Monument

Fortunately I don't often suffer from vertigo. Up to last weekend I can only recall having it twice, once in the Statue of Liberty in New York City and the other on the 3rd flood of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Guess I'll have to add my visit to the Monument in the city of London to this list. The Monument is a column, 62 metres high in total, built in the late 1660's, which commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666. For the princely sum of £3, you get to climb the 311 spiral steps inside the column to the viewing gallery which is only 50 metres high.   

There is a lovely view around London to be had from the viewing gallery but it is partially obscured by a mesh cage - very easy to look through, but it can be difficult to blur it out photographically. I managed to take some photographs -  the financial district of Dockands is visible across the rooftops, Tower Bridge is adjacent and a new spectacular high rise near Elephant & Castle is hard to miss. I must find out its name some time.

At some point I may visit again - when the light is better -  and try to get some better images. My experience 50 metres up wasn't helped by the people around me pushing past  - the viewing gallery is a fairly confined space. Perhaps I should have expected a least some crowds, but it is February and hardly prime tourist season. For future reference maybe it will be quieter first thing on a Sunday morning, even if I visit later in the year to get better light.

The best bit came at the end. After climbing down all those steps and leaving the Monument, a member of staff handed me a cerficate attesting to the 311 step climb. "Well done, young man" she said.

Location

My BTEC photography class has long since resumed after the Christmas break and the latest assignment, set before the break, was due last week. The theme of this assignment was "Location"  and it came with a qualifying twist - the title was "Precious". The idea was explore location photography, but subject concept was something precious. A dictionary definition of "precious" could suggest something of great value of high price in monetary terms, but I was thinking of something non material and decided upon memories. And being on a photographic course, recording memories with a camera.

I'm fascinated with street photography, and like the work of Robert Doisneau, I've got book of his work in Paris. Here are some examples of his work -

I've recently become aware of the work of Vivian Maier, who photographed Chicago - you can view examples in a dedicated blog here. Fairly inspiring, so I thought "lets try some street photography".
 I don't have easy access to Chicago and couldn't get to Paris within the time constraints of the assignment, but as I live in London, there should not be any shortage of locations. Also, unlike the two above, I'd work in colour and digital capture. Folk tend to take many photos - of each other as well as the sights - in central London, so Trafalgar Square and the British Museum were to be the starting points. My take on the theme/concept was people recording precious memories of themselves and their friends out and about, whether on holidays or otherwise.

The British Museum may not the be obvious place for "street" photography, but it is the approach that counts in this case. Inside the lighting was mixed (daylight coming through the windows and of course artifical light, tungsten etc) and dull, so had to push the asa up to 1600 and not using a tripod - here are some possibles for final selection -

The light outside was almost as dull as inside that day of the shoot, so left the asa at 1600 (apart from two out of about 60 in total - see the final selection below - the light must have momentarily improved at the time of taking !)  Here are some more possibles from Trafalgar Square -

After discussion in class last week - I'd brought in my contacts and some prints - here is my final selection of 5 photos (the assignment required 5) - 

At one time - in pre digital days, I used HP5 (an excellent black & white film). It was nominally rated at 400 asa, but I uprated it to1600 and the results were GRAINY (that's NOISY in digital speak).There isn't the same level of grain in this lot. Improving technology ? Don't know. Can always add some noise via Photoshop. Probably not for colour work, think noise works better for black and white ?

Portrait Exhibition

I've been visiting quite a few Exhbitions - photographic and others - during the last couple of years and have enjoyed doing so. I may not have enjoyed all the exhibits, but that is to be expected and I've left these exhibitions pleased to have visited. Occasionally I leave an exhibition extremely disappointed.

One such exhibition was the Taylor Wessing photographic portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London. I did like some of the images,  for example "Mr Streamer" by Ian Atkinson and "Huntress with Buck" by David Chancellor - I have the nerve to agree with the selectors here as this was awarded 1st prize. But many of  the photographs were poorly composed - for example with the sitter placed centre frame, with distracting elements (trees, stairwells......) around them.

Overall, a disappointing show. The best 60 of of those entered on display ? Thank goodness it only cost £2 entry to get in. One good thing - this visit may help me appreciate the good exhibitions when I get to see them.