In for the landing

130mm f/6 1/400 at ISO 400

The seagull just coming in to land had already ousted another gull from that post, and was ousted itself moments later by the seagull right behind him. I don't know why 3 birds were fighting over that one spot, it's not like there was a shortage of posts or anything.

Sometimes I like to take these freeze-frame type shots because most times I have my all-round walkabout lens on (Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di2) and I want to push it because it's not exactly the fastest lens around. It is convenient though. This lens isn't very bright towards the tele end and it was a cloudy day so I adjusted exposure and a few other levels in post to brighten it up a bit.

Pile of ducklings

A female Mallard sheltering her ducklings from the rain, like an umbrella... a duckbrella?

That's a lot of fuzzy ducklings. Duckpile!

(I believe these are the same ducklings as the ones in an earlier post)

Good for what ails you

Another antiques/curios shop display window. The bottle reminded me of those old pharmacies with the glass bottle full of a particular coloured liquid. I also liked the grungy colours and textures of the rusty ironwork, the patchy mirror and the painting in the background. This would make a good still life painting. I could probably give it a go in oil paint, once I finish my plague doctor mask.*


*It's almost done, it's just missing a headband of some kind. I just haven't gotten around to photographing it and uploading the pics.

Talk to the animals

I don't think the pigeon understands what you're saying unless you say it with bread.

One for the ladies

I hear he makes shoes, or something like that.

Taken back when the Design Museum were having an exhibition on him. Obviously the sign caught my eye, with its bright neon colours against the drab white of the building. It was a cloudy day when I took it so I accentuated the colours in post by upping the contrast and lowering exposure. It's a little more "artificial" or cartoony-looking than I normally prefer but it complements the colours well.

Byebye Kitty

So Kara, my cat in the Philippines died yesterday. Not really sure how or why, just that he was found in the house garden in the morning. He wasn't bloodied up like he'd been in a fight and it wasn't old age (he was only about 3 years old), so it might have been something he ate, or maybe something that bit him. I dunno. While I'm not bawling my eyes out or anything that dramatic, it's pretty sad because he was really friendly with people, unlike our other cats who just aren't used to human contact and will tend to run from you, unless it's feeding time and you have the food.

I took this shot of Kara with my Panny FZ45 last year, moments after a bout of really heavy rain. I saw him taking a quick lick of a puddle so I did the old zoom, point and shoot. I managed to capture a moment when he had his tongue out, which was pretty cool, especially since that camera isn't the fastest performer, particularly when shooting in raw.

He was a cool cat.

Trumpeter

Just off Leicester Square I heard what I thought at the time was a trumpeter busking. A little more playing and I started to think that the notes weren't coming from a trumpet at all. I navigated the crowds and followed the sound. That's when I saw the musician in question.

This man was actually "doot-doot-dooting" into the traffic cone, which amplified his song above the general cacophony of tourists and traffic. I don't remember the song he was "performing" but it was the only song in his repertoire and it was pretty catchy.

Update (July 2013): I heard this guy again, this time near Covent Garden. The song he was dooting was "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. It was the exact same song as the one in Leicester Square. His repertoire hasn't changed and his timing was still very much off. I suppose if it ain't broken...

Junk food

Whatever you can get your beak on.

Star cluster

I don't know the name of this plant. All I know about it is that the flowers are yellow and before they are pollinated and fall out they sit in these neat little star-shaped pods.

Getting this close to a subject makes me wish I had a macro lens handy. I suppose I could always do macro-type shots with my Panny, but that's an extra camera to carry around.