Documentary Photographer, Rollerskater, Theatre Lover and Occasional Coder, that’s me.

I like motorbiking, origami, guitars, gigs and all those things feature here.

Pictures	Featured Reviews - click for index
Shhh	[x] Canon 5D II
Mexican Territory	[x] Leica Q2
	[x] Contax G Guide Part 1
	[x] Part 2: A Visual Guide to the G2
	[x] Canon AE-1 Program
	[ ] Nikon F3
	[ ] Pentax 645Z
	[ ] Rollei SL66

Cover image

The image above is a particularly cool section of the Transfăgărășan, a frequently nasty mountain road that crosses Romania. The dot on the road in the far distance on the right, just past the bend, is my pal on his motorbike.

Willian Henry Fox Talbot’s photographic rival, Louis Daguerre, made beautiful artifacts that shimmer and come alive in the hand, but are a complete dead-end, for they cannot be duplicated or reproduced, shared or distributed. Fox Talbot’s genius, quite apart from developing the chemistry, was in understanding that the negative image was far from being a problem, and actually the solution to further reproductions.

The image above was taken in late March or early April 1844, dated by the advert for the Theatre Royal Lyceum, for the show “Open Sesame”. This poster can be seen on the hoardings just before the “NO” for “No bills to be stuck to this hoarding” - that has clearly been an issue for longer than I thought.

A fabulous time machine of a picture and I beseech you to click on it to enlarge or head over to Getty to see even larger versions so you can zoom right in - their copy is in particularly fine condition. The version at SFMOMA is considerably faded.

https://www.dns0.eu/

For the non-technical:

1. DNS is an address book that is used every time you visit a website or your computer needs to get some data from somewhere on the internet.

2. You can improve your security/life by having the address book simply not have entries for the dodgy websites, advertisers, trackers, so that information never gets to your machine.

3. You can use any DNS address book you like, and this is a new public address book that claims to do so.

4. The founders of this founded a paid-for address book called nextdns.io and I personally subscribe to this and use it on all my devices to make my life better.

5. You don’t have to turn on all the filters - there are separate address books for adults and kids’ versions.

I’d been going to Kensington Market since I was a teenager, like everyone else, picking up cheap clothes and having terrible fashion sense, but it was a fun place to wander around with your mates on a Saturday. As I got older and picked up a camera when I was eighteen, my bubble extended another metre and I started to notice the world.

Rummaging through my negatives, I found this picture, one of two, taken in approximately 1994 of a stall-holder with his fascinating stall who was just inside the market, very close to one of the entrances. I have no idea of his name or stall’s name, and of course, the market closed exactly twenty-three years ago today on 29 January 2000. Stupid owners. There was no reprieve and the place was demolished a year later. A PC World opened up instead. Honestly, the worst kind of know-nothing overpriced box-pushers, a war crime. Some stalls apparently moved to a new location on Queensway, but that place was filled with junk and tat and I remain heartbroken for the Kensington Market workers, shoppers and future kids that would never be able to go there. Markets are so fundamental to a society that they should have special protection.

2:26 PM

#FRESH: it’s almost time for a fresh new year, new diaries, new plans…

2:32 PM

#RAMEN: “heat the person, not the room” #noodlesoup

10:26 PM

#FUTUREPRESENTS: thanks for the stacks of birthday messages a few days ago, still working my way through the replies, but I will reply to everyone! Merry Christmas to everyone from me and #Bowie, if anyone isn’t aware, new site is up and super-fast at https://vishvish.com with archives appearing, new reviews and some new projects soon. #photojournalist #photographer #knitwrth

8:19 PM

#STRIEZELMARKT: the mother of all Christmas Markets in #Dresden, since 1434 apparently. #Christmasmarket #kriskringlemarket #leica #leicaq2

Hawai’i is just about my favourite place on the planet, hard to explain, but it’s quite wonderful. The Americans have done a fairly good job looking after it for the planet in recent years.

This bag is a real gem, I can’t believe I’m still using it after decades. It’s very functional, with four pockets/spaces for pens, cameras, paper and I can actually fit a 13-inch Macbook Pro in too, as well as the Contax G and three lenses. Or a Leica M, or Q2, etc. Beautifully made, lovely soft leather. Sadly, Goldpfeil bit the dust some years ago and is now just a name brand stuck onto some leather goods not made in Germany and not related to the original. I loved my bag so much that I actually bought a second bag and it’s sat here all this time, I’ve never even taken the padding material out.

I suppose that someone else should own it. If you’re an actual Contax lover and bag lover and want to buy it, get in touch.