Roger's PhotoBlog

Year of the Dragon

2012-02-05T19:35:00.000Z

Last Sunday saw some festivities in Trafalagar Square to welcome the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Dragon.

Also - as this is my first post of 2012 - Happy New Year, Dragon or otherwise. I missed my usual visit this Jan 1st to the London New Year Parade - I welcomed 2012 in Dublin rather than London on this occasion. Wonder where I'll be in 2013 ....?

Signed

2011-12-19T16:46:00.000Z

My informal "signs" project continue, and here are a few more photographs for consideration ...

What does this sign mean ? No parents and children ?

Saw this one in Paris

I've posted a different view of this sign previously, here. The trees would have to be fairly low here for this sign to be of value - it is resting on the pavement.

Countdown Continued

2011-12-06T20:28:00.000Z

That Olympics countdown clock in Trafalgar Square here in London has a constant stream of visitors using it as a backdrop for photos of themselves. At times there is almost a queue.

New Year is a few weeks away - the Square usually fills with 1000's of people welcoming the new year at midnight on Dec31st. I wonder if this clock will be the only one to have a night off ?

Another Day in Paris

2011-12-02T20:55:00.000Z

Spent another very pleasant day in Paris last week, again courtesy of my frequent flyer airmiles. A rather colder day than the last time - wintry and very overcast - unlike in September when there was nothing but very blue skies and 30 degrees plus. You may have seen my post on that day here.

Didn't think I'd manage to get many images given the light this time, but uprated the iso to 800 (rather than the 200 which is my usual.) Visited a part of the city which I hadn't been too for many years - the Centre Pompidou - where I captured this sequence ...

Wonder if I could have photographed a similar sequence on London ? The powers that be in London seem to consider the pigeons as pests.

A not so Green Park

2011-11-15T12:11:00.000Z

I've been to New England many times during the months of September, October and November amd am thus aware of the spectacular Fall colours (should that be colors ?) that occur there at that time of year. You don'thave to look that hard. And if the light is good ( and it is frequently ) the word "spectacular" doesn't do it justice. Whilst I'm sure there are similar colours to be found amongst the foliage in Autumn here in the UK (can someone please tell me where?) I have yet to find any ..... but late Autumn was very much in abundance in Green Park (it is in cental London) a few days ago. Bright sunshine, blue skies and at 16 degrees C, almost a warm day.

Almost a two tone park - green and brown - with the brown just about dominating the colour palette. And muted, despite the sun light. A rather different colour experience to Fall in New England, but just as enjoyable,

Traditional Show in London

2011-11-14T21:16:00.003Z

Last Saturday saw another Lord Mayor's Show - one of the oldest processions in a city in the world - around the City of London, and it is very traditional. It begins near the Guildhall, which is where I looked for images this year. Shame the light was so poor - at least at street level. Still, I managed to get a few images ....

The Countdown Continues

2011-11-05T13:45:00.000Z

The countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games here in London continues, and this is being marked by an offical clock in Trafalgar Square. You may have read a previous countdown post here. The clock is being used by visitors to the Square as a backdrop for some portraits ....

Walk in the Park

2011-11-01T21:35:00.001Z

Had a very pleasant walk in Richmond Park the other afternoon, in search of some Autumn colours. I've been to New England this time of year and seen the spectacular Fall colours they have there. So perhaps my expectations were too high - while Richmond Park is a great place to be, there isn't very much in the way of serious Autumn colour. How boring. I did manage to to capture some images and here are a selection.....

The blue skies with a little cloud made up for the lack of seasonal colour. Shame about the noise of the aircraft coming into land in nearby Heathrow.

A Few Signs More

2011-10-13T13:49:00.000+01:00

I have a few more entries for my informal "signs" project.

Any clues as to what I should not ?

I haven't got a clue what this is supposed to mean. And am not sure that I care either.

Presumably the trees are so low that you have to be lying on the pavement, and then you can read the warning sign ?

Probably not my best efforts, photographically speaking. The only one of the above which is at least part way interesting the carving on the bark, which has a little side light and texture.

Day Trip to Paris

2011-10-04T23:39:00.000+01:00

I've been collecting Airmiles with my grocery shopping for a good few years now - it is a loyalty card scheme and when you have collected enough points ("airmiles") you can trade them for a free flight. Anyways the scheme I'm in is changing and soon the travel taxes and some addons with be excluded. Thought I'd use what I had left before it changed and so I took a day trip to Paris last week, an early flight over from Heathrow to CDG and a late return on the same day. And what a day to go - wall to wall blue skies and the temperature pushing 30 degrees C - and this was September 30th. Autumn or what ?

The photos here were taken near the Eiffel Tower, mostly on the other side of the Seine. I was looking at some of visitors rather than the more famous "sights". And yes, the last shot is a Statue of Liberty, it is located on the Île aux Cygnes.

A Cloudy Doune

2011-09-29T13:13:00.003+01:00

I've begun to look again at the many (1200 or so) photos I managed to capture whilst in Doune (it is in north west Scotland) for a week last June. I had an initial look at the photos in early July, just after returning home and posted some images as a result here. So here are some more photos from that very enjoyable trip.

Think I'm beginning to see a common theme here - landscapes with clouds. Cloudscapes ? I was there with a group of other photographers who were more interested in the local wildlife - the birds, dolphins and even some whales. We found a flock of puffins one morning. Thought they were disappointly small, with lots of flapping wings and very little actual flying. Unfortunately for me, I had become used to seeing large (40cm by 50 cm) images of these birds at my local photographic society, so to see how small they were in real life was surprising Anyways the nearest I got to photographing the "wildlife" was some cattle - you may just about see some in one of the above photos.

Suppose the next step would be to do some reasearch and identify the clouds, you know ... cumulus, nimbus or whatever. Perhaps that is a task to undertake during the upcoming winter.

Night Carnival 2011

2011-09-28T19:08:00.000+01:00

I didn't go to the Notting Hill Carnival this year, for a variety of reasons - apart from anything else (the possibility of riots didn't exactly encourage me to attend) - my ears are recovering from both last and the previous year's Carnival. Maybe I'm getting old. But Carnival is definitely LOUD, and I wonder if the hearing of any of the performers is adversely affected.

Anyway, I did make it to the Night Carnival, which is part of the Thames Festival, held a couple of weeks later, in September. Its an annual event also, and I've before and noticed that some of the performers from Notting Hill turn up at Night Carnival but with a lot less decibels. It kicks off around 7ish in the evening , as its getting dark, and the participants/performers carry lanterns and torches it can be spectacular.

This year the rain at the beginning didn't help, and the route had been reversed from previous years - now starting behind the Royal Festival Hall , crossing the Thames byway of Blackfriars Bridge, and then turning upstream to Embankment.

Some performers taking the steps down from Waterloo Bridge prior to taking part.

Not a Sign of the Times

2011-09-15T15:11:00.000+01:00

I seem to be seeing signs all over the place, to include in my signs photographic project. I went into central London the other morning to photograph some locations there and kept on seeing some signs, some printed, and some written. And what a lovely autumnal morning it was too.

I can read English, but nor the other languages underneath the "more seats" and arrow. I wonder if there is an accurate translation.

I don't suppose many younger people today recognise the handset logo for what it is.

I didn't try the coffee, perhaps I should have. I know the location, another day, maybe.

There were no blue road surfaces here, as there were outside the Tate, as in a previuos post here. This was on a lamppost.

This message was scrawled on the pavement near the north/Westminster side of Lambeth Bridge. It is a bit of a hike from there to South Quay. Did the intended recipient actually read this message, and was the writer found ?

Sign Writing

2011-08-28T22:43:00.002+01:00

I seem to be building up my collection of signs images lately, here are some additions - all from London.

This one is not strictly a "sign" - it is integated into a building - but then again my definition of signs was fairly open, see my earlier signs posting here.

Not sure if I should advertise, but I liked the drawing of the boat.

The roads in London are beginning to get rather colourful, with white lines and arrows, yellow parking lines, red parking lines and now areas of blue for the cycle lanes. At some point information overload will be reached, I expect. These 3 here were located outside Tate Britain. I wonder if they should be IN Tate Modern ?

Signed

2011-08-14T13:07:00.003+01:00

I have some more photos for the "signs project". All these were taken in London. Or at least the London area - don't think I could get away with saying Teddington is in London - one of these was taken in Teddington. I was looking at themes for this project in my previous post of a couple of days ago - here , but location wasn't one of them. The previous post was more mixed, at least geographically.

Don't know who Mark is, and am not sure I care either. And no, I didn't write the name myself.

Graffitti ? Political ? Include or not ?

Street Furniture

2011-08-13T18:38:00.002+01:00

I came across these spheres by chance recently, on one of my photographic meanders in central London, near St Paul's Cathedral.

Don't know when they were put there, or for how long, or who constructed them. And the people walking by enjoyed taking photos of themselves in the very reflective convex surfaces and then inspecting the image on the backs their cameras. You can get an interesting reflection of the cathedral nearby also. The spheres are interesting, if different, street furniture.

Signs of the Times ?

2011-08-12T14:43:00.000+01:00

Here are some of my images which are beginning to form a small side photographic project for me, loosely based around a common theme of "Signs in Public".

I'm looking for a common thread here in these photos. I can't see very much humour in them, at least in all, and not all contain spelling mistakes.

Some are informational messages, some are hand written, and not all are in the same language. A common thread could be a textured background ?

Couldn't decide between these last two, so I'm including them both in here for now. This is one of these photographic projects which I can pick up and put down with ease and which will develop in its own way over time.

