Tag Archives: Venice

A Night on the Orient Express – Writer in Residence

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The Orient Express. Luxury. Mystery. Romance

For one group of passengers settling in to their seats and taking their first sips of champagne, the journey from London to Venice is more than the trip of a lifetime.

A mysterious errand; a promise made to a dying friend; an unexpected proposal; a secret reaching back a generation…As the train sweeps on, revelations, confessions and assignations unfold against the most romantic and infamous setting in the world.

Arriving from Orion Books on 4th July 2013

 

Writer in Residence – Web content stolen from veronicahenry.co.uk

While I was writing this novel I was lucky enough to be made Writer in Residence for the Venice Simplon Orient Express, travelling in splendour from Victoria to Venice, then staying at the Hotel Cipriani on the island of Giudecca. How could I fail to be inspired? My characters came to life en route, and the story unfolded.

View from the window – Cipriani Hotel Venice The images below are taken from a bedroom window of Palazzo Vendramin Palazzo Vendramin is a 15th-century residence linked to the Hotel Cipriani through an ancient courtyard and a passageway lined with flowers. It houses 16 suites and rooms with sweeping vistas over the gardens and across to St Mark’s Square. These views have been [more]

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Ilford HP5 Plus 35mm film

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Wet Leaves

The image above was taken with a Pentax SP1000 (June 2012) using 35mm black and white Ilford HP5 Plus film.

HP film is a cubic-grain black-and-white film from Ilford Photo. It originated as Hypersensitive Panchromatic plates in 1931. Since then it has developed (pun?) with a number of versions appearing over the years, with HP5 plus (HP5+ for short) being the latest. The main competitor of Ilford HP5 Plus was Kodak Tri-X 400.

The beauty of this film is its grainy quality and because of this it is my film of choice. HP5 was slighty more coarse in comparision to the defuncted Kodak film.

In 1960 the 200 ASA emulsion was relabelled to 400 ASA with no change to the product. The 200 ASA speed included an exposure safety margin, but with improvements in light meters this was deemed unnecessary. The speed was revised up to 400 ASA.

Breakfast on the Orient Express – ruined in the darkroom

Breakfast on the Orient ExpressThis gallery contains 2 photos.

As I  have previously mentioned, I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I took my old, trusty Pentax K1000 with me to Venice on the Orient Express and took some black and white shots of the train…. The images … Continue reading →

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I ruined the photos of breakfast on the Orient Express

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As I  have previously mentioned, I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I took my old, trusty Pentax K1000 with me to Venice on the Orient Express and took some black and white shots of the train…. The images below are of breakfast on the Orient Express, which is served to passengers in their cabins.

I  processed the film in the darkroom at West Buckland School. I’d remembered most of the processing guidelines I’d learnt in the 1970s and I had a foolproof instruction sheet, with timings for the Ilford HP5 (400 asa) etc. – nothing could go wrong.

Half way through processing the film I noticed a chink of light coming in from below the door – the film was ruined but here are a couple more photographs that might be interesting?

The Pentax K1000 is an almost all metal, mechanically (springs, gears, levers) controlled, manual-focus SLR with manual exposure control. It was completely operable without batteries. It only needed batteries (one A76 or S76, or LR44 or SR44) for the light metering information system. This consisted of a center-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged +/– over/underexposure markers at the right side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS) light meter versus the actual camera settings. The meter did not have a true on/off switch and the lens cap needed to be kept on the lens to prevent draining the battery when the K1000 was not in use.

Pentax K1000. (2012, May 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:26, June 8, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pentax_K1000&oldid=495230110

Travel – 35mm images go wrong in Venice

View to St Marks Square

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I recently decided to take my old Pentax K1000 with me to Venice. I took some great black and white shots from our hotel window, looking out over the Grand Canal towards … Continue reading ?

