Hacienda Cortes (and other ramblings)

The image to the right is a photograph that I took at the Hacienda Cortes, just outside Cuernavaca, Mexico.  One  of Hernan Cortes many estates, it is now a hotel, incorporating the ruins of the original Hacienda and also the venue for my wedding.  For a fuller history and more images click here.

I have visited the Hacienda many times and in between the hours of pure joy that my wife to be and I spent arguing with the wedding planners, looking at floral arrangements, table settings etc. I have manage to take a few snaps - and I hope to be able to take many more in the future.

Mexico is a fantastically colourful country and the mixture of Spanish colonial heritage and the indigenous culture makes it wonderfully photogenic.  In particular Mexican gardens have a unique beauty with the often decaying colonial buildings acting as a backdrop to riotously colourful and lush plants.

The Hacienda Cortes is typically Mexican in this respect - rather annoyingly Blogger won't let me upload any more images at the moment so I can't show you any other images but if you follow the link above you will see the full gallery on my website

 

The photos on the gallery were all taken on either my Nikon F3 or the Sony DSC T7  - I haven't yet taken the Hasselblad out to Mexico, mainly because the wife would probably bludgeon me to death with it if I spent a day taking photos .  Strangely enough she feels that I should spend our holidays spending time her and not with my face buried in a camera's view finder but then women are funny like that.  I exaggerate a little - but the beauty of the Sony is that it is very discrete and I can take hundreds of photos (and great ones too) without triggering any aggressive female behaviour.

I am not really sure where I am going with this blog - it is really a means of promoting my website if I can get enough traffic I will monetize the site and blog to earn abit of extra income.  Therefore if you have any suggestions about my site, want to link to the blog, have any ideas for posts please feel free to leave a comment.  Otherwise I will start to believe that I am rambling on like a lunatic to nobody

On a different note I have just bought a super 8 camera (a Braun Nizo 3056 no less!) on ebay for 35 quid.    There is something about the saturated colours and low resolution of super 8, that I find  very attractive - stills from a super 8 film look like paintings by one of the great French impressionists and so I am looking forward to playing with this new toy when it arrives, which it should do any day now.

I have a roll of Ektachrome 64T and Vision2  just waiting to be used - also off to Marrakesh in a couple of weeks if the wife's passport makes it back from the home office (as we are not Libyan terrorists but hard working honest folk, HM Government is being suitably difficult and obtuse with my wife's visa but that's another blog!!) so I can't wait to get out and about with the camera then.

I have also just digitised some wonderful old super 8 films my father took of us as children during our summer holidays in Catalunya in the 1960s and 70s.  When I get a moment I want to capture stills from these films which I will publish here.  I am alittle unsure as how best to do this so if anybody has any comments let me know.

Anyhoo, as Woody Woodpecker used to say T-t-that's all folks!!! At least for now at any rate....

Charles Binns, Landscape Photography

Hello,

 

This blog contains a link to my website, which is a collection of photographic galleries taken during my travels around the world.  

I started with a particular interest in Landscape photography and started with a Nikon FE 35mm SLR -  initially I took black & white photos which I developed in my spare bedroom.  I then upgraded to an F3 and a Mamiya C330 to get me into the world of medium format.

The Mamiya was later sold an replaced by a Hasselblad 503CX, which is an excellent camera.

I have recently converted to digital - albeit with a Sony DSC T7  which punches well above it's weight.  It might be the size of a credit card but the results are excellent.  I am now saving to buy a Nikon D80 with an 18-200 VR lens - once my impending house purchase is done with.   

I also plan to purchase a panoramic camera in the near future.

This is my first post and I will add more - I am interested to see how I can increase traffic to my website (currently ranks 19 and 76 for the words landscape photography in Google UK and Google.com respectively).  So please visit my website and Digg, Stumble me etc as much as you like!