A Rainy Lunch Time

2011-07-27T21:42:00.000+01:00

I usually like "good " light for my photography, but when I was in Saffron Walden last month for an RPS event, we were asked to take 6 images during the lunch time break, for projection later in that afternoon. Of course it was rainy .... but here's what I managed to capture -

Don't think these images are going to make me give up looking for "good" light in which to photograph, but perhaps it may I should carry a camera even when it rains ....

Final Project

2011-07-06T21:11:00.002+01:00

The final project for the BTEC photography course is due tomorrow. This one was rather different to the previous assignments in that the theme and number of photographs to be produced was to be my own choice. A Statement of Intent was asked for and produced. It ran as follows –

“The theme for the project will be the street performers, buskers and tourists along London's South Bank, roughly from the London Eye to London Bridge and additionally in Trafalgar Square, London

The final presentation will comprise a printed triptych. A triptych typically contains three elements, usually an image. Each of the three elements of the triptych itself will contain three images. This implies that a total of nine individual images are required. All nine images will have a connection in theme, content and mood. However the three images of each individual element will have a closer connection with each other, when compared to the other two elements”

So I took my walk down the South Bank, as per my statement of intent, but avoiding Trafalgar Square for now (another day?) taking photographs of what was going on.

Had them printed as 6x4 size from a one hour photo machine for group discussion in class – which has put me off using those machines again – the quality is so poor (I should have known previous experience).

The net result of the class group discussion was that I abandoned the original theme – think the word ‘contrived’ was used here – in favour of developing a theme of ‘people and shadows’ began last year – see my previous post here.

Several of the images taken on my meander feature people – on their phones – and shadows.

Here is my selection

Not a triptych in sight. Pity. Don't think the triptych idea wasn't as contrived as was suggested to me - but I'm sure I'll get it done another day. And am happy with 5 pictures as selected.

Doune

2011-07-04T20:55:00.000+01:00

Spent last week island hopping, while based in Doune, which is near to Skye in north west Scotland. I had never been to that part of Scotland before - I'd previously visited Edinburgh a couple of times (and enjoyed every minute) but not the west coast. It was good to get out of London for a while and get some very fresh air and even better - no traffic.
I haven't had a chance to inspect many of the photos I took in detail yet - I filled 6 cards, almost 20gb., mostly landscapes. I was with a bunch of other photographers who were more interested in the wildlife - dolphins, deer, minke whales .... and they took many more photos than I did.

We took a flight from Gatwick to Glasgow, and then the train from Glasgow to Mallaig - a long train journey in excess of 5 hours - with the consolation of spectacular views of the countryside.

Our return journey to Heathrow almost ruined the holiday - apart from having to "enjoy" the kerosene fumes, after all that freash air, it took about 40 minutes for our baggage to come through in Terminal 5. Hmmmmmm.

Private - Public

2011-06-21T21:10:00.000+01:00

My BTEC photography course is now in its last few weeks, it finishes mid July. The next to last assignment was to interpret the theme of "Private - Public" - on film. The selected images may be digitlly printed, but the original capture must be on film.

I used to take a lot of black & white photos in my pre-digital days. In those days I had access to a darkroom and spent many hours there printing. Alas those days are long gone, but as I kept some developing tanks (and my film camera, a Nikon N70) at least I could process the negatives. You don't actually need a darkroom for that. And I have a scanner - which can scan 35mm negatives - so any subsequent processing can be done in Photoshop and then printed digitally.

Picked up where I left off all those years ago with Black & White film - Ilford Delta 400, rated at 400 iso. The shoot was to be an odd experience for me - keeping to the one iso rating and only 36 shots per roll.

Suggested interpretations of the theme, earlier, were of people in a private moment in a public space. My take was rather different - private/public signs. I'd seen plenty while exploring central London on previous shoots, and this time was no exception. Private/Public signs ? Signs - with writing or graphics - aimed at the public indicating something private. The brief required seven images, so here are those I selected.

I processed the negatives in Kodak HC-110 for 9 minutes, and found the results more grainy (noisy ?) than I would have liked. Perhaps if I was processing negatives more frequently I'd get back into the optimum chemistry for my type of work; then again the the negatives have also been scanned and not printed digitally and not in a darkroom. Out of practice ?

Countdown

2011-06-20T00:11:00.004+01:00

Next year - 2012 - the Olympic Games come to London again. I'm sure the intervening time between now and then will provide many photographic opportunities.

In Trafalgar Square, central London, an official clock was installed, which counts down the time to the Games start, froma starting point of 500 days.

Since the clock has been there, it has almost become a tourist attraction. People come and sit by it, pose by it, and have their photo taken by it.

The clock is just nearby the Fourth Plinth in northwest corner of Trafalgar Square, which was empty for many years but now shows artworks. Currently on show is "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle", and you can read my posting on it here. Other previous posts on the Fourth Plinth are here and here and here - one and other. The artwork is due to change in 2012 and again in 2013, so I plan to be back and photograph what goes up then.

In the meantime, I wonder what will happen the Olympic Clock next December 31st ? The Square usually attracts 50,000 revellers at midnight to welcome in the new year.

Street Photography in London

2011-06-17T14:27:00.001+01:00

There is an excellent photographic exhibition on currently in the Museum of London near the Barbican, entitled "Street Photography London". The exhibitions has photographs taken over the years - 1860 to 2010. The pictures on show are good examples of the genre - Street Photography - in that there is a narrative, or story told in each, not just photographs taken in a street.

The older photographs tend to be smaller in size and in monochrome, getting larger and moving into colour as they get up to date, reflecting, the changing photographic technology. They are also very people oriented - rather than scenes of London - and the changing fashions of the residents are obvious, as are the changing cards and buses.

Think I preferred the selection of photographs in the sections labelled 1930 - 1945 and 1946 - 1979. Monchrome - which the photographs are in these sections - lends itself to the genre in mood and atmosphere, which, for all its other advantages, colour rarely does.

The exhibition runs until September 4th, 2011. Better yet it is free to get in. And it is well worth visiting.

Constructed Images - continued

2011-03-24T15:38:00.002Z

My constructed image assignment for my BTEC class is due today. I’ve done the studio shoot and incorporated an image - a least part of an image from the shoot into another - and made up a composite. If you’ve read my previous post of a couple of days ago you’ll notice the composites were comprised of photographs captured on film. Here, the composite comprises all photographs which were captured digitally.

Here is the original background photograph - unprocessed

Here are a couple more - as originally takem - from which elements were extracted -

The location was Leake Street behind Waterloo Station in central London. Elements - the faces - were taken from them, using Photoshop CS4 and added to the background and placed appropriately in separate layers. I had to use the move tool extensivly here, and then change the opacity of each layer. This is most noticeable in the face on the right hand side - check out these image below for work in progress.

Further processing included blending and adjusting the colour balance.

The studio shoot yielded these tomatoes –

I’d originally shot some tins of soup (tomato again) with the idea of making up a Warhol type image, but as I need to hone up my product photography skills (apart from anything else) I wasn’t too happy with results.

The hooded figure in the centre needed some “eyes”. Given the backround colour temperature, perhaps Tomato Eyes ?

Some further processing on the eyes of the left hand side face and adjustment of the red colour of the background. I'm stopping there. I had to resist the temptation for further processing, but there is always a danger of overdoing it and using filters just because you can, not because the image demands it..

Overdone already? Possibly? Does it work as as image ?

Hoppé and Kar

2011-03-22T20:54:00.001Z

I’m getting great value from my membership of the National Portrait Gallery, here in London, so far this year. With this membership you get unlimited entry into exhibitions which you’d otherwise have to pay. So I’ve been a couple of times to the two photographic exhibitions currently on there - “Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street” and “Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-1974”.

As the title might suggest, the Hoppé Portraits exhibition contains his Street Photography – mainly from the 1930’s – as well as Studio portraits from the 1910’s to 1930’s. I preferred the Street Photography section, an early form of photojournalism. It’s the type of photography I like to attempt myself. Several photographs from a girl’s Borstal school were on display; beside one, the caption reads that the empty swimming pool would have been cropped out when published. Shame it wasn’t shown as published as well.

I also took the guided tour with the exhibition curator – my 2^nd visit to each – the 1^st was unaccompanied. These tours can be informative, in that you can get some insight in to which (and why) photos are shown.

The NPG owns the archive of Ida Kar, which includes the negatives, 2 and ¼ square (should that be 6cm square?) or larger. Most of the prints on display are modern prints (some are vintage bromide), made in a darkroom, some with much burning in and dodging (see the photo of Terry Frost, dated 1961, sitting inside a studio, beside an open window.) The portraits looked as if they were made with available light, I couldn’t see much evidence of flash.

I read a review of the Kar Exhibition in both the Observer and Daily Telegraph. Looks like I was at the same exhibition as the reviewer from the Observer. Can’t think where the Daily Telegraph reviewer went to.

This exhibition is in the same Gallery as the recent Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010. Hopefully its entrants and judges spend time in the gallery now – they may learn something about photography and portraits.

Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street runs from 17 February until 30 May 2011 and Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-1974 is on from 10 March - 19 June 2011. Both in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Constructed Images

2011-03-20T21:13:00.000Z

The latest assignment for my BTEC class is due this coming week. This one combined a studio shoot and some location work. The idea was to was to shoot a studio still life and then combining it someway - either digitally, or even rephotographing - with a completely different background.

An idea proved to be a long time in coming. For inspiration took a look at some of the work by Barbara Kruger, Jerry Uelsmann, Duane Michals and Mari Mahr, all of whom produced composite type images – here are some examples …

I’d seen some images by Jerry Uelsmann previously, and had read that many of them have been produced in a traditional ‘wet’ darkroom. I don’t have access to a darkroom any more and haven’t had for some time, so my efforts could look forward to some digital processing, ably assisted by Mr Adobe and Photoshop CS4.

