Being totally presumptous …

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Last night I discovered that I had stood in almost the same places as Frank Hurley to take photographs at Petra, and was fascinated by how little the place had changed between our visits. If making a comparison between my images and Hurley’s was cheeky (and indeed it was!) then this is even more outrageous.

Interesting, though, to see that some things about Paris haven’t changed a great deal in 60 years: people still sit on the embankment of the River Seine, canal boats still moor by the Pont Neuf, and the skyline behind Ile de la Cite has gained only one tall building.

Although it’s possible to stand where the great man stood, and to point a camera at the same things he saw, it is totally impossible to replicate digitally the fabulous film grain and misty light in Cartier-Bresson’s image. And that, I think, is a very good thing.

 

Ile de la Cite, Paris, gelatin silver print by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952

Ile de la Cite, Paris, digital image by me, 2011. (Black and white conversion and “film grain” added in Capture NX2 and Photoshop Elements.)

 

 

Same place, different time

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A friend posted a new photo to his Facebook page tonight. It was taken a few years ago at Derwentwater in the UK, down on the edge of the lake where the row boats pull up on the shore. It prompted me to look for my own photo taken there in 1992, and to compare them … same place, different time, and the boats hadn’t changed at all!

Later in the evening I was reading the news about the journey of the Aurora Australis to Antarctica to mark the centenary of Douglas Mawson’s 1912 expedition. The internet being the wonderful place that it is, I was soon following links to photographs taken by Frank Hurley on that expedition, then photographs taken by him in France during the First World War, and then photographs taken in the Middle East during the Second World War.

I knew of Hurley’s work in Antarctica, and also of his war photography, but didn’t know that he also visited and photographed Petra sometime around 1943. So I started playing spot-the-difference again, comparing Hurley’s photographs with my own from October last year. How presumptuous!

I discovered that Petra hasn’t changed all that much in nearly 70 years. Except perhaps in the ease of travel. Hurley’s note on his photograph of Ad-Deir says this: “Situated to the s. e. of the Dead Sea. Practically impossible to reach today.” For air-conditioned buses, I am very, very thankful.

 

Rock Tombs at Petra, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c.1943

Rock tombs at Petra, digital image by me, 2011.

Glimpse of Petra Valley, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c.1943

Glimpse of Petra Valley, digital image by me, 2011

Huge temple cut in one piece from the mountain, Petra, Jordan, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c. 1943

Ad-Deir (The Monastery), digital image by me, 2011

’tis almost Christmas!

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A big day of Christmas cooking and doing as much preparation for Christmas Day as possible. These no-bake mini Christmas puddings were too pretty not to photograph.

Nikon D7000 with an ancient Sigma 55mm f/2.8 macro lens. Manual exposure and focus: 1/200th sec at f/4, ISO 400.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Aqua

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I had my camera at the aquatic centre today, taking photos of children from the school where I work. The effect of the water moving over the tiles on the floor of the children’s play pool was fascinating.

Inspiration for a quilt? Yes, indeed.

Photographed with a Nikon D7000 and 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 250.

How does your garden grow?

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In some places, on brick walls. Somehow I don’t think this would look quite as good if I tried it on my colourbond.

Urban art found at St Peters railway station in Sydney.

Photographed with a Nikon D7000 and 20mm f/2.8 lens, 1/200 sec at f/5, ISO 100.

Framed: Paris and Petra

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Here are the two images that are “bookends” to my journeys this year.

Paris, in June: the Eiffel Tower as it came into view at the end of Rue de Monttessuy, the first photograph taken during my family holiday to Europe. And Petra, in October: my last glimpse of Al Khazneh, the Treasury, the final photograph from my study tour in the Middle East.

I’m struck by how different these landmarks are, and yet how similar the photographs. The Eiffel Tower, a modern monument built as the entrance for the World Fair of 1889, here framed by contemporary apartment buildings. And Al Khazneh, a king’s tomb carved from a sandstone cliff in the 1st century, framed by the 80m high walls of the Siq. Modern metal and ancient rock, both candidates for the new seven wonders of the world. I’m amazed that I have seen them both.