Fishy business, a photo from West-Vlaanderen, Flanders

Photographer's Note

Vismarkt, Steenhouwersdijk, Brugge, Belgium.

The Vismarkt (Fishmarket) was designed by the city architect Jan-Robert Calloigne. The result is a porticoed building with 126 neo-Tuscan columns enclosing a rectangular open courtyard. The stone slabs under the colonnades still accommodate fish stalls most mornings, along with trinket sellers later in the day.

When I was finding out about the Vismarkt in preparation for this posting, I went to Wikipedia - as you do - and what did I find illustrating the article? Please see the Workshop to witness this coincidence! I swear I didn't take the Wikipedia shot, but the man is the same; even the round sign above his head has exactly the same writing on it... So my title is deliberate in more ways than one!

Shutter speed: 1/90th sec
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 125
Focal length: 46mm

Click here to see the larger Beta TrekEarth version.

snunney, pajaran, jhm, holmertz, cornejo, ourania, tyro, delpeoples has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

snunney (130967) 2016-10-14 2:31

Hello Will,
The man is obviously a regular at the fish market as is often the case with market stalls; we see the same people week week out at our local market. Excellent capture of this well stocked fish stall. Perfectly rendered in black and white.

BennyV (34748) 2016-10-14 3:05

Hello Will

Well, this must be the most famous Flemish fishmonger then. And I hope his name begins with an F too. Maybe John (jhm) knows?

Good to see a picture of Bruges without canals in it, and in bl/w. But the wikipedia picture gets closer to the man, which is good there.

Also: people should eat more fish.

Benny

rbassin (27472) 2016-10-14 3:15

hello Will,
une tr鑚 belle sc鈩e en N&B se d駻oulant dans un march� aux poissons.
Bonne observation et d馗lanchement au bon moment
Bonne journ馥
Roland

lousat (139926) 2016-10-14 4:30

Hi Will,useful post,i take a look to the prices ans are very very high comparing of my country...ehehhe...lovely composition and a very artistic black and white,well done!Curious coincidence with the WS..ehehe....Have a nice WE and thanks,Luciano

jhm (211738) 2016-10-14 5:05

Hello Will,

Thank you very much for the nice colours version of the fish market and the seller.
On the same place I comes every week and know the man not with name but of every week to see.
During the summer is centre of the fish market a dance palace for argentine tango, only in the evening Friday..
Subject and colours are beautiful.
Sharpness and clarity are perfect photographed.
Composition and presentation are wonderful.
Very well done, TFS

Best regards,
John.

Sergiom (117241) 2016-10-14 6:24

Bonjour Will,

J'aime beaucoup la transformation de cette photo en noir et blanc. Cela donne un petit c� documentaire � la composition. L'騁al est beau et le vendeur attachant.

Amicalement

Serge

Silvio1953 (222811) 2016-10-14 7:26

Ciao Will, nice market scene, lovely B&W composition, fine details, eccellent clarity and splendid light, very well done, my friend, have a good week end, ciao Silvio

No_One (4) 2016-10-14 7:34

Hi Will
Haha, what are the chances!! Great black and white shot of this man who we can perhaps consider a star now that he is appearing on multiple sites! Very well suited to black and white and a great daily life scene
Cheers
Noel

holmertz (103564) 2016-10-14 7:55

Hello Will,
The man is the same, the round sign is the same, but hopefully the fish were changed between the shots. This was a funny coincidence but probably not unique. I would have expected the original colours to be quite attractive - fish markets are usually very colourful places - but seeing the rather pale Wikipedia photo I think you probably made a good choice to show this in B&W,
Best regards,
Gert

cornejo (61504) 2016-10-14 9:14

Hi Will, very good picture of this interesting scene of everyday life fishmonger, very well composed and captured in this interesting image with good sharpness, light and quality. A great job well done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this interesting work.

Good night and happy weekend.
All the best from southern Spain.
Angel.

GyurMaster (25012) 2016-10-14 9:33

Dear Will,

Your photo is far more better than the one from the Wikipedia, so I believe you. As Gert noted the BW conversion was obviously a good choice.

Best Wishes,
Gy.

ourania (51103) 2016-10-14 9:44

Hello Will,
I like the story of the coincidence, both the fish market and the gentleman are symbols of the city for me now:) I like very much the elegant rhythm of your composition, there's such an intricate and lovely arrangement of lines and the people create another rhymical pattern too. Details and grey tones are wonderful, the vendor's care about his work is so pleasing to watch. Congratulations and thank you!
All the best, have a great weekend,
Ourania

Nicou (193814) 2016-10-14 9:58

Hlelo

fantastique vue de ce poissonnier quelle compo et vue quelle image avec les bon et frais poissons et ce vendeur le Nb colle parfaitement superbe.
Bravo et amiti�
nciou

tyro (30513) 2016-10-16 9:03

Hello Will,

Yes, this is a remarkable coincidence - so much so that it does indeed smack of some sort of "fishy business" going on!

At first I thought that someone had stolen your picture for the Wikipedia site but I found this image on Wikipedia too and the two images are certainly not identical. In fact, you could use the two perfectly well for one of those "Spot the Difference" quizzes.

Interestingly, I see that you took this picture on 18th February, 2010 and the Wikipedia image was taken at 10.39 a.m. on 5th January, 2007 with a Canon 400D at ISO 800, 1/60 sec at f/7.1 and focal length 28mm. All of which tells us precious little other than that prices didn't increase over three years and the fishmonger seems to have survived the passing of time in remarkably good fettle. Also, I see that that same Wikipedia image can also be seen in a black and white version if you look for it.

Anyway, enough of my Sherlock stuff: this is a lovely photograph which works very well in black and white but I just wonder what the colour version looked like - some of these fish, especially in foreign fresh fish markets like this, have some wonderfully bright and vibrant colours, unlike the limp looking fish we are used to seeing in our own fish shops.

I hope you bought some of this lovely fish as well as taking this fine photograph!

Excellent!

Kind Regards,

John.

mjw364 (1466) 2016-10-19 6:12

Hi Will

If only the guy knew - he might start charging royalties or something. Your shot is far better than the wikipedia one though - more intimate. I often see shots online and have to do a double take because I could swear it was one of mine. But I guess that's the price we pay for visiting "known" sites as photographer travellers.

I have my pre-op next Monday so hopefully it won't be too long after that before they gut me like a fish.

Have a good week.

Cheers

Mike

delpeoples (60342) 2016-10-28 1:07

Ciao Will

This is a timeless scene. Dynamic, artistic and beautifully lit. I love markets and fish markets are particularly enticing. A well-composed, artistic shot. Well done.

Have a lovely Friday
Lisa

bostankorkulugu (42866) 2016-11-02 0:12

i love fish markets, even the smell :)... good one this is will...

cheers

krkt