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Mount Fuji Active … 📸
- Thread starter Knorp
- Start date
Barry Haines
Active member
Hi Louis, I know that you are interested in the history of the City of London, so you may find this partly interesting....I spent nearly 2 years of my life (1988-1990) involved in the structural design of "20 Gracechurch Street" on the corner of Lombard Street....My job was to go through the old earlier 1950's structural design plans (The plans were stored on microfiche sheet film back then). This building was originally Barclays Bank Head Office before they moved to London Docklands. https://www.archive.barclays.com/items/show/5408View to the West, the distinctive building is 20 Gracechurch Street, sometimes called the Jukebox Building. Obviously, St Paul's to the right and in the distance the stick-like BT Tower. Numerous other buildings.
The idea was to keep the original basement of the building together with all of it's retaining walls and punch through the existing foundation, putting in new piles to support the new steelwork frame above (The modern building that you see today) and demolish all of the old existing building above.
The microfiche film was pretty hard to decipher after 30+ years, so I had to survey certain areas of the basement to see for myself exactly what was going on...It had squash courts for the employees and also the main vault!...It also had a Roman artesian well down in the manned boiler/pumping rooms....I found a little forgotten storage room off to one side not that far from the vault, where abandoned tables and chairs were strewn about all over the place from decades previous. I had the room cleared out only to discover a small trapdoor hidden from sight by all of the old ageing furniture. I opened the trapdoor and entered a chamber climbing down a c. 30 feet old rusting ladder, only to find yet another old Roman artesian well at the very bottom. An automatic electrical pump had been installed way back in the 1950's to kick in just in case of an emergency (Thames water table rising too high)...Somebody had obviously forgotten to switch the auto-pump on because you could see water tide marks over the years all the way up the chamber walls to the underside of the trapdoor!
Later in 2001 two other Roman artesian wells were discovered not that far away in Gresham Street.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1357707/Inventive-Romans-kept-water-flowing.html
Apologies for taking this thread slightly off topic....Cheers Barry
k-hawinkler
Well-known member
Thanks Barry. Very interesting! :thumbs:
biglouis
Well-known member
Barry, that is absolutely fascinating - and thanks for sharing. That must have been an amazing experience. When I was doing some internet research into the building I'm sure I read somewhere there was/is a plan to demolish it and redevelop the site? But then I read in another article that the building was entirely refurbed at the end of the naughties. It would be a shame to lose it as it is the only non-boring glass structure in the vicinity.
Stay lucky and if you are up in London some time there is an open invitation from me for a coffee and a stroll through the financial district.
LouisB
Barry Haines
Active member
Many thanks Louis, as I understand it...
The old 1950's BB building was torn down shortly after I completed my contract in the early 90's with Oscar Faber consulting structural engineers....The commencement of new erection of the "Jukebox" then went ahead shortly thereafter (completed in 1994)...I'm sure it will be here for a good few more years yet
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/20-gracechurch/22919
After that I'm not 100% sure what exactly happened but I thought Barclays Bank returned back to 20 Gracechurch Street for a short while thereafter....Then they later relocated in 2005 to One Churchill Place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Churchill_Place The neighbouring building to One Canada Square (Canary Wharf) http://cdn.ltstatic.com/2009/June/BX502552_942long.jpg
I also had a hand in One Canada Square foundations but that is another story and I have already derailed this thread long enough...apologies once again everybody.
Thank you for the invitation Louis, It would be lovely to meet up with you for a cuppa coffee and a walk around the Square Mile...hopefully one day
I enjoy visiting this thread....always interesting images that are beautifully processed.
All the best...Cheers Barry
Don Libby
Well-known member
Took the plunge and ordered a Laowa 17mm GFX for my GFX100. This caught my attention last year when it was first announced then slipped off my radar until last week.
I received the lens late yesterday and immediately began playing with it. I offer 2-images from yesterday, an exterior taken from our back yard (Tucson is in the far distance) and an interior of our living room.
I've a question of those who might have this lens. Manual focusing isn't new to me as I've done it while shooting waterdrops. This lens isn't native to the GFX and only has the mount so no electronics to speak of. I notice that peaking doesn't work and when I have it in M mode I have a rather large box in the center which is darker than the rest. I can switch off M and the box disappears. My question is what are others doing to achieve focus?
Don
I received the lens late yesterday and immediately began playing with it. I offer 2-images from yesterday, an exterior taken from our back yard (Tucson is in the far distance) and an interior of our living room.
I've a question of those who might have this lens. Manual focusing isn't new to me as I've done it while shooting waterdrops. This lens isn't native to the GFX and only has the mount so no electronics to speak of. I notice that peaking doesn't work and when I have it in M mode I have a rather large box in the center which is darker than the rest. I can switch off M and the box disappears. My question is what are others doing to achieve focus?
Don
Rand47
Active member
Don,Took the plunge and ordered a Laowa 17mm GFX for my GFX100. This caught my attention last year when it was first announced then slipped off my radar until last week.
I received the lens late yesterday and immediately began playing with it. I offer 2-images from yesterday, an exterior taken from our back yard (Tucson is in the far distance) and an interior of our living room.
I've a question of those who might have this lens. Manual focusing isn't new to me as I've done it while shooting waterdrops. This lens isn't native to the GFX and only has the mount so no electronics to speak of. I notice that peaking doesn't work and when I have it in M mode I have a rather large box in the center which is darker than the rest. I can switch off M and the box disappears. My question is what are others doing to achieve focus?