Perhaps I should look for a job in that TV show “Blue Peter” …. here are some pictures I prepared earlier, from my pre digital camera days. I took slides and black & white negatives then and scanned them.

Not so much a composite of 2 or more images, rather the inclusion of text into one image, written for me by a Chinese friend. If you can read the Chinese, I’d appreciate a translation.

Here are some colour composite, comprised of images originally 35mm slides (Fuji) and scanned using a Canoscan dedicated film scanner.

Comprised of 3 separate images – the pyramid is in Mexico, the sea in the foreground is the Atlantic coast of Ireland and the background mountains are in Morocco. Three Continents!

Again comprised of parts from 3 images, in multiple layers; the statue, glare and background building and sky are in Toronto, the scene within the statue is downtown New York, and the pattern within the “moon” is from the Centre Point building here in London, with the red colour added via Photoshop.

Will post the assignment in a day or so ....

Monument

2011-02-17T16:29:00.001Z

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

2011-02-03T16:28:00.003Z

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

2011-02-02T12:04:00.000Z

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.

Time of Day

2011-01-17T00:00:00.001Z

I'm beginning to catch up with posting here my pictures taken for the exercises set in my BTEC photoclass. The brief for this one was "Time of Day", and was actually set, photographed and presented in class last October.

It was apparent during the discussion within the class when this assignment was set that one possible outcome - a photographic outcome at least - were photographs of the same place, building, whatever, taken at different different times of the day or night. For example, early morning, midday, afternoon and so. Different lighting, sun light from various directions.

I've had some experience of taking photographs to a theme in a special interest group of my local Photographic Society - it meets monthly and we're asked to bring in 2 photographs on a pre set theme which we all then comment upon. There can be a diverse interpretation of the theme set. So, thought maybe I'd try to do something a little different than the way the discussion was leading, and still perhaps meet the theme.

I haven't worn a wrist watch for several years. I actually have two - both with run down batteries. There are enough clocks at home - my tuner,VCR, microwave, my PC - so I can see what the time is if I need to know. There's also one in my car and on my mobile phone. And additionally when I'm out and about there are plenty of clocks visible one to all in central London (Big Ben ....) Perhaps I use some of these clocks, at least photographically ?

Here is a (small) selection of my shoot...

Look at the time in each photograph.

eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, one o'clock

Passage of time, Time of Day even ?

Not sure if like the images, whatever about meeting the brief of the assignment. Sunny October day, the light was harsher then I'd like for this time of year. A few days previously, a different shoot, covering most the same ground, but more pleasing light - and photos - you can my post of it here !

Portfolio in Yellow

2011-01-14T23:16:00.001Z

I've spent a little time in the last year or so wondering up and down the South Bank in London, sometimes with a camera, sometimes without. There are always exhibitions to visit in Tate Modern (apart from anything else the South Bank provides a convenient short cut from Waterloo) and it's usually full of people going about their activities. But the architecture is pretty drab, 1950's conrete - except for some of the stairwells. One has been painted bright yellow, another blue and a third red. I 've been photographing that yellow stairwell off and on over this time ... and here is a selection ...

The bright yellow can look stunning against a blue sky, and if the light is right - from the side - the textures are apparent.

Don't think any 2 of this selection was taken at the same time, and I've got many more. I'm beginning to think in terms of building up a portfolio - possibly in yellow - based around them. Will have to decide whether to include my images of the blue stairwell, or the red stairwell also ......

A Few More Exhibitions

2011-01-12T21:36:00.000Z

I've visited a few more photographic exhibitions in central London in the last month or so - "Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography" at the V&A, "Take a View" at the National Theatre and "World Press Photo 10" at the Royal Festival Hall. Ironically, of the 3 exhibitions visited, the one I enjoyed least was the only one for which I had to pay an entry fee - albeit only £5 - which was "Shadow Catchers" exhibition at the V&A, It shows the work - of 5 contemporary photographers - photographic images made without the use of cameras. Good to see contemporary work - and one offs - but they seemed to be too abstract for my liking.

The other 2 exhibitions were both free. Free exhibitions are great for encourging repeat visits which I had to make to properly view the "Take a View" landscape exhibition. Shame the first time around I was with people who were in a hurry on somewhere else. Their loss, not mine. Having said that, the second visit was almost as bad, as the exhibition space was crowded with a pre theatre audience. Once they'd gone into the performance, I could enjoy the pictures. Liked the large black and whites. Wondered how some of the photographs got into the exhibition - this is supposed to be a Landscape Exhibition , and whilst a section is classified as "Urban View", several of the selections seemed to be more reportage or documentary, or even portaiture.

World Press Photo 10 despite the "10" in the title, featured press photos from 2009. Seeing the exhibition in late 2010, I had to rely on memory to put a context to the photographs, and if the photo was taken early in 2009 its almost 2 years ... in some cases this isnt a issue, in other cases it is. Good to see several sequences of photographs on show, as well as individual images.

London Parade - 2011

2011-01-04T21:57:00.000Z

This year - 2011 - the London New Year's Day Parade had it's 25th Anniversary. Whilst I've not been attending it that long - never mind photographing it - the time has a special significance for me because the parade has been around in London for almost as long as I have. Anyway, the overcast day which was January 1st and the threat of rain here in London didn't put me off bringing in my cameras and trying to get a few photos.
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Like last year the parade began in Piccadilly and wound it's way through central London, finishing in Parliament Square some hours later - you can read my post (with some photos) of the 2010 event here. I like to go where the performers are setting up, and get in amongst them whilst they get ready for the parade itself and this year was no different for me - I headed for Berkeley Square and Berkeley Street. The first photograph below could almost pass as a self-portrait (there are no prizes for spotting me !)

One advantage of using a digital camera (it took me quite some time to convert from film) was - on this occasion - was te ability to change ISO and keep shooting. I started the shoot at 200, and as the light became worse, changed to 400, ending on 800, as rain threatened.

Didn't take as many photos as last time - about 150 rather than almost 400, but on an initial inspection some of them at least (well 1 or 2 maybe) look promising, whilst others are distinctly soft. Perhaps I should have tried 400 or 800 from the start, or brought a flashgun as many of the other photographers who were around at the time. Perhaps I will next time, and maybe I'll try photographing the end of the parade then, not the start ....

Enchanted Wood at Syon Park

2010-12-07T15:51:00.025Z

Another visit to the Enchanted Wood, in nearby Syon Park, on a very cold Sunday evening just past. I'ts almost become an annual event for me; its only open for a few weekends this time of year and I've been before - the photo in the header of this blog (at the time of posting) was taken there last year.

I've posted some of last year's pictures in ths blog here and here Some of the light displays around the trees had changed, and I was trying to get something different. The light levels are low, and so a tripod is really necessary - some of the exposures were in seconds - yet some of the other visitors were handholding their cameras. Others were using on-camera flash. I wonder if they were disappointed with their results. I took fewer pictures than last year, and on an initial review, this years selection looks promising. I may think different when I print them.

It wasn't an evening for hanging around - the temperature in the car when we left read -2 C. Not that I cared a that point - a hot latte in the cafe on the way out to the car park helped.

Fixed Focal Length

2010-11-18T15:47:00.000Z

So far I haven't posted the exercises for my evening photoclass in any particular order, something I'll rectify in future - you may have read some of my previous posts on some of the other exercises in the last couple of weeks. So for now, its back to the initial exercise for this post - "Fixed Focal Length". Most of us in the class (me included) were using a variety of lenses where the photographer can vary the focal length, raher than using a prime lens. The idea of this exercise was to set the lens at one focal length and stick with that same length for the entire shoot.- you may walk backwards or forwards if you have to, or even choose compostions which work ....

Anyways I put a 70-210mm on my camera and headed for nearby Richmond with the idea of taking some pictures along the Thames riverfront. When I got there I set the focal length of the lens to 85 mm.. Unfortunately for me the light was poor and flat that day and so, while I took many pictures, the results when looking at the screen on the back of the camera looked uninteresting. They can often look better on a larger computer screen later but I wasn't optimistic. And walking backwards and forwards isn't necessarily a good idea beside a river, or in some cases possible !

I like picture with bold (often primary) colours, and some colour in a side street leading away from the river caught my attention - a large fence painted mainly bright yellow but also with some red. So the pictures just taken of the riverside were quickly forgotten, in favour of these -

All the pictures were taken with the lens at 85 mm, and its relatively easy to walk to and fro in a side street, dodging the occasional van or bicycle.

The results, whilst not brilliant. I seen and done a lot worse. Preferred my texture pictures, in the previous post. There are some texture to be seen here, which better (side) lighting would have brought out. I'll go back there again when the light is better, and if the fence is still coloured, I''ll re-shoot.

I had these pictures here (amongst others) printed (6" by 4" size) by Tesco by their in-store one hour photo service, in order to show the prints in class. What a waste, am not sure if I'll use them again . They don't seem to know the difference between Yellow and Orange, the delivered prints were distinctly ORANGE.

Night time - downtown Twickenham

2010-11-12T23:43:00.001Z

Our evening photoclass took time out of the class room the other week. Now that winter is on its way, it is dark by the time we get to class, an ideal opportunity to try out our tripods and long exposures with some night time photography in this case nearby Twickenham. I'm sure Twickenham has many attributes, but a vibrant night life is not up there amongst them - at least outside of match days at the rugby stadium - and there was no match on the day of our visit. Having said that we were not looking for reportage type photographs, and the object of the exercise was tripods/long exposure and not using flash.

