Birmingham Canal Bridge

Birmingham has a lot of canals. More than Venice apparently. This is a path up to a narrow bridge that crosses one of the canals. I liked the brickwork, slightly damp. When I took this I was thinking black and white would work best. However, I found that by just warming the picture up a bit it worked just as well in colour.

Snow on Piccadilly

More snow. Here I'm looking towards Piccadilly Circus. The large statues in the centre are a memorial to the Crimean War, being covered in snow is somewhat apt. On the left of the centre piece is a statue of Florence Nightingale.

The Mall in the Snow

Lots of snow in London over the past few days. This photo I took when crossing the road. Not much traffic and what there was was going slowly. This is looking towards Buckingham Palace. It is snowing at this point, just not very heavily.

Birmingham Selfridges

I was up in Birmingham the other day. I had never been to the centre before so was looking forward to seeing it. The Selfidges building has proven to be very popular with photographers since its construction, hardly a surprise as it's an impressive building. This of course creates a challenge in taking a different photograph of it. To that end I tried this, lining the Church up with Selfridges , I haven't seen a picture like this (doesn't mean there aren't plenty). I like it. As I didn't have a tripod with me I had to push the ISO and try hand held at 1/20th sec using a very heavy 24-70 2.8L lens.

Nightime Photography

I decided to investigate some of the functions on my little Ixus camera. I usually only do point and shoot with it as I do more serious stuff with my professional camera. Anyway I thought I'd try some experimental nighttime photography with it and found a 'fireworks' setting (I don't have a user manual for the Ixus. To take this shot I selected a brightly lit shop between two darker ones pressed the shutter and rotated the camera. It's a bit hit and miss as I wasn't sure how long the shutter would remain open. Anyway, I got this image which I quite like.

Black and White Snow

I took this photo in colour but intended from the off to convert it to black and white. I was drawn by the shape and texture of the branches. I feel this kind of image works best in black and white.

Snow Reaches London

It's taken a few days but the snow has reached London. I went out this morning to get a few shots in the forest. Not a lot of snow, but enough to get some nice views.

Jewellery Advert

I took this photograph for an advertisement in Vanity Magazine. It's for Kyles a jewellers based in east London. The background has been changed as it was taken against a plain background. The shoot involved four different sets of jewellery with different clothes and make-up for each set.

Marie Antoinette Pops Round for Tea

Walking along in the West End I noticed this and had to photograph it. I'm hoping its a couple of actresses in the back of the theatre. Failing that it's a worrying list of options.

Blur on the Tube

I decided to experiment with the little Ixus to brighten a tube journey. I turned off the flash, placed the camera against the window and as we reached the station opened the shutter. Each picture is different as stations have different layouts and different numbers of people waiting on the platform. This one was taken on Liverpool Street. I like the slight blur.

Portrait Photography

Working with a make up artist here. The picture is largely as it came out of the camera. The only change being to remove a few stray hairs going across the face. I always aim to get the image right in camera so they require the minimum of processing later.

Autumn

Autumn seemed to go very quickly in London this year. The leaves went from green to red to being on the floor in a few days. I did get this one on the little Ixus in a park the other day. It was raining so colours a bit dull but it was about the most colourful tree I saw this year and you can't let autumn go with a picture or two.

Black and White Wedding Photographs

I often find some photos work better in black and white, or some other type, than colour. With a wedding careful use of black and white images in the album works. This photo of the groom and best man is one that worked well in colour and B&W. To take the photo I wanted a different look and found this ramp way. I got them to walk towards me and put the camera at a slight angle, again something that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
I always take the photo in colour so can make any changes in lightroom or photoshop.It gives greater scope for the final look.

Bomb Damage at Tate Britain

I went to Tate Britain the other day. Walking along Atterbury Street you can see a lot of bomb damage to the wall. This photo shows part of the damage dating from World War II. The gallery was hit a few times during the almost nightly raids. Apparently the art work was safely stored elsewhere except for a piece outside that was too large to move, Truth by Frank Dobson. This survived a near miss in May 1941.

Wedding in Plaistow

I photographed a wedding at Newham Registry Office a few weeks back. The office itself is in the old Passmore Edwards Library. The room the service takes place in is decorated very nicely. I took this photo in the waiting room. The bride was unaware I was taking it so she has a natural smile. I like the photo as it is so natural, so did the bride, which is more important!

