PhoTophe

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Photography has changed the way I see the world around me.

Through it I discover new things and rediscover old ones. Like my island, New Caledonia.

This blog is just me sharing my world through my photography.

Hope you enjoy.

Posts tagged vintage
SOCIETE LE NICKEL

Noumea, South Province

Day 7 of auto-confinement and we’re doing just fine. I came across this photo in my Lightroom catalogue yesterday. I was torn between two photo of the Société Le Nickel (SLN), this one and another zoomed in toward the chimneys. I chose the former because it showed the majority of the refinery and my friend said it reminded her of movie scenes where someone’s spying on or looking for a way in to a compound. And I agree.

This refinery was founded in 1912 by Société Des Hauts Fourneaux De Nouméa, owned by L. Ballande et Fils. It merged in 1931 with Société Le Nickel which was founded in 1880. Until 2009, it was the only metallurgical producer in New Caledonia. It is now one of three including Vale Inco (opened in 2009) in Yate in the South Province and Koniambo Nickel (opened in 2013) in Voh in the North Province. Wikipedia has interesting reading on SLN, Vale Inco and Koniambo Nickel. I ‘m sorry but I couldn’t find Wikipedia articles in English for the first two.

This photo dates back to 2013 before they fenced the outer periphery of the refinery. I drove up to their water reserve then followed a small track alongside it to this location. It was a very cloudy day but it hadn’t and didn’t rain. I had caught the photography bug about a year ago and the SLN was a fascinating construction for me. Still using my first hybrid camera, the Fujifilm FinePix S9500, and a very cheap tripod, I managed to capture this image.

Though the resolution isn’t the best, the image is technically sound. I decided to edit in black & white because of the old fashion look of the construction. To enhance this look, I put one of my split-tone presets over it then added grain. The grain, not only, added to the vintage look but helped to hide the lacklustre resolution. I like this photo, I really do.

Now, please everyone, protect yourself and others by staying home. Wash your hands, keep your distance, sneeze and cough in your elbow… you know what to do. If we all do our part, we’ll beat this Covid-19 a lot faster. Stay safe everyone.

 
 
New CaledoniaCHRIStophe Robert HERVOUËTCompany NICKEL - SLNchristophe hervouet, company, finepix, hdr, high dynamic range, industrial, industry, modern and ancient, new caledonia, nickel, noumea, nouvelle caledonie, old, province sud, refinery, s9500, sapia, sln, societe le nickel, south province, split tone, vanguard tripod, vintage
TIEBAGHI VILLAGE

Koumac, Tiebaghi Village

With the corona virus (Covid-19) here in New Caledonia since last week and with auto-confinement in place since midnight monday, photo outings are no more. I’m lucky I have a stock of images to get through and share with you. This set is one of them. A trip to Koumac, in June last year, with the family brought back memories to my mum of her childhood in Tiebaghi Village. Her father, my grandfather, worked in Human Resources on the mine and, apparently, was well liked by everyone. I remember my grandmother telling me that he’d never say no to anyone but told them he’d see what he could do. Anyway, I deviated a little.

The above panorama shows the village of Tiebaghi. From the social club on the left to the bakery on the right. In-between are a couple of grocery stores, a chapel, a playground, an engine dock, a few houses farther down, etc and behind me, from where I took this photo, there’s the clinic. Plenty to see and visit and if you’re interested and there’s a three hour guided tour that you can book with a lot of history knowledge and humour. Check out the current dates of the visits through the Province Nord website. It’s a visit worth doing if ever you have the chance. It’s kids friendly and you don’t need a four wheel drive to get there, we were in a minivan.

The Tiebaghi plateau opened in 1877 when Chromite Ore was discovered and it became the largest Chromium provider in the world in 1941. It also produced Nickel during World War II. The mine closed for the first time in 1962 and reopened in 1982 before definitely shutting down in 1990.

All the instruments and objects photographed above, were found in the clinic. A power box for dentistry, x-ray command box, a telecom switch, really old suitcases, a remote control box for… something, a crank phone, a couple of calculators and another instrument I have no idea what it was used for. Very interesting stuff and there were dozens more things I could’ve photographed but I just wanted to get a few detail shots of a handful of things. The clinic is situated above the village and has a fantastic view as you can see from the panorama photo which was taken from there.

Just a couple of photos from the social club. It’s just a empty hall and there wasn’t much in it apart from this beautiful film projector. Spectacular north-eastern views as well from the club. There are a lot of photographs of past events in the hall. It’s great to see what life was like back then.

This wasn’t my first time visiting the Tiebaghi and because of that I didn’t take a lot of photos of the exterior even though there are very interesting things to photograph. This old, rusted truck, for example, with the company name on the passenger door. There’s also a small cargo rail and cable car for the minerals and whatnot. The engine dock is quite interesting as well with it’s massive equipments.

