I am a big fan of the work of a photographer by the name of James Ravilious. A British photographer, he does not seem to be well known within England, much less without. JamesRavilious.com

Sadly, Mr. Ravilious passed away a decade ago. But, not before leaving an amazing archive of work documenting one part of rural England. Every now and again I go back and watch the documentary on him.

I recently wrote to express my love of his work to Mrs. Ravilious and she kindly responded to my letter. She is actively working on finding a gallery to display his work here in the US. If you know of an appropriate venue perhaps you should contact her through the website above.

Watch the video and you will see his use of Leica range-finders to achieve his look. Of particular interest to me is his use of uncoated lenses and hood modified framing. I am not sure of what aspect ratio he was changing to (if that was the purpose at all) or whether it was simply additional flare control on his uncoated glass.

A great deal of the aesthetic (atmospheric) look of his image can be attributed to the uncoated lenses. They aren't as high contrast or as sharp as modern lenses. But, what they lack in modern luster they make up for in there other-worldy fuzziness. Of course, it is obvious that he chose his time of day, weather, and subjects carefully to craft his images. I don't know how much work he did in the dark room. I hope someday to see his prints in person.

So,

Today was a busy day. Had a shoot today for a commercial client with something like 20 shots on the shot list. Interestingly we were able to knock everything out by mid afternoon. This was taken by Amie while I was killing a bit of time on set (at TF Green). I was hoping to shoot some film but as things worked out I ended up sticking with digital.

I'm not pictured on this blog much (I've got some funky hair going in these pics) but I don't have my laptop so I'm working from Amie's material as a source.

But, bigger news for me I got a proof copy of my first photo book. I'm putting together a book of lincoln woods bouldering photos. I'm going to post it here once it is done. It arrived at the office while I was out so I opened it over a quick dinner at Wendys (I'm not a big Wendy's guy but it was literally the closest place to each and we needed food before our next scheduled event - "men who stare at goats").

Looks good. I think I'm going to tweak a couple of things and put it up for everyone who may be interested to purchase. If you're interested (especially if you may be pictured) drop a line.

If you are like me and have enjoyed the Fujifilm S5 Pro (for all it's inadequacies - what it does, it does very well) I spoke with a fujifilm rep at the Hunts Camera Show (Hunts is a large New England Area chain - and apparently 4th largest distributor of Fujifilm in the country).

Without any doubts Fujifilm is out of the DSLR market for the foreseeable future. That's that.

The city of Kawasaki has gone through a major transformation during the last 10 years. What once was a bleak industrial center is now a Mecca for business, culture, and shopping. This was shot on a rainy day just outside the JR Kawasaki train station.