Cover Shot

At the end of August I did a shoot for a magazine called Vanity. It is based in Ilford, so not far from me. I've done quite a few shoots for the magazine and its advertisers before. However, this one was going to include the cover. This shoot took place at City Pavilion in Collier Row, which offered plenty of scope for locations even though it was open at the time. The whole thing was for adverts for Gul's Style, a designer fashion store, also based in Ilford.
This is one of my favourite shots. The outfit is fantastic and from my perspective I have lit the model nicely but kept the exterior correctly exposed, which is the trick in photography and not that easy. This isn't the cover or one used in the adverts. I'll probably post some of those later. Obviously when I do this kind of work I can't place it on my sites until the magazine is published.

Life Guards on The Mall

Being a Londoner who spends quite a bit of time in central London I've seen the Household Cavalry a few times. Not taken many pictures though. A few days ago I was walking by the Mall and saw the Life Guards coming along. I had my small camera with me so took a couple of pictures. I think this is what is called the Short Guard. The Long Guard is when the Queen is in London and consists of 15 soldiers. The Short Guard is for when the Queen isn't in London and consists of of 12 soldiers. It doesn't look like 15 in the picture.

Robots in Trafalgar Square

To launch London Design Festival some robots were put in Trafalgar Square. They were borrowed from Audi's production line in Ingolstadt and fitted with lights. They were then used to write messages. It looked quite smart.

Brighton

I took this picture as I walked back to my car. The weather that day had been terrible, but for the couple of hours I had been in Brighton it was nice. A period of good weather just before the sun sets is always pleasant and has a relaxing effect. The light is also warm and good for photography. I just liked this view, blue sky with some thin white cloud and the shapes of the lamppost and surrounds in the foreground.

Colourful Buildings

St Giles is the area of London to the east of Soho. It's not had the best reputation through its history. Its a bit of a no-mans land between more interesting places around it. There's a new set of buildings gone up recently which will liven it up a bit. They have bright coloured fascias. Called Central St Giles and designed by Renzo Piano they are interesting and definitely stand out. Remind me a bit too much of lego though.

Brighton

Trying to drive back to London the traffic was dreadful. According to the radio the M25 was bad as well. It was also pouring with rain. So I gave up and headed towards the coast instead. Arriving in Brighton at 6pm, just as parking fees are suspended. I parked on the sea front and the rain had stopped. Had an amble around for an hour or two enjoying the sun and sea front and took some photographs with the little Ixus. I must go down there with the proper camera one day.

Anyway, here's a picture of the pier, sea and beach. It also shows part of the rail track.

Heathrow

I went to west London, a part close by Heathrow, to visit a client. The tube station I used is close to the end of the runway so I used the little Ixus to take a number of shots. Here I've got a 747 on approach and then, somewhat closer than I expected, overhead. Still it shows some nice detail.

Portsmouth

Taking shelter from one of the showers in Portsmouth I started taking pictures of various things. Not much else to do really. I had my little snappy camera with me so thought I'd take some pictures of ships, not something I get much chance to do in London. This picture is of one of the Isle of Wight ferries going past a jetty with some determined anglers on.

RFA Argus

I was down in Portsmouth recently. The weather was fairly grim, with low grey clouds and frequent rain. I did see RFA Argus leave port. RFA Argus is a support vessel that can carry a few helicopters. She isn't a hospital ship but can receive casualties and has a CT scanner. She started life as an Italian cargo ship and was bought by the MoD during the Falklands War.

As she was going past it was just about possible to see the Isle of Wight in the background. It wasn't raining at that point but visibility wasn't that good. The hovercraft was late, presumably because the Argus was going across the hovercrafts route.

Trafalgar Square Maze

A maze has been installed in Trafalgar Square for a few days. I'm not sure of the connection between naval warfare and hedge mazes, but there you go. Dotted around the maze there are things about various places to visit in London. Seemed popular.

Boris Bikes

Yesterday saw the launch of the mayors bike hire scheme in London. There are racks of cycles at intervals around central London. At present only registered users can use it, soon anyone with a credit will be able to. They are cheap to hire for the first hour of so, but start getting more expensive.

This rack is along the Embankment. I don't think it was ready for use at this point as someone was working on the control point.