I had been concerned about getting the correct colour balance, and set the camera to auto for this shoot, put the camera through its paces and set hoe it handled the conditions - street lights, traffic and moon; after all this was supposed to be a learning experience not a professional shoot nor a hunt for potential competition winners. Anyways - what ever about the subsequent pictures turned out to be, the initial shots of some street side (eg Heath Road, above) was acceptable. As you can see from the other pictures we ended up beside the river Thames for the remainder of the evening. Even late in the evening, the local airport Heathrow makes its presence felt - the long exposures used captures the aircraft coming into land as trails of light - as can be seen in the third and last pictures. And of course the long exposures mean that moving people (also the some of the local bird population, do they ever sleep ?) become blured.

Didn't capture any potential prize winners, or exhibition pictures, but then I wasn't expecting to. A useful exercise, one which I'd plan on doing again..

Self-Portrait

2010-11-11T23:37:00.002Z

Another exercise for my BTEC evening photography was Portrait. That's fine I thought, I'll bring in some from my recent trip to the Notting Hill Carnival, this year, when I concentrated mainly on "street" portraits, as distinct from the Carnival as an event. No such luck for this exercise, the catch was the portraits had to be self-portraits.

Hmmm, don't want to put my face up here.

Winter hadn't quite arrived here in London just yet, there were still some sunny days around, and I'd been developing some ideas for the last few months - photographically - I'd been making images of people and their shadows. You can read my previous post on these pictures here. Anyways, I thought I'd make use of the sunny days (while they were still available !) and combine the self-portrait exercise with the shadow idea ... and here are some of the results ...

The photographs were taken on 3 different days and at 4 different locations. I'm not sure I like the results, especially the 3rd and 4th in the sequence - I was very concious of the patterns made by the different coloured paving stones and was looking to make a pleasing composition. Think I prefer the other shadow pictures taken previously, they've got more mood.

South Bank Meander

2010-10-13T20:33:00.000+01:00

I've been to the New England area of the US this time of year - October - quite a few times over the past few years. You can take a chance with the weather - some days can be cold and miserable - but often you
get a glorious Autumn (should that be Fall ?) day with bright sunshine, blue skies and half way decent temperatures. Add in the colours (colors ?) of the foliage and it can be, as I say, glorious.

Monday last, in London, was almost such a day. Bright sunshine, blue skies and half way decent temperatures, Yes. Foliage in full Fall Colour, definitely Not. I have yet to see anything in the UK which matches the scale and variety of colours found in New England - in Autumm - something which the locals here in London seem to have difficulty believing.

Anyway, I took a walk along the South Bank in London then, and for once (if you have read some of my earlier posts) ignored the people (along with the boring trees) and photographed some of the sights ......

Eadweard Muybridge Exhibition at Tate Britain

2010-10-05T20:06:00.001+01:00

Enjoyed visiting the Eadweard Muybridge exhibition at Tate Britain last week. This is the third exhibition I've been to in the last year or so, in London, featuring works of 19th Century photographers. The other two exhibitions were Camille Silvy at the National Portrait Gallery and Points of View and you may have read my previous posts on them.

Muybridge is probably better known for “Animals in Motion” photographs, and these are well represented in this exhibition. What is more interesting to me was his earlier photographs, his landscapes taken in Yosemite, the reportage style stereo pictures and the large panoramas of San Francisco,

From the viewpoint of the early years of the 21^st century we are well used to manipulation in photography; the personal computer and digital camera have made that fairly straight forward. Silvy and Muybridge were using the technology available at the time – mid/late nineteenth century – which was the wet collodion process and large format glass plate negatives. Some of Muybridge’s negatives were 17 inch by 22 inches, and yet he managed the make prints from multiple negatives for examples clouds from Pigeon Point Lighthouse were printed into later photos of the Mariposa Trail in Yosemite.

I really must get to Yosemite next time I'm in California.

Textures

2010-09-24T21:51:00.001+01:00

This year I've signed up for an evening photography course at a local college; there is a BTEC qualification to aim for, with plenty of tutorials and practical sessions to enjoy. We had our second session yesterday evening. One of more useful activities in the course are the practical excercise, and last evening we were given the lastest - textures. I really need to get out and take some photographs expecially for the class, but I couldnt't help looking through some previously taken textures ......

And just to prove I don't only take close up photos of walls or in primary colours ....

Which ever photographs I use - these here - or some I manage to take between now and the next class I will have to print, and then present them to my class-mates at the next session. Should be good to get their comments.

Another Night Carnival

2010-09-20T13:28:00.000+01:00

The now annual Thames Festival came around again on September 11/12, with its Night Carnival on the evening of the 12th. I had tried to take some photograph last years event, and despite some success with one of them achieved mainly disappointing results (please look at my previous posts on Thames Festival), and so I wanted to try again.

I managed to take a number of images, but on an initial look at the results, nothing stands out of the pack.

I'm sure I'll have more time during the coming winter months to study the photographs in more detail. I'm thinking now that I may have enough images from this (and last) year's event to put together a sequence of, say 5 to 10 images, showing something the flavour of the Night Carnival, rather than looking for stand alone

images. Putting together panels/sequences of 5 to 10 images on subject is something I've been get into lately - a sort of short photo essay.

Carnival Time Again

2010-08-31T10:22:00.000+01:00

How time flies. This time last year - the August Bank Holiday in England - I went to the Notting Hill Carnival in west London for the first time in many years. Now it's a year on and here I go again.

Thankfully there was some half-way decent light - photographically speaking - the people in the event are fast moving and rarely stay put for long, and I didn't want to have to use either flash or slow shutter speeds - time enough for that for the upcoming Night Carnival in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to doing an edit of my images captured over the weekend - probably down to about 10 or so, from the 300 taken.

Summer ?

2010-08-28T16:38:00.000+01:00

Nothing much to blog about, photography speaking, over the last few weeks - I have to thank the vagaries of a summer here in London for that. I've never really been into photographing indoors - in a studio for example (perhaps I should ?) and I don't expect it to be wall-to-wall sunshine outside, but when the light out there is consistently flat, dull and uninteresting outside - in August (it's supposed to be summer here !) then I think I can complain.

However it's not been all bad - I've been to a few photographic shows, and took my camera to visit Brick Lane and Greenwich. I hadn't visited the Brick Lane area of London for some time- a year or so perhaps - and found much has changed since then. Some of my photos taken then found their way into my Associateship (of the Royal Photographic Society) panel - which you can see on my website here. My last visit to Greenwich was more than a few years ago and the financial area in London's Docklands has sprouted up since then. The views across London of the much older historic areas of the Naval college buildings in the foreground and the modern architecture of Docklands in the mid distance are worth it. The East/West meridian runs through the observatory at Greenwich (and haven't you heard of GMT ?), and there were long queues of people waiting to stand astride it with their left side in the East and right in the West.

The photographic exhibitions I've been too include "Exposed" at Tate Modern, the RPS,153rd International Print at Spitalfield, and the Press Photographer Year 2010 the National Theatre on the South Bank. It is always a good idea, I think, to see exhibitions such as these - you can learn from comparing your own photographic work to what you see on the wall, and also see what others are doing. Shame the London Salon had to be cancelled at the Cotton Centre this year - thats the 2nd time this has happened in the last couple of years.

Camille Silvy Exhibition

2010-08-03T16:39:00.004+01:00

Spent a very pleasant couple of hours on Thursday last at the Camille Silvy Exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery in central London. Camille Silvy was a French photographer who was worked in London 1857 - 1867 and the exhibition covers this period.
Included are several prints made up from more than one negative - for example "River Scene, France" (there are 3 versions on display) and "Twilight", one of the Studies in Light. A figure in "Twilight" (1859) is thought to be the earliest use of using blur to suggest movement. Very easy to do these days with Photoshop and computers, but in the late 1850's there was only a wet collodion process and large format glass negatives.
Much of Camille's work was commercial carte-de-visite, he employed 40 or so workers in a "photographic factory". An 1863 self protrait is duplicated 4 times on one print, almost foreshadowing Warhol. My visit included an hour long tour of the exhibition with it's curator, which made the exhibition come to life - for the pictures are 150 years old from the early days of photography, and having a commentary on them and why they were choosen was fascinating.

Slow Shutter Speed

2010-07-14T22:00:00.000+01:00

I don't always carry an SLR or DLSR with a couple of extra lenses when I visit central London especially if the purpose of my visit is social rather than photographic. Instead I carry a compact digital camera - it's light, and very portable. I've being trying out my Coolpix indoors with the flash turned off - one of my requirements for such a camera is the ability to switch the flash on or off - so I can choose when to use flash and not have the camera decide to use it for me. The camera records only jpg's. Here are some photos taken with this camera; no flash, hand held, relatively slow shutter speeds, moving people are blurred.

A very different technique to those I usually use. Think I might try this out some more, and also different locations and lighting conditions.

Shadows

2010-06-18T20:36:00.002+01:00

Lately I've been photographing people and their shadows.

Having found the location - it often means coming back to the same place at different times of the day - with the sun shine (and more importantly the shadows) at different angles - to assess its suitablity, and then asking someone to walk through the appropriate place.

Digital InfraRed

2010-06-08T17:40:00.001+01:00

The weather for some of the days last week was ideal for InfraRed photography, at least as far as foliage is concerned - blue skies with a little cloud, bright sunshine, and fairly freah vegetation. Here are a few more pictures - digitial, not film. The first is in Green Park in central London - it was good to get away from the traffic and noise of the city whilst photographing the trees.

The second and third pictures are in the local Richmond Park. I dont have to go too far unless I want to.

