-
Marché de Montalivet
Sometimes… you just get lucky,
and bump into a face, matured in time;
friendly, inquiring, encouraging,
with eyes that look into your soul.
Thanks for posing! Contact me in case you’d like a hi-res version of your photos, I’ll gladly provide them.
The Marché de Montalivet doesn’t really open at 7:30 as advertised.
But 9:30 onwards this daily morning market of 200+ stalls offers a good dose of weirdness along the usual oysters, bags and jeans. Gems all.
Montalivet, France, July 2024
-
Bordeaux revisited
Took a city walk with audio tour, gps triggered
and saw the many faces of Bordeaux
aprés, Le cité du vin, wine in multimedia, worth a visit
However the wicked building resisted me to capture its beauty.
Bordeaux, july 2024
-
The mirror palace
Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux is worth a stop.
Tripadvisor tells you to go there when there’s not too many people.
That is of course, if you want to make a pretty picture of the palace mirrored in the special installation that casts a film of water in front if it.It’s a good habit to turn around instead, and make quick snapshots of the people gathered instead. The more the merrier!
I will not keep you guessing this time. The first is the overview, the following are cuts from the same picture. Some more pictures from there below.
It’s really a photographer’s heaven.
Luckily the Q2M is a water resistant camera.
Bordeaux, place de la Bourse, july 2024
-
Côte d’Argent
The surfer’s beach has a great vibe
with Dolphin’s thrown in
for good measure
Atlantic French coast, near pin sec (dry pine), July 2024
-
Crossing the Gironde
The ferry queue was … to the end of the village, and back
so by the time we boarded, we also had had our cheese board
as French baguettes and French cheese are second to none.I love places where people are up to each other’s armpits
still insisting to live their own lives alongside others.Respecting the personal space of the beautifully freckled lady,
I refrained from asking her for some close ups (and still regret it).
-
Quotidian life
During a quick business travel
I try to capture the quotidian life at street level
From the fruit stall to the bigger-than-life Segrada Familia
The streets of Barcelona are so high and narrow
that daylight struggles to find the pavement
Back at home, the Mediterranean leisurely pace is
fleeting with the rush of passengers
keen to get back home.
maesland.com 
Bacrcelona, Spain and “Brussels” Charleroi airport, June 2024
-
Less bokeh, more fun
The Leica Q2 Monochrome comes with a fixed f/1.7 summilux 28mm objective.
The lens is fast and has a little bit of vingette towards the corners. The fish eye actually implies that I need to be within arms length of my subject for them to fill the screen. I usually warn people I have no zoom lens, before I get that close to them, usually provoking some nervous chuckle response when I am close enough to touch them with my camera
The camera is a dedication to an obsessive eye for detailed textures and shapes, and on the street I usually keep it at f/8 to get the entire image in focus. To the viewer, there’s something unheimlich going on. Humans don’t see the world without colour, nor do we see it in focus for our entire field of vision.
But less bokeh is more fun. It captures an overwhelming amount of detail. So much I fear I’ll need big prints to do justice to it.
Here’s some pictures taken in the business area of Barcelona, let’s see if you can spot how close they are to each other..
Actually…
It’s all…
(wait for it…. it may take a while to load)
on the very same photo, click here to see it at full resolution.
Can you spot the cropped areas from the pictures above?
(if above this, you only see blackness, wait a bit for the 26mb (!) image to load, the picture is 5719×8571 pixels)
Barcerlona, Spain, June 2024 -
Portes ouvertes
Usually we just take a little detour from Colmar to visit an Alsacian gem
in Blienschwiller to restock from the amazing wines by Anne and Marc Wassler.
Their son Matthieu experiments on the grass-roots of wine making:
unfiltered, unsulphured, uncompromising, niche tastes for niche customers.
New concepts make for new favourites: eclipse and origine are amazing wines.This time, for Wassler’s portes ouvertes, we ventured to Blienschwiller, a town so tiny it lacks even a boulangier. It did have a lovely place to stay.
Life is more communal here, where everyone greets everyone else friendly, even and especially if they have never seen each other before.
The tiny tasting event had much to love, sampling Wassler’s wines with local tarte flambees with Münster cheese, and relaxing with our favourite champagne.Enjoy the pictures from this tiny village where time seems to stand still.
Blienschwiller, Alsace, France, May 2024
-
The sound of…
A Crumar Seven is a really special instrument. Not your average sampled keyboard, not your average synth either.
Dirk Maassen is a German engineer, topping local streaming charts of neo-classical piano songs. They are pleasant to the ear, perfectly composed. La Mer was begging for my own interpretation, on the Crumar Seven. Enjoy!
Based on La Mer by Dirk Maassen Slightly imperfect, but then again, I’m still learning 🙂
-
Paddington by night
Switching roles implies
spending less time in London.
I spent some time with Imad, from my team.
Amazed by all the details of photography
while in all fairness, I still see myself
as an absolute beginner.
For now, this is our adieu,
but the future whispers
promises of reunion.Paddingont, 5th March 2024
Maesland
Black and white street photography
Maesland 