The pandemic which reached Europe in February 2020 has affected the lives of billions of people worldwide with what has probably been the highest excess death rate for the past 50 years. Relatively long lockdowns have been the response of most European governments. Travelling abroad was out of the question for many of us. In France, the distance from home that we were allowed to travel during last year varied from one to fifty kilometres, with the exception of summer holidays and Christmas. These restrictions have probably affected the way we photographed.
Lockdown one (March-May 2020)
This was the toughest one. Teleworking was the rule. We were allowed to travel one kilometre from home for one hour a day with a ban on public parks, forests and beaches. I was lucky to have a garden, so were my neighbours. I mainly shot flowers growing in various gardens including mine in macro mode and started to work on background blur, something I’ve hardly done when travelling or when shooting streets.
Mid-May (relative freedom at last)
As soon as lockdown restrictions were slightly lifted we jumped in the car and went to our favourite places for a walk. Spring was in full spate, which enticed me to continue the background blur series along the cliffs. I still enjoy shooting that way nowadays. I often find myself trying to find some interesting focal point that could be a start for background blur.
Fishing gear, lobster creels or the prows of boats often allow obtaining impressionistic results in seascapes. These images were shot with the X2, I appreciate the transition between focus and out of focus zones.
Lockdown two (November to mid-December 2020)
I particularly like late autumn and winter diffused light. When shooting almost wide open, you needn’t go up the ISO range. The Le Havre area is home to a quarter of a million people. Fortunately, the two local beaches are almost empty. Winter gales often wash ashore driftwood or disused fishing gear. You may also spot shells that are usually picked up by people in the spring and summer seasons.
In the woods (autumn winter 2020)
I am lucky to have a forest five minutes from home. It’s been a relief when lockdown regulations eased a bit after the first lockdown, I went there regularly during the second lockdown. It offers plenty of photo opportunities apart from autumn colours.
In autumn apart from the edible ones that people gather as early as five o’clock, mushrooms grow on tree trunks and mossy grounds. They usually provide good macro opportunities. At first, they are delicate both in shape and colour before decaying into a darkish slimy plant.
Winter also brings its share of windy gales which brings havoc in the forest. Usually, oaks and birch fall to the ground while elm seems to be spared by these strong winds. It gave me to start working on a theme of tree stumps and fallen trees. There’s poetry to these fallen trees. In spring these trees are teeming with life, sheltering field mice and insects.
Cameras
Despite lockdowns, those times have also been an opportunity to use various vintage camera systems and experiment. I used the 2009 Ricoh GXR with the wonderful 12.3MP APS-C 33 mm macro-lens module, the 2012 Ricoh GRD 4 with its amazing 10 mm macro capability, the 2015 Ricoh GR2 16MP APS-C 10 cm module with macro capability and the most recent, the Leica X2. These vintage cameras are still wonderful tools. Focus is not as snappy as with modern cameras, they hunt for focus and sometimes miss focus but they are light, sturdily built and produce beautiful files. In animal terms they are more akin to a quiet herbivore than a fast cheetah or a diving hawk.
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Thanks Joerg-Peter for your kind comment. Home and surrounding areas are an endless source to take photographs. It also gives you the opportunity to experiment, something you don’t always do when travelling.
Have a great new year
Jean
Wonderful images, Jean, and an excellent proof that you don’t have to travel far to discover something new. If your horizon is narrowing for whatever reason, you are lucky if you have the chance to exchange width for depth. Your images, Jean, are a great example for this achievement. I hope the many responses to your work give you motivation for 2022 – whatever that year might bring us. JP
Fabulous Jean. What a wonderful series of blurred background shots. The contrast between the simple flowers or the clam shells and the drama of the blurred cliffs is inspired. A complete reversal of everything landscape photography is about. Very well done!
Thaks Richard for your kind comment. I like those blurry backgrounds. It’s something I often have at the back of my mind when taking pictures. The difficult bit is to decide what will be in focus and what won’t,especially when shooting macro.
Have a great new year
2022 can’t be worse than the last past two years.
Jean
Great photo’s and an all-too-familiar recap of the last 24 months for most of us, Jean.
My favourites are probably the first two shots from “Lockdown two”, there’s a lovely 3-d effect from the side lighting , and then the shallow depth of field on the prow of the blue boat in lockdown one.
But they are all beautifully done.
Stay well.
Thanks Jason for your kind comment. For your info the first 2 shots are from the Ricoh GR2 and the prow from the X2.
Have a nice Christmas
Jean
I can’t resist saying that when I see a posting from you come up on the screen, I just give a relaxed sigh and say to myself: now for some beauty! It seems almost a pity to choose, but I think the two close-ups of flowers on the cliff top are top favourite for me, among so much else that is good. I come to appreciate my X2 more and more, so I am glad you have it smog your choices.
Thanks John for your kind comment. The X2 is definitely my favorite camera. The files it produces are just stunning and the 24mm elmarit is an amzing lens. The 6mm FOV is good as an all around walking lens. I’m shooting the Ricoh GXR in prepartion of a further article.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Thanks Farhiz for your kind comment. The stack of stones was a wink to the red dot. Lockdowns are not the best of times to take pictures but there’s always something interresting that might turn up. You never know.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Lovely photos, Jean! Hard to pick a favourite—I love the stack of stones in the opening photo, then there is no. 4 with the white flowers against red leaves, I like the one with the shell in no. 18 and the light in nos. 23 and 25….