Ship in a Bottle

2010-05-29T15:16:00.021+01:00

Next up on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle" by Yinka Shonibare MBE - one of the first sculture to give a direct nod the the adjacent monument.

Here's what it looked like on May 23rd, the day before it's unveiling -

and a few days later (note the clouds ... we had over summer in London, in 23/5 and its now over for another year ...) -

I wasn't expecting very much beforehand but now that I've seen it, I like it.

I may try to photograph it again, from a different angle. Whilst I enjoyed the bright May sunshine, it does make photographing a "bottle" a little more difficult, with refections and hot spots. What looks interesting also
is capturing Nelson's column through the Bottle - you can the effect in one of the above.

Elephants in London

2010-05-23T23:17:00.000+01:00

Found some more of those Elephants on parade whilst in central London on a totally different photo shoot. Had seen some previously in Trafalgar Square and on the South Bank - and posted this previously - so I knew I could expect to see more. Anyways given the sunshine and glorious blue skies, I was in central London this morning to try out more of the digital infrared technique - again see some of my more recent posts on the subject .... and more on that later.

The Elephants this time were on parade in Berkeley Square and Green Park. Here are a few close ups ..

Some of the artworks/designs seemed to me to be fine - although I'm sure the purists would disagree. I still want to make a better effort of photographing these objects while they're here. But today there people all over and around them, being photographed beside them, on them .... perhaps I should do a black and white reportage piece to include the elephants and people ?

Some More InfraRed

2010-05-16T21:49:00.001+01:00

Out yesterday morning to the park, tryting for some more InfraRed photos. For most of the last week the mornings have been quite sunny, early on, before clouding over later on - and as I wanted some blue skies (which turn dark in black & white infrared) it was as early start.

Here are some more of my digital efforts -

An issue I'm finding with this technique - see my previous post for this - is that my exposures are a few seconds. Which means if there is a wind I'm getting movement/blurring in some leaves and clouds. Perhaps I could make it feature ?

I also shot a roll of Rollei InfraRed film - all 36 exposures. Must get around to processing it. One day.

InfraRed

2010-05-12T20:42:00.000+01:00

Back in my film days I used to use Kodak HIE (black & white infrared film) - and liked it. Not for every day use, but probably for some landscape work when it is at its most most effective, at this time of year, ie late spring/early summer when the vegetation is freshest and reflecting lots of infrared light.

Unfortunately HIE film is no longer being manufactured (shame !) and so I'm trying the Rollei version - there is a roll in my film camera now (and more awaiting usage are stored in my fridge) - more on that later. I'll have to get back into film processing and I'm not looking forward to that.

Anyways, in the meantime I'm trying to get an infrared effect with my digital camera. I've got a Hoya R72 filter - its almost black (VERY dark red, you can't see through it with naked eye), with a screw thread. This makes for quite long exposure times - in seconds - so my tripod is getting good use, as hand holding the camera is not on.

Here are some initial - digitial - results.

I had to do some processing in Photoshop later with the Raw digital files - but nothing like the processing needed if my source files were ordinary colour, and the effect I'm getting is closer to what I want. So far, think I prefer HIE. But I'll be taking some more digitial over the next few weeks and trying out what Rollei has to offer. As I said earlier, more on that later.

Fourth Plinth .... again.

2010-05-07T22:44:00.002+01:00

Wandered through Trafalgar Square again, on my way somewhere else, and checked out that Fourth Plinth - I've posted some photos of this previously - and it is empty.

The statue of the RAF war hero Park has departed and next up at the end of May is a "Ship in a Bottle". A sculpture ? We'll see soon enough.

Didnt spend too much time in the Square, being overcast, windy, cold and dull (you can probably see this in the photo of the plinth above; it is May for Heavan's sake, Summer should be coming). In fact the only glimpse of colour came from four Elephants on the other side of the Square - part of the "Elephant Parade", a conservation campaign for Asian Elephants.

There are more of these around central London - including the South Bank .... and this one which is disguised as a rabbit ....

These elephants will be around London for a couple of months, I'll have to make a better attempt at photographing them.

TOTP

2010-05-02T17:13:00.000+01:00

Yet another visit, this weekend, to a photographic exhibition featuring 1960's musicians - on this occasion to see Harry Goodwin's "My Generation: the Glory Years of British Rock" which has just opened at the Victoria & Albert in London. Harry Goodwin was resident photographer for the TV show "Top of the Pops" from its beginning in 1964 until 1973, and photographed the acts - most of the major rock acts of the era including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix (the photo of him playing the guitar with his teeth is here) - which appeared on this show.

Also on display were two of the cameras used, a Yashica and a Mamiya, both twin lens reflex cameras. Which means 120 film was used - probably the norm at the time - but you can see the result of using this format in the quality of the prints (and the square format which seems to very suitable for portraiture) - and all in glowing Black & White. Who needs colour ?

Glastonbury

2010-04-30T23:58:00.002+01:00

Visited two photographic exhibitions yesterday, both about Glastonbury festival - which has its 40th anniversary this year - and each had a very different approach. Liam Bailey's Glastonbury:40 years is at the Print Space Gallery (until May 4th) at Kingsland Street, in London, takes a more documentary approach, looking at the festival goers with 16 * 20 inch atmospheric monochrome photos while Venetia Dearsden, in the Bookshop Gallery (at the National Portrait Gallery in London until September 26th) used an on site temporary studio for her larger giclee colour portraits of the performers (eg Lily Allen) as well as the people attending. Muddy boots and footprints are common to both exhibitions.

Take a look at each - you'll see a very different - and equally valid - take on the same subject. Both have free entry.

St George

2010-04-23T18:37:00.001+01:00

A Pageant of St George was held this morning in the City of London - apparently for the 1st time in 425 years. As I like photographing these types of events, went along with camera(s) to do just that. I'd bought some black & white film (Delta) for another event a few months back, but never used it then, so I today used both traditional film and digital.

Managed to catch the pageant outside St Pauls, had to jostle for a better position amongst the crowds in the warm spring sunshine. Whilst it's good to have the sunshine and blue skies, the light was a little harsh - resulting in some squinting eyes in some of my photos.Used a 36 exposure roll of Delta, which is now back in my fridge, awaiting developing. Some day, when I get around to it.

I'll post some of my Black & White in due course ..... developing ..... scanning ..... a long as it doesnt involve a lot of time in a wet Dark Room.

One last thing for now - I was a little disappointed not to see any dragons.

ARPS Panel

2010-04-03T09:38:00.000+01:00

I've put the photos which made up my (successful) panel submission for Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society on to my web site. Here is a link to that site -

www.rogertowell.com

I've also included my Statement of Intent which was required for the submission. The submission was in Visual Art and comprised 15 prints matted in 50cm by 40cm antique white mounts, presented in 3 rows of 5 pictures.

The photos were printed on Somerset Satin paper.

ARPS

2010-03-25T11:36:00.001Z

Some good news for me last week - I've been successful in obtaining an Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society here in the UK. I had submitted a panel of 15 photographic prints for assessment in Visual Art. The theme of the panel was urban decay/renergation. I'm really am delighted! I'll be putting the photos onto my website shortly - here is a link

www.rogertowell.com

- in the meantime you may like to see my LRPS panel which is already there.

St Patrick's Day ..... London Parade

2010-03-24T13:47:00.005Z

London has only recently begun to hold a parade for St Patrick's day, unlike other big cities with large Irish expat community, eg New York and Boston. As March 17th is not a public holiday here in England, it's held usually on the nearest Sunday, this year on March 14th.

The exact route has varied slightly over the last few years, with this one beginning near Hyde Park Corner, threading its way along Piccadilly, past Trafalgar Sqaure and finishing in Whitehall. It's grown a bit also with more floats and bands and participants.

These pictures were taken near the start - if you've read my previous post on the London New Year parade you may realise I like to photograph the spectactors and particpants as they're setting up and about to go. What a difference is atmosphere also, between this parade (and the people in and around it) and the one at new year - this one is smaller (but growing), more friendly .....
I wonder what the New Year Parade was like in its earlier years ? I must go back to New York again, for the Patrick's Day parade - last time was in 1991. Of course every thing there is BIGGER and LARGER and L O N G E R .....

Blue Rope

2010-02-24T22:35:00.002Z

Blue Rope
Originally uploaded by Tawny042

Funny things happen in Flickr, View wise. Nobody looks at this photo for months. Then there is a dozen or so views in the last few days. Well then, can't complain - and I'm not - as long as people are looking. Similar comment with another photo of mine in Flickr called "Goods Inwards" - although with different viewing figures.

Chinese New Year

2010-02-21T22:24:00.011Z

Into central London for the Chinese New Year (year of the Tiger) festivities in Trafalgar Square and around Chinatown. Lousy day weather wise, but at least the heavy rain on the way in stopped mostly, but the dark and gloomy clouds hardly cleared, so the light from a photographic point of view wasn't great - very poor actually.

Concentrated on some details, the lanterns etc for once rather than the people. The area and streets around Lisle Street and Gerrard Street isnt that big, became very crowded, and I got fed up with the people milling around. Can't understand why some idiots were trying to get through with bikes.

Incidently these guys - see the photo below - were in Trafalgar Square before the festivities started .

Thought the one on the right looked a little out of place .....

Competition Win

2010-02-20T13:53:00.001Z

Some good news for me during the week - one of my photos won a competition at my local Photographic Society. The competition is the George Bunzl Cup which is for colour pictorial prints, one of a series of Open Challenge Cups within the Society. Here it is, at least in digital form -

The photo was taken during the Night Carnival, at last year's Thames Festival in central London. The Festival was held in mid September, and you can see some more of my (less successful) photos of the event in previous posts from around then. The bluring effect of the people was obtained by using a combination of a slow shutter speed and an off-camera flash (ie not the built in rubbish flash), the print was an A3+ size on Somerset Enhanced satin paper (wonderful paper !), in a 40cm x 50cm Antique White window mount.

