Fire on the Hai Van Pass

I've done the journey between Da Nang and Hue over the Hai Van pass many times now. While the views are still great, it becomes a bit of a routine so I don't pay much attention to the views at times.

Having a big cloud of smoke over the pass did however get my attention, although at first I thought it's just the usual fire to burn fields or the jungle and make room for rice fields.

Seeing smoke or burning fields or forests in Vietnam or around Asia is nothing unusual and a common sight. When it's as big as this and you see fire engines rushing up the mountain you know something is going on.

There was a big fire running both up and down the mountain, burning trees, shrubs and whatever else was part of the jungle covered slopes.

The firefighters and military were busy fighting the fires but as usual around here nobody really minds what you're doing as long as you are not in their way.
This meant I could walk around and take photos without problems or anyone saying anything.

While the road was closed, this doesn't mean much if you're on a motorbike. As soon as they moved the fire engines I went on my bike and rove past everyone to continue my journey.

Fire

GF1, f1.8, 1/250, ISO 3200, RAW, 100mm (Canon f1.8 50mm FD)

There is some truth in the best camera is the one you have with you and it's always worth having a camera along as you never know what you come across. So happened this evening when I had the trusty, old GF1 with the even older Canon FD 50mm lens along and came across a fire.

Still, even better than having a camera along is to end a grey, cold and rainy Sunday with some great, live jazz music and a bottle of wine.

Hampton Court Palace Visit

Just a quick series from my visit to Hampton Court Palace, all pictures are with the Nokton f1.2 35mm and most also taken at f1.2.

Fire Through the Pinhole

Sometimes you are limited by the choices you made when you walked out of the door with only your newly designed pinhole lens but then realize a proper lens would give you the results you would like in a situation like this. Well, since it is useless to complain or regret not having brough the right gear along it is best to just try and make do with what you have. I doubt many people have tried any documentary or journalistic photography with a pinhole camera but having a digital camera with a pinhole lens does work to some degree as you can see my small series here.

Also my new design of the pinhole lens is much better and does work very well but most important is that I have a lot of fun with this.

Fire on City Road

Fire in North Greenwich

GX100, f5.6, 1/800, ISO 100, RAW, 72mm

My last pictures were all a bit dark and without much happening in them, or a bit boring in other words.
Today, I decided to take a walk through Greenwich on my way to the cinema. I saw the smoke of a fire in the indutstrial area and decided to take a picture. I tried to give it a slightly warm tone by using the cloudy WB setting in camera.

Fire Rain

GRD, f2.4, 1/50, ISO 1600, JPG

Why I like the GRD I as much is simple really, the ability to use ISO 1600 without problems, combined with the fast lens and focus means I can continue shooting till late in the night. The small size and discreet looks make it even better suited to get candid shots of friends and other people.
I took this picture while out with friends and aside from the fireworks there was no other light source.

Burnt Out

I posted quite a few series recently so my motto of 'One Day. One Picture.' did not quite apply. But sometimes it is necessary to show a series of 5 pictures to give a better feel to a place or theme.

I took the pictures today in a burnt out building nearby with the Panasonic LC1. Always wanted to go there and take pictures but never really got round to. It was really lucky that I could go in and take pictures close up. As much as I enjoyed taking pictures in Bodiam Castle, I somehow found taking pictures of this building more inspiring but also more challenging. It is easy to take a nice picture of a beautiful place or great building but taking interesting pictures of decay is a bigger challenge. The weather was on my side today and I went there at the right time to have the sun provide great light and shadows inside.

The Clean-up

GRD, f4.5, 1/320, ISO 400, JPG

Sometimes I am lucky to be in the right place at the right time, like here, here or here. Everytime I passed by and got the chance to snap some interesting pictures. Today however, I passed by the right place but at the wrong time. This means I missed the main action and only saw the clean-up efforts and cordoned-off street. This did not provide that many good picture opportunities.

Now on to a few Ricoh related news bits, first is the rumor of a Ricoh dSLR as reported on Wouter's blog, then it's Tom's Ricoh GRD II mock-up rendering on his blog so make sure you have a look and post your opinions and last but not least there is an opportunity to vote for the proposed walks around London during our offical Ricohforum meet-up. Tomorrow is also the opening of the Ring Cube photo exhibition space in the San-ai building in Ginza, Tokyo. It will display the selections from the 8th Ricoh contest and might also have other intersting news to offer. So if you're near make sure you take some pictures and let me know.

Bus No. 56

I have another series for today that I just happened to come across after work. This was not what I planned to post today but it is a lot more interesting.
Sometimes just taking a walk instead of the Tube or bus is a lot more rewarding. You never know what you come across (remember my Fire in the Hood and the Stranded posts). This reminds me of a quote from Sin City: "Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find everything". It certainly is true that by walking around and keeping your eyes open you can find a lot of very interesting things. These don't have to be burning cars or accidents but a nice and calm moment that would be lost in time otherwise like this. The important thing is to slow down and look around you. And yes, having a camera ready to record it is even better ;).

All pictures are taken with the Panasonic LC1 and this although I also had both GRDs and the GX100 with me but the extra zoom of the LC1 worked better here, especially since I could not get too close and did not have the 40mm lens for the GRDs. I cropped all to the 16:9 format to give them a cinema flair although this time I did not compose them for this format but they still work.