On a well known photography gear forum, which I imagine I’m not the only one to far too regularly seek out as a displacement activity, yesterday I came across a question asking “is the Ricoh GRD any good for anything other than grainy black and white ?”. It’s a valid question - the vast majority of GR photos you find on the web are indeed black, white, grainy and often gritty. Auteur street photography dominates. And yet as far as I recall, I’ve only ever published low ISO colour stuff. Probably another reason why my genius is chronically ignored and overlooked.

So I thought I’d give it a spin. Using a “recipe” suggested by another contributer to the same forum, I made a settings set with ISO 1600 (gasp!), hi-contrast black & white, with a pinch of classic square format to taste.

The first three photos here are taken at the “Ala Pelera” watchtower above Camorino, part of the Fortini della Fame built in the early 19th Century in reaction to political instability in Lombardy, as well as famine in Ticino.

Ala Pelera detail 1. Ricoh GRD IV

Ala Pelera detail 2. Ricoh GRD IV

Ala Pelera detail 3. Ricoh GRD IV

The next two were taken in the woods a little way from the watchtower, same general area as my previous post.

Tracked. Ricoh GRD IV

Pipeline. Ricoh GRD IV

So, there we go. I’ve now joined the Ricoh GRD grainy black & white club. Lavish praise cannot fail to follow.

Resizing and framing done in Filterstorm Pro on the iPad. Otherwise straight from camera. Filterstorm is a pretty amazing application, but it’s fairly complicated, and I’m not sure if I’ve got the workflow properly sorted out yet. The uploads seem to be very compressed.

Around a month ago my life suffered something of an upheaval, when I was diagnosed with diabetes. Although it was obviously a shock, it wasn’t really a surprise: to say that it runs in the family would be an understatement. So far, it seems that it is not too drastic. With light medication and a significant lifestyle change, my glycemic levels are tending towards the low end of the normal, healthy scale, or indeed lower. The lifestyle change essentially involves not spending all day stuck behind a computer, avoiding the horrendous British / American idea that it is commendable for lunch to be a shrinkwrapped sandwich rammed down your throat as you “do email”, and basically getting out more.

So I do. And often I take a camera with me, just in case. This led me to another idea:  publishing a series of photos taken on the hoof, as it were, and uploaded directly from my iPad. I’m usually really finicky about fine tuning photos, and working with RAW files only, so this is a bit of a change of tack. There are actually some useful photo editing applications on the iPad, so this alo gives me the opportunity to pass on some of my experiences using them.

The place I work, Giubiasco, at a passing glance seems a drab, boring place devoid of any interest or charm. But the unique (for Ticino) village-green type Piazza Grande gives some clue to the more fascinating remnants of past times hidden away from the busy main road in the old village. And just beyond the village, there are old tracks, a rock-strewn stream, and plenty of places to explore for half an hour or so. So none of this is going to be high art, but hopefully it might be interesting. Here’s the first.

The Strada Vecchia leading up from Giubiasco to Val Morrobia. Taken with the Ricoh GRD4, processed in Filterstorm Pro.

I must write some more about the GRD4. It really is a remarkable little camera. It is more sophisticated than many a DSLR, has superbly good handling, and a fantastic lens. The 28mm-equivalent focal length may be a little too wide for really general use, but personally I find plenty of subject matter that suits it.

The sky looks a bit weird in the photo. Probably for the first time ever I’m going to need to think about in-camera JPEG settings. Old dog. New tricks.

A couple of shots of Great Crested Grebes taking the offspring out for a ride on Lago di Lugano.

three’s a crowd!

Faster, dad!

Both taken with the 50-200 SWD lens on Olympus E-5. And cropped a bit.

Some XPan shots of and near Diga di Contra in Val Verzasca, Ticino, taken a few months ago one dark wet & gloomy evening. Processed in Silverfast 6 HDR. Probably I could be more creative with gradients and desaturation and whatever, but that’s just not me.  Kodak E100G, f/22 and be there. Diffraction ? What’s that, then ?

Although the whole end-of-year list thing makes me a bit nauseous, I’ve seen so many “Top 10”, “Best of 2011” etc lists of photos that I felt I should do my own.  Actually it wasn’t very easy. I didn’t think I’d taken 10 good photos on 2011. I’m still not sure I have, but anyway, here are 11 I like. And it’s quite a diverse set.

2011 was probably not a classic year for me so far as photography is concerned. Work, and especially commuting, really eats into my time and destroys inspiration.  Nevertheless, according to my Aperture library I took 3915 photos, and that doesn’t include film. In 2011 I completely avoided high latitudes. The highlight was 10 days in the Aeolian Islands in March. I didn’t quite get the shots of Stromboli erupting in winter light that I envisaged, but I got closer than before. I also greatly expanded my library of Ticino mountain streams / rivers, especially Verzasca and its tributaries, and Calanca. I should probably do something with those one day. The rest largely come from various short breaks and holidays.

January: Plaine Morte glacier, Valais, Switzerland. Olympus E-PL2.

February: Rome at night, near the Trevi fountain. Olympus E-PL2.

March: Stromboli eruption, from outlook on the old summit trail. Olympus E-3.

May: Tuscany, the standard shot. Olympus E-PL2.

May: Tuscany, Abbazia di Sant’Antimo. Olympus E-PL2.

August: Ticino, Val d’Osura. Olympus E-3.

August: Sea cave, Marettimo, Aegadian Islands. Olympus E-PL2.

September: Cefalu, Sicily. Olympus E-PL2.

October: Val Calanca, Graubunden. Olympus E-3.

November: Val Verzasca, Ticino. Olympus E-3.

December: Val Bedretto, Ticino. Olympus E-PL2.

Do you detect any kind of personal style in this motley collection ? I don’t!