Portraits - Irving Penn Exhibition

2010-02-19T18:41:00.003Z

Back to the National Portrait Gallery in central London on Wednesday last to see the Irving Penn exhibition. My last visit to the Gallery was to see the Beatles to Bowie exhibition a few weeks back. This exhibition overlaps the that time scale to a certain extent - the sixties - but covers 7 decades in all.

The prints are presented chronologically (as was the Beatles to Bowie exhibition) and as this exhibition features only one photographer you can see a developing style over the years. For example there is a change from the 1940's whole figure shots (with minimal props), then the closely cropped head and shoulders shots from the 1950's onwards, and laterly emphasis on the face and eyes (eg Al Pacino), and sometimes with the part of the face in deep shadow (eg the portraits of Pablo Picasso and Issey Miyake). I also liked the portrait of Lisa Fonassagrives-Penn in the Harlequin dress, possibly because being more high-key was a little different to the rest ?

There are 120 prints in this exhibition, all monochrome and taken on film. Yes, no digital. I wonder if digital has caught up yet tp film technically - in monochrome - to the sheer quality of what was on show.

The exhibition continues until June 6th, 2010. Its worth the £10 entrance fee.

Old Process - 35mm Slides

2010-02-05T21:19:00.001Z

Not too much to photograph outside at present - winter seems to be dragging on, the snow has gone (for now) only to be replaced by grey cloud and uninteresting light. At some point I'll have to learn how to use flash and get into a studio and not be so dependent on the weather ....

In the meantime I've been reviewing some of my pre-digital work , in particular some of my slides, taken in the'90s - no so long ago in the greater scheme of things but an age in the past these days. Here are some photo I found -

These were taken on Fuji slide film and then scanned using a dedicated film scanner (Canoscan). For a while - before I went completely digital and bought a DSLR - this was the way I worked, in colour at least - using slide film and then scanning the results. Don't think any of the slides saw the inside of a projector. With monochrome it was different - I still had access to a darkroom in those days, and could produce better monochrome results there. Possibly still can - but my access to the darkroom is no more, and digital photography still has some way to catch with films and wet darkrooms.

Swinging Sixties

2010-01-20T16:51:00.001Z

Visited the Beatles to Bowie photographic exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in central London last weekend. The exhibition covers the music scene in London during the years 1960 to 1969 aka the "Swinging Sixties" . Given the years covered by the pictures, I was a little surprised to find a mixed audience attending - at least mixed age wise - I was expecting to see mostly people who have some claim to have been around at the time, and not so many younger people who obviously weren't.
The term "Swinging Sixties" and photography brings to mind Bailey, Donovan and Duffy, and it was good to see all these 3 photographers represented - although I could only find 1 from Mr. Duffy (see previous post wrt TV Documentary) which was of the Shadows with fashion model Ros Watkins.You've probably seen many of Bailey's and Donovan's work over the years - I have - especially of young looking Beatles and Rolling Stones as they were starting out. One photo I hadn't seen before - but liked very much - was a black and white low key portrait (taken in a studio?) of the Moody Blues.
The exhibition also contained much memorabilia for the period eg LP and EP covers, sheet music and also some of the music press of the time. Interesting to see the exhibition photograph and then how it was used on an album cover or in the press, eg the 1961 McBean colour photo of the Shadows. Speaking of album covers, many of the albums (LP's ?) from the earlier years of that decade were in mono (it was stated clearly on the cover), stereo only became standard later. Also whilst colour photography was available throughout the decade - as just mentioned - the photos from the earlier years were in black and white, with colour dominating the later years.
I wonder what the younger people who visited this exhibition would have thought about things then - music on vinyl records (in mono) - not downloadable MP3 .... no video's ......
Also managed to catch the Turner and the Masters exhibition at the Tate Britain. No prizes for guessing which exhibition I preferred.

TV Documentary

2010-01-14T14:22:00.000Z

Interesting documentary on BBC4 last night - "The Man Who Shot the 60s" - about Brian Duffy. Duffy was one of several photographers who captured swinging sixties London on film, before quitting photography in the late 1970s. Probably for this reason I'd not heard the name before now, but have seen his work without realising who took the pictures, eg the cover for the Bowie album "Aladdin Sane". Some of the photographs shown are iconic for the period and place. Shame that he burnt many of his originals - what where shown (on TV) look great. There was an exhibition of the work in London last year - pity I only heard about it last night, so I've missed seeing it. Hopefully another gallery will pick it up so I can get to it.

Looking at the TV schedules over this week, the documentary is being repeated several times on BBC4 over the next few days. Perhaps tou can catch it then.

London New Year Parade

2010-01-07T22:55:00.004Z

Into Central London on New Year's Day for the annual New Year's Day Parade, now in its 24th Year. It's become something of a tradition for me to go in and photograph the parade, with its colour, marching bands, cheerleaders and multi-national performers. It can be, on occasion a difficult event to attend, given it begins at noon on Jan 1st, if the previous evening/night has ended late .....

This year's parade reversed the usual route of previous years, beginning in BerkleyStreet/Piccadilly and ending in Parliament Square. I like to get to the beginning before its starts and photograph the participants as they're setting up or starting off. I've tried in other years to get pictures of the parade as it winds its way along the streets - eg in Whitehall - but it can be difficult, with the crowds of spectators getting in the way.

It can be bitterly cold - like this year - can't be much fun for the people who go off last - it was about 13:30ish by the time they set off on this occasion which meant about an hour and a half (or more, depending on arrival) hanging around Berkeley Square. Wonder if they prefer rain ?

It may have been cold, but the winter sun was shining. Not that it was quality light, very harsh and contrasty, at a low angle, dark enough at street level, had to be careful with burnt out skies in backgounds....Still, managed to take 1 or 2 photos.

Guernsey Salon of Photography

2009-12-17T10:39:00.000Z

Some good news - for me anyway - arrived today in the mail today, in the form of a CD from the Guernsey Salon of Photography. One of my images had been accepted for the 2009 Salon, and the CD contained the results and acceptances for this Salon. My image is "Richmond Park in Winter", which (at the time of posting) is up on the banner to this blog. It's also in my FLICKR photostream - you can click on the link to my photostream in this blog - the image is a few pages in, and its called "Richmond Park in Winter #1" there. The CD also contained a slideshow of the accepted images and mine included also !

World Press Photos Exhibition

2009-12-14T13:57:00.001Z

Into the World Press Photo 09 exhibition yesterday, held in the Royal Festival Hall in London's South Bank.

This was my second attempt to get to see it before it closed, I tried on Saturday afternoon last but the crowds inside the Hall beat me - I like a little elbow room when viewing photos, even large prints as these were, but there were too many people around for comfortable viewing. Hardly surprising given the venue, the location and the time of year (Christmas is almost upon us).

You can find more information about World Press Photos organisation by visiting their web site -

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/

According to this site, the exhibition has been touring the world for a good proportion of 2009 so it wasnt a great surprise to see at least some of the images presented date from 2008 eg from the US presidential election campaign.

As all the images were illustrative of news stories, its best to approach them with a photojournalistic (or at least a reportage) eye rather than from a pictorial viewpoint - which is sometimes difficult to do.

Unfortunately the exhibition closed yesterday, but as its an annual event we'll have to wait until 2010 to see next years edition (with images from this year ?)

Fourth Plinth, continued ....

2009-12-13T08:30:00.003Z

Passed through Trafalgar Square the other day for the first time since the "One and Other" project on the Fourth Plinth had closed (in mid October). I had heard that a new statue was in place there and I was curious to see it.

A new statue has indeed been placed there - of Sir Keith Park, a World War 2 RAF hero. It's larger than life size, made from fibreglass and should be in place for 6 months (until next April ? It was unveiled early November 2009). It has had some mixed reviews, but then so did the previous project, One and Other, and so will, probably, the next, whatever that will be.

The green coloured One and Other production studio (along with the 2 bright yellow cherry picker type vehicles) have also long since been removed from the Square, giving it back some space.

Take a View

2009-12-12T22:55:00.005Z

Went to another Photography exhibition yesterday - "Take a View" - and saw some stunning landscape photographs - in the foyer of the National Theatre on London's South Bank.

My initial thought was the the exhibition was Canon sponsored - most of the images (10 out of 11) in the first panel I came to were listed as being taken on a Canon (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I use Nikon) - then I noticed the 11th used a Pentax. Nikon got on the "scoreboard" with 2 (of 7) in the next panel (both got awards) to Canon's 7; the tally on the third panel was Nikon 4, Canon 7.
Enough of the counting, the photos were landscapes taken the British Isles, predominently in Colour and some (not enough in my opinion) in Monochrome. I particularly liked Steen Doessing's "Distant Freighter" and Brian Griffiths "The Second Severn Crossing linking England and Wales" - both Monochrome. Not that I dislike Colour, or that the other photos weren't any good, but these two really stuck out from the crowd. I'm not sure that they would have been as good had they been in Colour.

Many of the exhibits admitted to be digitally manipulated, I wonder how many of the photographers represented here have spend time in a darkroom ? The exhibition runs until January 24th next, entry is free, and well worth making the effort of going into Central London.

Points of View

2009-12-06T22:47:00.005Z

Spent this afternoon at the "Points of View - Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs" in the British Library near St Pancras Station in London. The exhibition covers the early years of photography drawing from the Library's collections. Hardly surprising (and rightly so) that Fox Talbot features heavily.

