us in search of attention.
Several times he looked like he was about to make the leap down...but procrastination got the better of him and he stayed on the wall.

Considerations.

Breakaway

We got up reasonably early today (for a Bank holiday Monday) and headed down to West Wittering with Chloe, in her stylish Fiat Cinquecento.
West Wittering is one of the few, finely-grained, sandy beaches on the south coast of England that I'm aware of. The coast there is slightly reminiscent of the Normandy / Pas de Calais beaches. They're long and quite deep/wide, especially during low tide.

After spending around 30min acting as a solar panel, I went for a walk by myself to find out what was there.
Although West Wittering attracts a lot of visitors on a day like this, there are still lots of things to look at, away from people.

The sun was a bit too high at times but it also created some high contrast, which made for a good black and white conversion.
Here is used the X100s with a Hoya protective filter.
I don't normally like to use filters on my lenses, but since I'm not using the Fuji hood, I feel that I should protect the lens until I can find a suitable and improved workaround.

Captivated

We briefly visited Camden Market today, under fairly changeable conditions, ranging from sun, to overcast to showers.
Still, there were some good moments and for some reason I decided to try some people photography.
The colours, together with the natural curve of the hammocks (catenary) and the blissful unawareness of the lady engrossed in the papers made this one made for quite an interesting opportunity for me.

Also, I left home without the ThumbsUp attached to the X100s today, but it made the camera much less easy to hold, so I reattached it again as soon as I returned. My initial reservation to continue to use it was based on two factors:

• I liked the idea that I can attach an external flashgun without too much fiddling.
• The curved surface of the ThumbsUp where the thumb rests is (obviously) slightly protruding and the camera profile is a little sleeker without it and perhaps has a lesser chance of catching clothing, straps, etc.

I guess a lot of things are compromises.

The ThumbsUp is a useful one.

I don't often use external flash in my day-to-day photography so the fiddle-factor is something I can live with on the rare occasion that I need to attach one of my speedlights.

The tiny built-in flash combined with the leaf shutter is also a surprisingly capable combination.

Desperados

Being a Thursday (and without wanting to sound like I belong to a bunch of alcoholics) it should have been our work/social drinking evening. However due to a rare (and increasingly infrequent) department-funded drinks yesterday evening, today fizzled without even a mention of drinks.
Instead, Alex and I went out for a meal at Royal China while discussing our differences (no, I never said arguing) over our next house move.

So, here's a reminder that this is what Thursday evenings seem to be about. As the weather continues to improve, we should be seeing more of these soon.

I'm not Desperados.

For those of you that know Spanish, we know that the beer should probably be called "Desesperados" and not "Desperados".

Unfortunately "Desperado" sounds more correct in English so we are now probably stuck with the error. My personal belief is that this word was made popular by the movie.

Considering that the movie was also directed by Antonio Banderas and reading about the origins of the beer, the Spanish seem to have actually stubbed their own toe on this one...

Choose your weapon.

Last week there was a work-organised event to visit the All Star Lanes in Westfield, Stratford.
Normally, bowling allies are fairly grimy places with very greasy food.
All Star Lanes was a bit of a surprise. We all received new-looking bowling shoes and the food was actually very decent!

The quality of most of our bowling started off on a high and gradually deteriorated as the drinks flowed.
Still we had a bit of fun and I had a brief opportunity to test my X100s at ISO 6,400.
My phone or GRDiv wouldn't have managed as well.

At All Star Lanes in Stratford.