Pentax K1000 – darkroom failure

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view_st_marks_square

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I recently decided to take my old Pentax K1000 with me to Venice. I took some great black and white shots from our hotel window, looking out over the Grand Canal towards … Continue reading →

The Pentax K1000 (originally marked the Asahi Pentax K1000) is an interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, manufactured by Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. from 1976 to 1997, originally in Japan. It uses a horizontal travel, rubberized silk cloth focal plane shutter with a speed range of 1/1000 second to 1 second, along with Bulb and a flash X-sync of 1/60 second. It is 91.4 millimetres tall, 143 mm wide, and 48 mm deep, and weighs 620 grams. The body was finished in black leather with chrome trim only, although early production Pentax K1000 SE bodies had brown leather with chrome trim.

English: Pentax K1000 SE, photographed by me. ...

English: Pentax K1000 SE – Public domain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peggy #Guggenheim Collection in #Venice

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The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice  (29 February to 6 May 2012)  – an exhibition entitled “European Art: 1949-1979/Marion R Taylor: Painting, 1966-2001″.

One of the exhibition’s rooms is dedicated to Marion Richardson Taylor (d. 2010), an American artist (she lived in Europe). The wife of a diplomat, she was known for hosting political figures and intellectuals at her legendary dinner parties. Her artistic styles  switched between abstract expressionism, portraits, Cubist still lives (maybe?) and small sized drawings. Taylor constantly had to rethink her art - which gives the viewer of this retrospective the impression that Marion Taylor lacked direction or intellectual conviction in her art – maybe this exhibition underlines that well known fact that it is not what you know but who you know that counts.

Peter Bright (aka This Window)

The collection in the museum is based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe “in dizzying succession” as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim’s 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection. (2012, April 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:14, April 14, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peggy_Guggenheim_Collection&oldid=487289122

F  O  O  T  +  N  O  T  E  = Easter Eggs

You can only eat so many Easter Eggs and drink so much Coke. Cassette Culture 1989 – 2009 by This Window is still available to download. Cassette Culture was an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s… Continue reading →

Ciao – by This Window -  Collecting Easter eggs and telephone answer machine messages, a video that has taken 20 years to compile. Audio by This Window  Video by Jacob Bright Art Workshops Posted on March 29, 2011 by admin Printmaking … Continue reading →

To Venice on the Orient Express

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There has been no murder on the train but the ‘Agatha Christie Cocktail’ is a delicious poison mixed expertly by Walter.

Leaving Victoria Station on a Thursday morning in the beautiful, fully restored ‘Gwen” a Pullman Carriage, in a cream and maroon livery, just like the carriages I had in my Tri-ang railway set which was pulled by my favourite steam train ‘Princess Elizabeth’.

Clickety Clacking to the Euro Tunnel and then boarding the ‘Real Deal’ in Calais.

The 1929 sleeper compartments ooze history (Hitler had one as a mobile brothel – if you believe some stories). The history of Europe’s decadent and brutal past is etched into the bur oak veneer and Lalique reliefs. Traveling at speed through the countryside, the graffiti covered suburbs of Paris,  then Lake Zurich and up into Austria.

There was a quick stop at Innsbruck and then a mad dash through Austria on into Italy. Disembarking at the train station – taking a water taxi to the Cipriani hotel on the tip of Giudecca Island, opposite San Marco on the main island of Venice, it has unrivaled views of the lagoon and Doge’s Palace.

Wow what a hotel…

…and what an amazing Easter Sunday – the view from the bedroom window has got to be one of the best ever!

The church bells rang out from dawn and the smell of Spring followed the call, fresh, new and slightly cool.

20120408-102834.jpg

Art ?

There is so much art in Venice to see – I must admit I neglected the galleries, except the Guggenheim, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where Peggy Guggenheim lived and which has a couple of great Pollocks,  my favorite being Two, 1943–45 and a typical Bacon (Study for Chimpanzee).

by Peter Bright (aka This Window)

La Belle et La Bête for sale La Belle et La Bête – Original painting by Peter Bright. Media: Painting and Screen Print on canvas, signed and dated 2011. Size: 110mm x 820mm Supplied in the original black ‘temporary’ studio frame. Buy here from Morgue Gallery ARTIST … Continue reading →

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