The exhibits finish in the 1st decade of the last century, catching up to Kodak's box camera et al, so colour photography is still some way off, never mind digital.
Quite a few cameras as well as photographs are on display and compared to today's offerings the cameras look big, bulky and heavy. Coupled with long exposure times its aamazing that the photographers achieved the results they did. I liked the display on the cartes de visite - this were very popular in the mid 1800's.

The exhibition runs until March 7th, 2010, and is well worth a visit. Better yet it is free.

Enchanted Wood, part 2

2009-11-30T22:48:00.055Z

Another visit to Syon Park, over the weekend to photograph the Enchanted Wood. Not so windy this time, which was better - when you've got the camera on a tripod with the shutter speed in seconds the wind can play havoc with whats left of the leaves, branches ..... This time, a couple of misters were on close to some trees, and the lack of wind made them effective as subjects . So I managed to get a few shots, some of which you can see below.

Two quite different pictures. Whilst they are not the best pictures I've ever taken, I'm reasonably happy with them. I've not done any manipulation on them yet, time enough during the coming winter to do that.

Enchanted Wood

2009-11-27T19:21:00.008Z

Nothing of note to post this week except a visit to a windy Syon Park to visit the Enchanted Wood. Here are a selection of some photos from that visit ....

St Paul's

2009-11-18T21:30:00.007Z

Spent a very pleasant, if chilly, time in Central London a few evenings ago. Took my tripod in, thought I'd try to capture St Pauls at night time - from across the Thames. Good location - outside Tate Modern. Made a few exposures - and attach one I liked here. I'll have to analyse this one (and the others from that evening) in more detail soon - I was varying the shutter speeds, f-stops and colour balance in order to achieve different results. That is one advantage (some may say only but thats another matter) of digital photography - tha camera automatically records the technical details of each shot, for subsequent analytical use - you dont have to write down copious notes at the time....

Here's a similar photo of St Paul's for comparison, taken from almost the same position, across the river from outside the Tate Modern - but this one was taken in daylight. Quite a difference ?

Fashion Show

2009-11-05T16:25:00.015Z

Had a different but interesting Saturday last - I was asked to attend a Fashion Show and take photos of the event. I'd never been to a fashion show before, never mind photograph it.

Photographically, the lighting was was patchy on the cat walk, with the best light at either end. Given crowds milling around - punters as well as others taking photos - using a tripod was not an option. Tried using flash (an accessory on the camera hot shoe with adjustable head, not the built in rubbish) - but obtained poor results.
So had to revert to using the camera hand held.

Managed to get some pictures as the attached show. I've got plenty more, many of which may be described as "too soft". Not sure if they show the clothes off to their best advantage - presumably the purpose of the show. I guess some more experience at events such as these will improve my efforts.

lac d'Annecy

2009-10-29T11:06:00.006Z

lac d'Annecy
Originally uploaded by Tawny042

Here is another photo, posted to my photostream some time ago - Oct 2005 - which has been achieving recent views (during the last week or so) in Flickr. Cant think why. I can understand another of my photos - "At Salem" - again uploaded to Flickr a while ago - getting recent hits - after all the subject matter is Halloween which is just around the corner, but a photo of boats on Lac d'Annecy ? As always, I'm sure there is a good reason. Annecy is candidate for a future Winter Olympic games perhaps ? Perhaps not, but as long as the hits keep on coming .....

3 Exhibitions and Some Footie

2009-10-26T14:12:00.022Z

Busy weekend just gone - 3 photographic exhibitions to visit and a footie game to enjoy.

Visited the 1st Exhibition, "A Double Take on Photography" in the Garden Gallery within the marvellous surroundings of Osterley House, west London - to view Black & White and Infra Red photos. If you didn't make this exhibition, visit the web pages of the two exhibitors,

http://www.alanabercrombieimages.co.uk

and

http://www.phildrakephotography.co.uk

The 2nd Exhibition was the Jane Bown:Exposures 100 Portraits at the King's Place Gallery, York Way in central London and almost exclusively black & white pictures of the famous. Liked the photos from the sixties. How times changes, strange to see people allowing themselves to be photographed whilst smoking. Most of these photographs would have been taken on film, and this shows in the quality of the prints.

Exhibition #3 was London Independent Photography's 21st Annual Exhibition at the Cotton Centre in Tooley Street, again in central London, near to London Bridge, where there were both colour and black & white panels on display.

All three exhibitions are worth a visit - and even better in these recessionary times - free entry.

The weekend finished with a visit to Upton Park to see Arsenal throw away a half time 2- 0 lead and let West Ham score twice to earn a well deserved draw. Had seats in the Bobby Moore stand - behind the goal - and for once all the goals were at this end - in front of us - rather than the other end. Four goals, one penalty and a red card, an exiting match. Can't complain about that for entertainment. And even better news - THAT team from Manchester lost.

Spend a little time (probably would have been more if the activities on the pitch weren't so entertaining) watching the professional photographers in their goal line enclosure. Looks like they're all into digital cameras these days. There were 4 still cameras on small tripods placed behind the goal net during the 1st half - all on automatic exposure and wifi upload? All 4 should have had excellent views of both Arsenal goals during the 1st half. Only 1 remained in place for the second half. I wonder if they made it up the other goal? If so they missed 2 wonderful West Ham goals.

Halloween

2009-10-15T09:17:00.006+01:00

My photo "At Salem" referred to in a previous post has had a few more hits in Flickr. Given Halloween is vast approaching I expect it will get a few more in the next few weeks. I've visited the Boston area many times over the years during Autumn (or the "Fall" as the locals call it) and so far find it my favourite part of the US especially at this time of year. You can take a chance with the weather - but while some days can be miserable, when the sun comes out it is glorious.

Anyway here are some more of my photos taken in Salem one October 31st a year or so ago. On looking at them again, I'd like return there and take some better ones.

I'm always amused at the differences between countries. Here in London, Halloween could quite easily pass you by - not exactly unnoticed but its not such a big deal. Over in the States - in Massachusetts at least - at this time of year its in your face, the stores are full of Halloween candy and costumes, the kids go trick or treating big time ....

Fouth Plinth

2009-10-14T12:42:00.018+01:00

I see the One and Other/Fourth Plinth art project - where 2400 participants each spent an hour alone on the otherwise empty 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square - came to a close this morning. It first came to my attention back in July shortly after it began, when I was passing through the Square on my way somewhere else. The participant at the time didn't interest me - he was merely pacing up and down. What was more interesting then was the change-over - the new participant was driven up in a platform on a cherry-picker, lifted up to the plinth, change-over occurs and then the previous one driven away.

Since then I've made a point of passing through Trafalgar Square when in central London - around the time of the change over (usually on the hour) - to photograph it. And I've built up a small collection of photos, from which I'm posting a short sequence ....

From what I've seen, an eclectic mix of people on the plinth - some eccentric, some interesting, some boring, others forgettable. But Trafalgar Square will seem a little emptier to me now that the project is over. I guess the plinth will be used for something else ?

At Salem

2009-10-10T12:30:00.003+01:00

At Salem
Originally uploaded by Tawny042

I was looking through my photostream on Flickr yesterday, only to notice that this picture - taken and posted some time ago - had registered another viewing - the first for a little while. How time flies, it is October already, Halloween is a couple of weeks away and beyond that Christmas, New Year and winter.

Looking at the picture, my caption (October 31st, Salem, Mass ...) and title ("At Salem") reminded me of several memorable vacations spent in Massachusetts at this time of year. The Fall colours are stunning and well worth visiting the area for this reason alone - and there are many other reasons.

Anyways - back to the picture - taken on Halloween in the town of Salem, of witch burning fame. Salem is just north of Boston, on the Atlantic coast.If you haven't got a car you can take a train from North Station in Boston - Salem in on the commuter line out to Rockport - on its way to Salem the train stops at Chelsea, and after that it continues to Manchester and then Gloucester - familiar names to a UK resident.

Salem seems to base its tourist industry on the fame (infamy ?) - with witch museums and so on (tacky for some) - but when I was there a year or so ago on October 31st, it seemed like a movie set with people moving around the streets dressed up in costumes and having some fun - and this was still in daylight.

Local Newspaper

2009-09-20T17:45:00.005+01:00

I had some good news on Friday last (18/09/09) - a local newspaper published one of my photographs, a sunset view of the Thames at Richmond, taken near Twickenham Bridge. This is the picture -

The picture was cropped slightly top and bottom for publication, but otherwise shows up fairly well, and I'm pleased to see it.

You'll find it in the paper version of the Richmond and Twickenham Times on page 21.

Night Carnival

2009-09-15T21:05:00.006+01:00

Sunday turned out windy, cool, overcast, dull and with no interesting light at all. So decided to pass on the daytime events and head straight for the Night Carnival. This was to begin around dusk, along the Victoria Embankment so overcast conditions were not an issue. The Night Carnival was colourful and spectacular, I recognised a few participants from Notting Hill a few weeks back (tonight's Night Carnival was much quieter !) Took some photos using flash (using monopod for some), but don't think the results did the Carnival justice. Shame. Next time ?

Thames Festival

2009-09-13T13:52:00.007+01:00

Had a good day yesterday at the Thames festival in central London. A sunny day with warm sunshine and many activities to photograph. Arrived in Waterloo in good humour on the train only to loose it as the Underground decided to have a signal failure on the Jubilee line then and suspend it from Waterloo to London Bridge - I had planned to take the tube to London Bridge and then walk back (upstream) towards the South Bank Centre.

Anyways the good humour did return later on at the Festival. Made it as far as Southwark Bridge which had many stalls selling exotic food and drink, long tables and chairs decked out ...... and the Mariachi performers (there were only 3 when I was there, is this too small to be a mariachi band ?)