Don
It sounds as though you have the digital rangefinder “patch” (the darker box in the middle) active as your MF assist. Peaking should work. Check your menu setting for which MF focus assist you have enabled.
Rand
Knorp
Well-known member
On my 50s in M-mode I press the rear scroll-wheel to zoom-in and have peaking as well.
Don Libby
Well-known member
YUP! Got it fixed, no more box and I have my red dancing ants back! Many many thanksDon
Elderly
Well-known member
More derailment...The commencement of new erection of the "Jukebox" then went ahead shortly thereafter (completed in 1994)...I'm sure it will be here for a good few more years yet
I also had a hand in One Canada Square foundations but that is another story and I have already derailed this thread long enough...apologies once again everybody.
All the best...Cheers Barry
....I wouldn't be too confident about these buildings being around for a good few years yet.
I photographed the start of the Broadgate development in the 1980s and that's already been 'redeveloped' :wtf:.
And by coincidence I also had an involvement in One Canada Square in its early days.
At the weekends I was photographing a bank's new premises who had occupied the top floors of the tower;
at that stage only the goods lifts were in operation and when I came to finish shooting one day,
the contractors had control of them, meaning that I had to carry a large camera outfit, tripod, lighting etc.
from the top of the tower down the emergency staircases - which only had access at alternate ends of
each floor, and so I had to traverse the whole length of each floor to reach the next staircase :banghead:.
Rand47
Active member
Don,
Glad you got it sorted! Please let us know how you get on with the 17mm. I’ve been considering it. Vignetting? Corner sharpness?
At the risk of insulting you, did you enter the 17mm focal length in the adapted lens menu? There’s also adjustment for distortion, etc. See page 144 in the manual if you’re not already familiar.
Rand
Rand47
Active member
Don,
Thanks! I sometimes take risks in “explaining too much” just in the name of being thorough, in case an OP may not be aware. Appreciate the feedback.
Rand
Don Libby
Well-known member
This should be under the catagory of just being silly.
I've had a Super Wide Heliar Voightlander 15mm f/4.5 sitting collecting dust near my computer for longer than I care to remember. I had cut the lens hood off and screwed on a 52-62 step up ring and attached it to a Fotodiox GF adaptor. Hey what could go wrong you ask :ROTFL:.
I think I had tried this once on my older GFX50 and then sat it down and forgot about it. Does it work on the GFX100? The short answer is yes. Does it vignette? Of heck yes. Can it be corrected and used? Sort of.
Will I be using it again anytime in the future? Oh hell no. It's sitting back on my worktable where I'll use it as a paper weight.
It does look interesting...:salute:
Don
I've had a Super Wide Heliar Voightlander 15mm f/4.5 sitting collecting dust near my computer for longer than I care to remember. I had cut the lens hood off and screwed on a 52-62 step up ring and attached it to a Fotodiox GF adaptor. Hey what could go wrong you ask :ROTFL:.
I think I had tried this once on my older GFX50 and then sat it down and forgot about it. Does it work on the GFX100? The short answer is yes. Does it vignette? Of heck yes. Can it be corrected and used? Sort of.
Will I be using it again anytime in the future? Oh hell no. It's sitting back on my worktable where I'll use it as a paper weight.
It does look interesting...:salute:
Don
scho
Well-known member
)This should be under the catagory of just being silly.
I've had a Super Wide Heliar Voightlander 15mm f/4.5 sitting collecting dust near my computer for longer than I care to remember. I had cut the lens hood off and screwed on a 52-62 step up ring and attached it to a Fotodiox GF adaptor. Hey what could go wrong you ask :ROTFL:.
I think I had tried this once on my older GFX50 and then sat it down and forgot about it. Does it work on the GFX100? The short answer is yes. Does it vignette? Of heck yes. Can it be corrected and used? Sort of.
Will I be using it again anytime in the future? Oh hell no. It's sitting back on my worktable where I'll use it as a paper weight.
It does look interesting...:salute:
Don
Lots of options Don. I have the same adapter for my GFX 50R and tried it today with some old Contax C/Y lenses (28/2.8 Distagon and 180/2.8 Sonnar via an intermediate C/Y to LM adapter). Image quality is better than expected, except for some corner vignetting with the 28.
Don Libby
Well-known member
Getting used to the new Laowa lens and waiting for the weather to get better as we're experiencing no clouds and heavy winds near Tucson.
Decided to try an interior shot of our living area this morning. ISO 400 f/11 5-seconds on tripod.
I'm pleased overall. I'm waiting for the 86mm lens ring from H&Y to arrive tomorrow to see what effect if any using a filter will have. So far I like the lens - just wish I had better subject matter to test.
Don
Decided to try an interior shot of our living area this morning. ISO 400 f/11 5-seconds on tripod.
I'm pleased overall. I'm waiting for the 86mm lens ring from H&Y to arrive tomorrow to see what effect if any using a filter will have. So far I like the lens - just wish I had better subject matter to test.
Don
Channeling the thought that everything Fuji goes in one place...
Today has been 39 celsius. A blistering, dry, sharp day. Little wind, not a single cloud and your skin feels like it's about to peel from the blast of the sun. Tomorrow will be hotter. But evening is here and it's cooled a little.
Today has been 39 celsius. A blistering, dry, sharp day. Little wind, not a single cloud and your skin feels like it's about to peel from the blast of the sun. Tomorrow will be hotter. But evening is here and it's cooled a little.