Unlike you, the lockdowns here completely shut down my photography. Only in the last couple of days have I brought out the GF1 and X Vario that I am carrying on the trip. With this new variant rearing its head I hope we are not heading into another lockdown.
You know my view without presenting a mile of text – you often amaze me with the quality of your image through the lens of modern antiques. The selection of image on show here are testimony to your endeavour and an eye of seeing what our modern world is serving up.
I do hope you get to enjoy a decent Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Thanks Dave for your kind comment. These modern antiques have much character.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Thank you Jean for crystallising your stages through these unusual times. A very interesting read.
And you’re right about getting older cameras out and using them, even challenging them and ourselves in different ways. Kudos to you. That said, I plead guilty – the damn virus has stifled my impetus to get out with a camera – I’ve only used the iPhone camera since our July 10 lockdown. Where did that last half-year go?
Let’s hope that 2022 will be “twenty twenty two”, not “twenty twenty too”.
Thanks Wayne for your kind comment. The virus has certainly limited our photographic field of action and the pictures we can take may be repetitive but some turn out to be quite good. I laways get out with a camera and don’t like using my phone. The GRD4 fits in any pocket.
Have a merry Christmas down under
Jean
Lovely photos Jean and thank you for describing your journey through the pandemic so eloquently. The side-lit mushroom was well seen; there is much beauty all around us in the natural world. And as you suggest there is nothing wrong with the older cameras for this type of photography.
Thanks Kevin for your kind comment. I’m lucky to live near a wood. It provides endless photo opportunities all year round. I don’t have any modern cameras and the relatively old ones are still excellent tools whatever type of image you want to do.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Thanks William for your kind comment. I have never tried bellows for macrophotography and mainly rely on the macro lenses capabilities. Unfortunately I think a lockdown is looming here. If my memory is good Waterford is the place they make crystal glass and engraving. From my past trips to Dublin, I never saw foxes in Grafton street. Only the traditional ducks in Stephen’s green.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Lovely photos, Jean. I have passed through Le Havre coming from a ferry, but I never realised that such beauty was lying just around the corner. My lockdown photos were mainly taken in my back garden experimenting with various macro set ups using bellows. I have one from our first trip away earlier this year when lockdown rules were lifted somewhat showing my wife wearing a mask to match her dress as we waited to go down to dinner in a hotel in Waterford. I shot some film on a Vest Pocket Kodak just before lockdown and the leaking bellows created many wonderful effects. During lockdown I put one of the photos from the VPK on a ‘Mass Isolation’ site and now it is due to appear in a book of lockdown photos. 50 years from now our grandchildren and great grandchildren will looking at the photos created at this time and ask many questions. The most iconic ones from Dublin last year have shown tumbleweed and foxes wandering around Grafton Street, our main shopping street, which I believe you know well, Jean.
William
You hit it out of the park, my friend. Great way begin Christmas week. Thank you
Thanks John for your kind comment.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Hello Jean. Many thanks for your article. Your images portray a great deal of subject isolation. I infer that distraction of one’s attention from the prevailing dread associated with lockdown was more than welcome. There are certainly many who would pass comments that one’s gear is not of the latest model and so forth. But people are still using film cameras. I think the pursuit of photography eclipses the need to use newer cameras unless one has a need for a specific tool. Those cerulean hues of the fishing boat and tackle are wonderful. One wonders how they might have been rendered with Kodak Ektar. Take care Jean and be well. Thank you again for your wonderful article.
Thanks Gireesh for the kind comment. As a Ricoh user you know these cameras are a joy to use and their B&W high contrast is a blessing when you get it right. I admit I thoroughly enjoy the color signature of older models. The files may not be as clean as the files of newer models but they got a lot of character. I rarely used Kodak Ekta. I prefered Kodachrome and the Fuji Provia. Ilford Pan F, FP4 and kodak TriX were my favorite B&W films. The PanF demanded more care in the darkroom and the grain was sometimes hard to spot under the enlarger.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Hi Jean, thank you! Beautiful photos! I especially liked the multi-colored, hanging ropes, and the flowers blooming on the cliffs. I am no expert in botany, but in the UK I think they would be called thrift and buttercups. I used to live in Walmer, on the English coast, near Deal and Dover, and so the scenes of fishing boats, beaches, and white cliffs were very familiar – just a channel away! Thanks again for your article and the encouragement to try out more macro photography. Cheers, Keith
Thanks Keith for your kind comment. I’m sure you will capture wonderful macro shots with your Leica Q. I’ve tried the macro implementation at a workshop. It’s just brilliant and the focus peaking on the camera is a big plus for shooting manually.
Have a merry Christmas
Jean
Living nature also proved to be my main photographic targets, Jean, and they continue to provide endless hours of interest. Together with renewed interest in rediscovering the vital importance of natural light; not always sunlight.
I particularly liked your first three macro shots of flowers. Thank you also for singing the praises of long forgotten digital cameras, which still perform well, ten or more years after they were fiŕst very popular.
Thanks David for the kind comment. I really enjoy shooting macro and my various Ricohs are wonderful tools for that.
For your information the first 2 macro shots were done with the GRD4 and the 3rd one with the GR2.
Old cameras may not produce as defined pictures as new ones. They are not “pixel bodybuilt” but you can always print decent sizes. The thing I really appreciate is that they are straightforward to use. You don’t have to dive into endless menus (I remember not understanding two thirds of my nowgone Sony A7 menu) and once you’ve chosen your settings you’re ready to go.
Have a merry Christmas.
Jean