NikonGear'23
Images => People, Portraits, Street, PJ & Cityscapes => Topic started by: Airy on September 11, 2020, 09:12:24
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The city walls were mostly torn down after 1918. Some remainders have been preserved, and there are attempts to blend them with new constructions. This is not necessarily bad. The place depicted here is between the two train stations.
+ free quiz : I have been using the Df-what-else, plus three vintage Nikkors. Some of you may successfully guess which, as there are telltale clues available for at least two of them. Have fun.
The post-processing was heavier than usual, because I had to cope with intense contrast, one hour before sunset. Otherwise, CA correction, cropping of vertical pics to 4:3 ratio, and some rotation every now and then (I seldom use tripods outdoors), and that would be it.
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Second batch :
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Interesting series that follows your stream of thoughts.
I'm pretty sure that the one is PC28/3.5. I'm not sure of the other two, though.
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Akira, you got it right; the 28/3.5 PC is one of the three. Concerning the middle one, there is one clear clue in a batch to come.
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Third batch
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Fourth and last batch.
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an excellebt series about a good looking place
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Do you like it? Is it nice living there?
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Do you like it? Is it nice living there?
Quite decent. And before COVID and Brexit, the links with London, Brussels, Köln were quite enjoyable.
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Very nice series of architecture and how it blends in, quite successful I agreeWonderful colors
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Lille one of the major bottlenecks going south by car, ever expanding it seems. Great images Airy.
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I could not help but getting some night shots. I hope you got monitors with dark blacks. If they do not appear dark, please do not blame the old Nikkor, it is quite suitable for night shots actually :)
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Judging from the third (especially the nice bokeh in the second image) and the fourth batches, the second lens could be the Noct. My assumption seems to be assured by the last batch shot at night. :)
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Akira, you are getting closer.
Reminder: in my description of post-processing, I did not mention distortion correction. I confirm there is none.
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And some more, from this evening. Df, Noct Nikkor 58/1.2 AIS. Only the last one was shot wide open, just for the fun.
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Really great shots of Lille (or should I say Euralille ;) )! The Portzamparc's "chaussure de ski" seems to fade a bit with time...
The Mama building is new (I haven't seen it yet in live). Lille Métropole is getting quite interesting nowadays. Too bad for the Covid (I missed the "Braderie" this year :'( ) so no "moules frites" for me...
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Somr more, same place, mixing old, recent, and new. Df, 50/2 AI.
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Reflective ceilings have become fashion, it seems. First time I noticed these was in Marseille, Vieux Port.
An interesting thing with those bricks is, there are three pattern scales : the joints as usual (meso), the arrangement of bricks (macro), and then the surface pattern (micro), that seem to imitate shale or similar stones. That brings sense into brickwall shooting.
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The faceless take revenge ;)
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Great series :D
The one mixing old and new is really a picture for a cover of a magazine on urbanism !!! And the brick wall with it's three "scales" is a great reminder of what we teach in architecture 8)
A peaceful set of Lille...
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I have enjoyed this series. Lille has been laid out and constructed with much more aesthetic sense than many/most American cities.
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Very nice series, I like very much the straight lines of 50/2 and the rendering of the DF
But most of all is the eye of the photographer
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#5570, #5576 and the very last one look great to me.
I would echo Keith with regard to Tokyo.
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The one mixing old and new is really a picture for a cover of a magazine on urbanism !!! And the brick wall with it's three "scales" is a great reminder of what we teach in architecture 8)
I hope we can meet some day in Lille, with your students too... At any rate, while neither Madame nor I could ever sympathize with the ski boot, we both feel attracted by the recent constructions.
As Akira quotes, "Limitation is inspiration". In the present case, the architect(s) apparently had to do something in a relatively cramped space, integrate with listed buildings (monuments historiques), and probably much less money than in the heydays of Lille, a city that gave two ministers to the French govt. and sure got something in return. There may or may not be the same level of techical prowess, but probably more imagination at work. I still have to discover the "inside" though.