Make Up Artists

As mentioned before I work with make up artists to take photos for their advertising and portfolios. In this case I had worked with the artist and the model before. This happened to be the last picture taken in the session. I liked it, it is different to those typically used for this kind of market.

Horse and carriage

I was walking around west London near Lancaster Gate the other day and heard the sound of horses. There was a convoy of carriages being drown by horses. The people on them were all dressed up in period clothes. What it was in aid of I don't know. Looked nice though.

Magpies

From the previous post here's the two magpies sitting on the, still fairly green, lawn.

Magpie

I went to go out into my garden yesterday and saw two magpies just sitting on the lawn. They were a shortish distance apart facing the same way. I don't know if its common for magpies to sit on lawns, but I've never seen it. They are usually hopping around and squawking at anything that takes their fancy. So here's one of them, sitting there

Dragonfly

I was walking along a lake in Wanstead Park and saw a dragonfly flitting about. I watched for its favoured perch and it turned out to be a post slightly out in the water. Making it difficult to get close. Still no choice really, I was using my 100mm Macro so being a bit further away than ideal wasn't too bad. After half a dozen attempts I got this nice close one.

Roding Valley Path part 2

This picture shows a signpost for the Roding Valley Path in Newham. The sign shows a river, grass and trees, all very pretty. Except there isn't much evidence of any of that near the actual sign. From here its a case of walking past some flats, turn right past some garages and then out into a concrete road with gates to the cemetery, you can also see a car scrap heap. Not the nicest of starts. Its difficult to see the actual river either. The path is split in two. One is a narrow overgrown muddy track with the cometary on your right, the other is a broad asphalt road that doesn't exactly say 'nice riverside walk'. After about ten minutes you get to the nice parts.

Roding Valley Way

The idea of a path along the River Roding has been around for a while now. Parts have been completed others haven't. In some places there have been objections from residents about the proposed path (claims that cyclists going along would make their houses more liable to be burgled rather oddly), delaying the whole thing. I took this photo in Redbridge. Ilford Golf Course is on the opposite side of the river from where I'm standing and its difficult to believe how close you are to a highly built up area. Sadly not far from here the path goes into Newham where it takes you into a housing estate and then vanishes. Its a pity things like this get bogged down. Where the path exists it is great and its extension through Newham and Barking would be welcome.

Ducks in a Row

Walking around a lake in Epping Forest I saw these ducks sitting on the bank. I didn't want to disturb them so took this picture from where I wasn't disturbing them. Bits of grass in the way, but there you go, its only a quick grab shot.

Damselflies

I went for a walk in Epping forest today. Took my camera with the macro lens attached. Lots of Damselflies around. I took this one of a pair. There is part of a plant in the way so its not ideal, but if I had moved I would have missed the shot. Also decided to try a new layout on the blog. Just a simple one from the list.

Make up Artist Shoots

I've done a few shoots with make-up artists for their publicity recently. They are local to me and take out pages in a London magazine called Vanity. I had never worked with this make-up artist before. She wanted to try a number of looks. For this one I decided to slightly over-expose the image to create the look of bright sun-shine to go with the sun glasses, looking at the correct exposures I tried justified the decision. I was very pleased with the shoot, as was the make-up artist and the model. This picture was one of those used in the magazine

Makeovers and Photo Shoots

Recently I've done a few jobs with make up artists. They make someone look good and I take the pictures and make them look even better by use of lights and poses. This kind of shoot has a few purposes. Obviously the person being made over wants the pictures for their own reasons, looking good is reason enough, but the make up artist wants images that show off her work and the photographer wants an image that catches the eye. Sometimes the clothes have been supplied by a local shop and they want their clothes looking good.

I also get to play with different backgrounds!

Prested Hall

Last week I attended another of Jeff Turnbull's courses. This one was over two days with one afternoon given over to practical wedding photography at Prested Hall, near Colchester in Essex. Courses are a good way for photographers to develop their skills and keep their work fresh. After the shoot everyone presents selected shots and they are discussed. Praise where its due and the odd constructive criticism, it helps improve your work. Its interesting to see different treatment of the photos, including conversion to black and white or adding frames, as everyone takes shots of the same set-up. The skill coming in selecting the angle and framing along with some post processing to enhance the image.

I've put up one of my favourite photographs I took on the day. Its close to sunset so the light has a lovely warm feel.