One thing we HAD to do was find and visit the house my mum grew up in. We found it, isolated on a hill with magnificent views of the valley and mountain range. Still standing and in good condition, apart from the roof, these houses were built to last. Evidence after a few tropical depressions and cyclones. It’s difficult to imaging what life was like on Tiebaghi Village but from what my grandmother told me, though hard, camaraderie was high amongst this mining community.

I think the best time to visit Tebaghi Village would be in October during heritage month. Over a weekend they have guided visits of the village and botanical path, artisanal stands and expositions and reopen the old bakery to make and explain how bread was made in the old days. I plan on making this visit this year, if all goes well.

 

SONY a7 III

full-frame, mirrorless camera (body only)

TAMRON E 28-75mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD

standard zoom, E-mount lens

SANDISK EXTREME PRO CARD

128GB SDXC memory card

GIOTTO CLEANING KIT

lens cleaning kit with blower, brush, microfibre cloth and solution

WANDRD PRVKE

31 lt. travel backpack

WANDRD INSERT

medium size camera insert for the WANDRD PRVKE backpack

 
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GEIKO

Kyoto, Japan

One of the reasons we wanted to visit the Gion District was in hopes of seeing a Geisha or Geiko as they prefer to be called in Kyoto and Maiko, apprentice Geiko. We were not disappointed as we saw a handful of them while strolling the alleyways. They are just stunning. Beautiful. And we both wished we had booked in advance a restaurant where they performed. Next time.

I’m not a portrait photographer but on very rare occasions I’ll tempt it. This evening didn’t start as one of those occasions but ended as one. We had seen a few Geiko and Maiko on our stroll and though Géraldine captured a couple of portraits, she wasn’t satisfied with the results. Not her fault though but largely due to seeing them too late and not being able to frame in time. Don’t get me wrong, we kept our eyes open but they seem to come out of nowhere. So I thought I’d try as well, hoping between the two of us, we’d come back with, at least, one satisfactory portrait. And we got lucky. Seeing these Geiko and Maiko early enough to be able to snap half a dozen photos from full body to head shots. Unfortunately, only two are usable but two more than we had and are happy with.

So how did I get the shot? Preparation.

  1. I needed a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action and get a sharp photo. Because of their attire, Geiko do not walk very fast so I thought 1/250th of a second shutter speed would be fast enough.

  2. I wanted a shallow depth of field to blur the background. ƒ/2.8 is the widest my lens opens too so I used that.

  3. Have an ISO high enough to give me a proper exposure. In those little alleys nearing sunset it was 400.

All I had to do now was frame and shoot. But I forgot one thing, to put my camera in Continuous-Auto-Focus mode. I had left it in Single-Shot-Auto-Focus which isn’t ideal for subjects moving towards you. Hence, getting only 2, out of 6 or 7, shots in focus. A real shame because the close-up portraits were pretty good but unfortunately out of focus. A lesson learned for me and, I hope, a lesson for someone out there.

Now you’re most likely to see a Geiko and/or Maiko from an hour before and after sunset as they make their way to an appointment. They’re not on the streets for very long as their place of preparation and their appointments are not far from one another. Just keep your eyes peeled and your camera ready.

75 mm, 1/250th second @ ƒ/2.8, ISO 400

JapanCHRIStophe Robert HERVOUËTa7 3, a7 III, ancient, attire, christophe hervouet, christophe robert hervouet, culture, discover, explore, female, geiko, geisha, gion, gion district, japan, japanese, kyoto, old, photophe, photophe.com, photophejapan, split tone, tamron e 28-75 mm f2.8 di iii rxd, tradition, traditional, trip, vintage, wander, woman
BANK PLACE

I just love these kinds of little alley ways with restaurants, cafes, bars and outside seatings. I’m the kind of person who like to sip an espresso, watching people walk by. And on rare occasions, I like to write. Bank Place, Melbourne, Australia. There are many of these alleys in the city. At lunch time and after work they come to life with hundreds of people. They get so busy, it’s hard to get from one end to the other. Great places.

I went with my own version of sepia on this photo, only because of the old buildings and the stone pavement. Most of my street photos contain only one, maximum two, colours. There are always exceptions. It’s just my way of appreciate the scene more.

 

 

AustraliaCHRIStophe Robert HERVOUËTalley, alleyway, ancient, antique, australia, bank place, bar, cafe, canon, christophe robert hervouet, ef-s 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 is II, eos 1300d, melbourne, old, past, pavement, pedestrian, photoshop cc, rain, restaurant, split tone, street, time, vic, victoria, vintage, walk, wet