They brought back many (good) memories of my trip to Mexico - last time I heard that type of music I was actually there - and that was in 1996. How time flies.

The Fire Garden outside the Tate Modern was spectacular, but as I hadn't brought my tripod (it weighs kilos and far too heavy to drag around a crowed event such as this) or a mono pod, haven't managed to take any half decent photos. Think I'll return this evening for the Night Carnival and Fireworks - with mono pod.

More from Carnival

2009-09-02T18:11:00.005+01:00

Its now 2 days after Carnival, my ears have finally stopped ringing and my hearing is back to normal. What the pictures below may show is something of the colour and party atmosphere of the Carnival - but they fail miserably to show are the sounds and smells of the event.

My memories of August Bank Holiday Monday last in Notting Hill include the aromas of bar-b-queuing food, many decibels from the sound systems and colour.

Carnival Time

2009-09-01T23:01:00.012+01:00

Went to the Carnival in Notting Hill at the weekend for the first time in years. I'm not really into the music and there's an awful lot of people crowded around some narrow streets, so after visiting it after I first moved to London in 1985 I tended to ignore the event. But somewhat unexpectedly I enjoyed it this time. I'll post some images taken over the 2 days here in due course.... Anyways on my way home on Sunday evening whilst checking what pictures I'd taken during the day, two passing gentlemen asked me to take their photo.

"What for ?" I asked.

"Because we're happy" they replied.

Not wanting to get into an argument I obliged.

Here is the result -

Though I say so myself, not a bad portrait.

lac d'Annecy

2009-08-28T16:36:00.002+01:00

lac d'Annecy
Originally uploaded by Tawny042

I'm posting this entry from my Flickr photostream. This image, of sail boats being towed across Lac d'Annecy in France, has "achieved" 24 viewings, 1 favourite and 17 comments so far today at the time of writing. Not my most popular or interesting image ever (my Richmond Park in Winter used in this Photoblog banner has had more attention) nor is it the most popular in Flickr, but it is good to see some of my images being noticed.

Hard Drives

2009-08-23T12:43:00.000+01:00

How the size (and price) of computer storage changes ...
During the past week I bought a new external hard dive - 1 terabyte - for the sum of £69.99.
Thats 1000 gigabytes.
I've started copying my cds full of photographs on to it and have hardly dented its capacity.
When I bought my first pc all those years ago - in 1996 - I was given a free upgrade from 1 to 2 gigabytes .... and I wondered do I actually need all this space. And to think at one time the floppy disk was a large !

Some very old Photographic efforts of mine

2009-08-15T19:05:00.001+01:00

In the "olden" days I used to take mainly black & white, on film. The following two images are some examples. The Singer was photographed in Dublin and Fishing picture was taken in Amsterdam.

I'm more up to date now having converted to digital. I certainly don't miss spending time in a Darkroom except for that brief moment, when, after working the enlarger, putting the exposed sheet of paper into the developer and watching the image appear. Magical ! But perhaps not so magical when the safe light was switched off in favour of the ordinary light. But thankfully pungent chemicals are a thing of the past (hopefully !)

Hi There

2009-08-15T16:31:00.000+01:00

Here is my first entry in my photography blog. I'm relatively new to writing a blog and still find it a little self-indulgent, but hey ! what the hell, I'll give it a go and see what happens.

my web page url/address is -

http://www.rogertowell.com

Photo Essay , another addition

2009-08-15T13:52:00.002+01:00

I hadn't been looking for another solo mobile phone user to add to this photo essay sequence - a group of people on the phone definitely, but not a single person. Anyways I was passing through Trafalgar Square from another One and Other 4th plinth change over and this gentleman was kind enough to stop his scooter and lift out his phone.
Perhaps these scooters may be personal modern technology also ?
Initially I wonders if he was going to make a call without taking his helmet off - a la scene in the movie "the Day of Jackal" - but this is a mobile phone - you can text on it helmet or no helmet.

Photo Essay - an additional image ?

2009-08-02T18:10:00.001+01:00

Walked through Trafalgar Square this morning and took this image. Is a megaphone personal modern technology? If so then perhaps I have an addition to my Photo Essay sequence. I liked the isolation of the speaker, hiding behind the megaphone and yet no one paying any attention.

Photo Essay - selection, part 2

2009-07-26T21:17:00.001+01:00

Selection of images for the photo essay project was made on Thursday last - see my earlier post. Interesting discussion with the others on the course on what to include and leave out. Am just wondering whether to show some examples of the "rejects" here. There are several images which I'd like to add to the final sequence (as shown in the previous post) - for example a group of people on mobiles all together, perhaps another mobile user standing outside a public phone box, and certainly a pc/laptop user. I'll look out for these in the next couple of weeks and complete the sequence.

Photo Essay - selection

2009-07-26T10:29:00.001+01:00

Photo Essay - more

2009-07-25T12:14:00.001+01:00

Group review of photo essay progress to date on Wednesday morning last. Am now thinking of this project in terms of "people interacting personal modern technology" rather than "people interacting with modern technology". Some suggestions were offered about further images - such as groups of people (herds ?) all on the phone ...

Added this example from Wednesday afternoon ... but still no "herd" on mobile phone users.

Photo Essay - continued

2009-07-23T19:58:00.001+01:00

The other day was, in football-speak, a day of two halves. A funny ol'game, photography. The weather forecast was mixed, sunny intervals and showers. It turned out what sun showers there were occurred in the morning with showers in the afternoon.

Spent some time in Trafalgar Square. Lots of people using cameras, phones, camcorders. Took some photos.

Antony Gormley's One & Another project was very much in operation on the otherwise empty 4th plinth. The people change every hour on the hour - I happened to be there at a change over, liked the dynamics, took some photos (more later) and then wandered up to Leicester Square and onto Piccadilly Circus.

At last, an MP3 user.

MP3 users are harder to photograph, they're more subtle.

Then to Canary Wharf, hoping to find some suits doing lunch with their laptops.
No luck, and the weather adds to my woes by raining. Still I manage 1 or 2 images.

Decide to take the long route back to the West End ..... DLR to Stratford (Building site ... 2012 ?) and then Central Line Westbound, exiting at Holborn. Head into the British Museum to get out of the rain, and have a latte. Last picture of the day - a PC user ! Ironic that I have to get into a museum to find this.

Next Project - Photo Essay

2009-07-21T07:44:00.001+01:00

Today I move on to a new project. Not strictly new, more of a continuation or extension of the "Atmosphere of a Place" project the other day. Here I was mostly photographing people using personal modern technology, in particular mobile phones, digital cameras. On looking back at my selection of shots from that day I included some that had neither phones or cameras. Now I'll not take a photo unless the subject matter has people interacting with modern personal technology - mobiles and cameras as before, and also mp3 players, laptops, pda. Oyster cards ? Possibly. Smart cards seem to be the way for commuters to pay for public transport usage these days. Apart from visitors does anyone pay cash anymore ?

Some more time was spent pleasantly in the Library and then subsequently on the internet looking at photographers work, in particular Anna Fox and her "workstations" (1988). How times change and people with them. In one of her images a young lady (look at the 1980's hairstyle and fashions!) is using a "mobile" phone the size of a brick. And that doesn't even include the battery. I wonder if the mobiles (and laptops) will look so dated in 20 or so years time. I think they will.

Atmosphere of a Place

2009-07-19T21:33:00.002+01:00

Another day, another project - Atmosphere of a Place.

Where ?

South Bank, London, summertime.

In the 1950's, despite the best efforts of the powers that be, a gray concrete jungle with culture indoors. Would have used monochrome then. Film (remember that ?)

But now, it's the early years of the 21st century, the concrete jungle is in colour and there is activity (culture ?) outside as well as indoors. I shoot digital. I'm not the only one, every other person seems to be using a digital camera. And those that aren't have a mobile instead. I take a walk as far as the Tate and photograph modern life. Even the trees get a hug.

family album

2009-07-19T11:28:00.002+01:00

our first project was to produce some images for "family album", some images of my family in a personal environment ... a little difficult for me as my family are scattered geographically eg in North America or Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. Instead I look at my "surrogate" family - my fellows from this course .....

.... and my local photographic society

Incidently - dont think its me - I'm not exactly computer illiterate - but the editing software which I'm using now in the blog is crap, hence the positioning of the 2 images above. I'll look the html when I get time and see if I can do better.

blogging and other activites.....

2009-07-17T20:54:00.002+01:00

I need to get my head around this blogging activity. It's new to me. I had been planning to make daily posts, but as you can see from the dates of the posts, this hasn't happened. It seems so self-indulgent and pretentious. Perhaps this will change in time....

Anyways, another thing I've been getting my head around is this reportage. My photographic education - such as it is (I've done some City and Guilds modules, I've got an LRPS and been through the club circuit) taught me that the technical aspects of a photograph were about as important as the content. So I was somewhat appalled to see the technical quality of some of the images shown to us earlier. What seems to be more important here is intent and emotion .... those touchy feely ideas ...

reportage portraiture

2009-07-13T20:34:00.001+01:00

1st day of Reportage portaiture course. It's a photography based course at the London College of Communication in the Elephant & Castle, London.

During the morning we (about 14 of us) were introduced to the concept of the Family Album, and in particular the work of Nan Goldin, Boris Mikalov, Paul Graham and Nicholas Nixon. What does reportage mean to each of us ? A little research in the college library in preparation for the afternoon session - each of us had to choose a photographer/ book and give a short presentation - proved useful. My choice was Robert Doisneau (book - Paris) and in particular the iconic photo - Le baiser de l'hotel de ville (1950).