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Very nice series, I like very much the straight lines of 50/2 and the rendering of the DF
But most of all is the eye of the photographer
Efcharisto. By the way, the 50/1.8 AI is even straighter, but unfortunately I never made good buys (one was decentered and returned, the last one needs infinity tuning and I'm not good at that...). If really needed, I still have the 55/2.8 and Zeiss 50/2 in reserve, both with minimal barrel.
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I have enjoyed this series. Lille has been laid out and constructed with much more aesthetic sense than many/most American cities.
Thanks Keith and Akira. What you say about Lille was not always the case, and there were many destructions due to wars, but on the whole it's not too bad. Biggest issue is excessive density of the inner city that had to grow inside its walls (once again, due to military strategic issues), turning canals into sewage, driving its poorest population into the basements, and kicking the gardens and public parks outside. That took place, roughly, from 1858 to 1918.
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Great series, Airy. The 50/2 Ai shines. Should use my 50/2 Ai more when viewing your results.
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I hope we can meet some day in Lille, with your students too... At any rate, while neither Madame nor I could ever sympathize with the ski boot, we both feel attracted by the recent constructions.
As Akira quotes, "Limitation is inspiration". In the present case, the architect(s) apparently had to do something in a relatively cramped space, integrate with listed buildings (monuments historiques), and probably much less money than in the heydays of Lille, a city that gave two ministers to the French govt. and sure got something in return. There may or may not be the same level of techical prowess, but probably more imagination at work. I still have to discover the "inside" though.
Ah...We'll need to get rid of the Covid thingy before ;) I guess that Lille's historical background does help with the "new wave" of architects, keen at working with the actual surroundings. At the nearby district of Lomme, or in Fives, most of the renewal work is about sustainability and using most of the historical factories without breaking the down... It helps keeping the old within the new 8)
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Given the combined disadvantages of full-time telecommuting and social distancing, I force myself to a daily walk (4-5km) to try and stay in a reasonably good shape. So the series continued today, this time with my lens for dull days, the Summicron-R 50/2 (II). Fully manual operation, including the closure of the diaphragm.
On the other hand, that lens offers, as usual, exquisite rendering. Since I am using Capture NX-D, I cannot correct the moderate barrel distortion, but apart from that, the Summicron is extraordinarily clean from wide open. Just for the sake of comparison, this uninteresting shot was taken at f/8 and f/2:
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Now back to the subject. These are the surroundings of the Parc Matisse, extending over a former no-man's land at the foot of the XVIIth century city walls (the city also kept some other walls from other centuries). This is how you get a green patch and big urban development projects in the middle of a crowded area. The army gave up the lands in the early nineties.
The big "concrete" block on the right of the first picture is actually a dump for excavation waste. It is now topped by unaccessible bushes and trees, a "jungle" so to say, where not even dealers can take refuge, but birds are happy.
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Some views of the new constructions aligned with the old walls. Now, the new brick walls are no longer tag-free. The last picture shows the transition between old (front) and new (rear)
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The "balcony" can be accessed via staircases on the other side (inner historic city side). Again, old and new are tightly connected or even intricated.
By the way, last shot was taken wide open (just for the fun, and because I wanted to soften the girders in the foreground).
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Walking along the balcony brings its share of surprises. Second and fourth shots provides insight into the inner "court", between old walls and inner city. First shot f/2, inner court f/8, squashed rat f/5.6 I guess. Some perspective control, esp. the last one.
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Lille Europe Station nearly looks like an oldie now. The station was designed by Rem Koolhaas, and placed into service around 1993 (start of Eurostar services) if I remember correctly. Last shot, slightly cropped, provides the answer to "Where do the children play"; this area was created a couple of years ago. First shot displays the 6-ray sunstars generated by the 6-blade diaph (the blades are curved).