THE Hairpin

Hairpin II, originally uploaded by David Romanis.


One of our last holidays before the arrival of our son or daughter was to Cannes. This included an evening trip to Monaco.

There aren't many famous roads in the world, but given that the most famous Grand Prix happens on these streets, this hairpin has its own unique place in history: it's the slowest corner in F1 and requires the teams to have a special steering rack so the cars can get round without having to whack it in reverse and ... oh yeh, that's right, they don't have a reverse gear. Honestly - all that money for a Formula 1 car and it can't go backwards? Rubbish.

The one downside to the evening trip was that by the time we arrived in Monaco, it was already dark (Lou and I went for dinner on the road between Casino and Mirabeau Haute as it was about 8.30pm) so we could only take pictures at about 10.30pm. The only available light was coming from the streetlights.

There's only one thing for it: open the aperture as wide as it'll go and whack the ISO up. Not too far, mind - I haven't got a Nikon, you know...

Yep, high ISO and a steady(ish) hand, a bit of creative tilt and this was the result. I deliberately caught the guys crossing the road to get a bit of context and something other than a kerb, then shot wide open at about 1/15th of a second. This is the result.

I only shot a couple, but this was the best one - I've done very little with it apart from a little bit of a push of contrast.

Colour Space exporting

It's hardly a sexy subject - and nothing to do with actual photography - but it's an important part of showcasing photography: which colour space should I use when exporting photos from Lightroom?

Ladybird II, originally uploaded by David Romanis.

Annoyingly, I've discovered that I've been using the 'wrong' colour space (or "color space" as Lightroom calls it) - AdobeRGB strips the photo of some of its vibrance and saturation and the picture becomes a little duller.

I performed a simple experiment earlier on, exporting the original RAW file from Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software to create a JPG, dropping it into Lightroom, then after a few tweaks, exporting using different colour spaces.

In order of closeness to the original shot, from closest to furthest away, sRGB was best, then AdobeRGB, the ProPhoto RGB.

sRGB is pretty much the same as the shot I opened in DPP; the AdobeRGB shot desaturates slightly; the ProPhoto RGB export might as well be black and white. Almost.

So, note to self: export from Lightroom using sRGB. Glad I found that out after having only exported 16,000 pictures...

Time flies, but not for La Sagrada Família

I really can't believe (nor apologise enough) for getting to May without having posted anything in 2011. How time has flown by. I can't really tell you where the time has gone and don't know what I've been up to, but a quick review of my photo folders tells me that there has been some photography going on, at least.

During the Bank Holiday Limbo week, Lou and I went to Barcelona, a city neither of us had visited before except for on business (Lou went there for a conference last year).

With most cities Lou and I visit, we tend to take more than a modicum of photos, but this place, La Sagrada Família, got a large chunk of our snapping. You only need to walk around the cathedral to see the detail and appreciate the work which has already gone into creating it.

And it's not finished. Not even close.

The two main facades viewable at the moment are the Nativity and Passion facades. The main entrance is still hidden behind tarpaulin sheets and scaffolding. The cathedral itself won't be complete until 2040. That's 29 years away. I'll be 62. That's scary.

However, it also depends on the number of visitors to the cathedral who pay around €15 to get in and wander around - it could be sooner or it could be later.

All I know is that when it's finished, it will be an incredible sight to behold.

Inside, as the picture above shows, it is unlike any other cathedral I've ever visited. The columns split out at the top and bottom to make them look like trunks of trees, the windows in some areas represent honeycombs and there are many tips of the cap to nature in Gaudí's design.

As a photographer, I often walk into these places thinking "hmmmm, ISO 400 or 800?", but I just tilted my head backwards and gawped at the majesty of the place.

I guess today's photography thought from me is to look around before pointing the camera. Take in the craftsmanship, enormity, detail and splendour of one of Europe's most amazing works of art.

Also, try not to pose in front of the altar and have your picture taken doing a peace sign. Tacky tourists.

[Click here for more pictures from Barcelona on Flickr]