Splash

Contemplate

Street dogs

Not actually on a street but close enough, appearance-wise.

Reflecting

Off of glass... as well as in thought.

Light Shaft

Pillars, Posts, Person

Return of black & white.

Worm's-Eye View of a Bird's-Eye View

Looking up at a couple of crows looking down. I also like how these birds are framed by the passing clouds into a dark strip of sky.

Hat trio

I guess my previous picture uploading woes have been resolved. I can upload from my computer once again. Fanks, Google!

Taken during last week's Chinese New Year celebrations in London. Despite the fairly decent weather I decided not to go to the main stage like last year, I instead walked around to see what else was going on. I tried to walk through Chinatown just after midday, I say "tried" as it was completely packed with people. I just ended up walking through a bunch of side roads, seeing if anything caught my eye.

These three ladies were the only non-Asian people that I saw who seemed to be into the spirit of the day, and that line of conical hats really stood out in the crowd. I kind of shot from the hip, and was pretty lucky to get the image so straight. Normally when I try to blind shoot the image is crooked, the subject is out of frame or my camera focused on something else completely (happens a lot with my not-very-fast Tamron lens).

I can't really decide whether I like it in black & white or colour. In colour it's still fairly neutral, and you're still drawn to the three ladies who have purple toy dragons.

I like 'em both.

Mobility

Speed demons.

One guy freely whizzing by on his bike, being watched by another guy constrained to an electric scooter due to his bandaged legs. Contrasting situations? Perhaps.


=====

So I haven't used blogger in a couple of months, and Google go and change the way you insert images. I appear to have lost the ability to directly upload images from my computer in the editor window, and instead have to go into Google Drive, upload my image there and then select that in the editor. Ugh!

Can I still do it the "old" way? If it's still there I can't find it... :/

Ribs

Under the southside of Blackfriars Bridge.

Repeating lines, contrasting light and darkness, would convert nicely into black & white... of course my attention was drawn to this view :)

Under The Shard

Well, almost under The Shard.

I wanted to photograph The Shard from a different angle so I decided to look up for an abstract view, rather than across the river or down the street to take the whole building in (which I've done many-a-time :D ). It was a cloudy day which gave the sky a fairly even tone and as I looked up a plane flew into frame which helped to put the negative space into context (at least I think it does. I could just be sounding arty for the sake of sounding arty. Ha!)

Left Out

The way the girl is gazing off into the distance makes it look like she wasn't included in the trio's game, but she wasn't really. She was just looking towards her mother who was out of frame.

The camera sometimes lies.

Notting Hill Carnival 2013

What I wanted to do: walk the entire Notting Hill carnival route (from the top of Great Western Road all the way round to Ladbroke Grove).
What I ended up doing: walking against the route and deviating from it at the bottom of Great Western Road (the crowds got a bit too big to pass). Mission almost accomplished.

I've never walked the full carnival route from start to finish (or finish to start, whichever way you head). It takes a lot of patience and careful timing. Leave too early and there's nothing on the street, too late and you'll just see the tops of other people's heads. I live really near to the "holding area" of the route where the floats and dancers line up before starting the procession at 12 noon, so I could either walk with the flow and look at people, or walk in the opposite direction and re-join the procession somewhere in the middle. I started with the former, got to the top of Great Western Road then walked back, as going against the route would provide better photo opportunities. Crowds are good for street photography and candids but if you're only out for that when there's a carnival going on around you're a bit odd.

Some of the day's better shots:

 Air drumming

 Where's Wally?

This guy was fun, he was really feeling the music.

Train tickets costume.

 "On the Beat". For the bobbies.

I didn't ignore all street photo opportunities. This kid standing on a window sill with black bar shades was too good to pass up.

Eternity Drum. One of my favourite pictures of the day. You can really feel the energy and fun in their performance.

Then I couldn't walk the rest of the route (Great Western Road was completely rammed out, and basically one-way) so I had to take a detour through Portobello Road...

...snapping one more street shot along the way for good measure.


Also goes without saying that Monday is the day to go. Sunday is a little more chilled (kids day and all) but you don't really get the full-on experience of big costumes and crowds of people. And travelling light/safe is good. I carried my little Lowepro Toploader rather than my big Crumpler Cupcake, my camera was strapped into my Pacsafe strap and I had just the bare essentials in my front pockets.

Photo Set: Animals (B&W)

In alphabetical order, I suppose:

 Gullwings. One up, one down.

 Power-pigeons. Grime and grime.

Sausages in the park.

 Trellick pigeon. I tried to focus on the bird but AF chose the building instead. Oh well.

Webdrops. 35mm goodness after the rain.

Tail feathers

This black & white conversion thing I'm on is really addictive :)

I saw this man in the park sitting in front of a sprinkler, one of those sprinklers that rocks back-and-forth, spraying in a fan shape. The shape reminded me of a peacock's tail feathers. I just had to wait a few seconds for the sprinkler to tilt upwards, fortunately he was so engrossed in his book to give a damn about me pointing my lens in his direction.

Like Daido

I don't really blow out the contrast in my pictures (I don't feel it's really conducive to the ones-and-zeroes "perfection" of digital cameras), but after watching Daido Moriyama's documentary Near Equal (or, Stray Dog of Tokyo) on YouTube I thought I'd have a go.

I tried it on this all-black clad lady set against a white background and I think it turned out pretty neat. This is also one of the first "let me try and shoot people from the hip like a stealthy street photographer and not look like a perv" shots I ever tried.

What I like about Moriyama's style is that he takes photos of pretty much anything, finding beauty and interest in subjects most people would ignore completely, and he did most of it with a simple Ricoh compact film camera. He also doesn't mind snapshots either. Some photographers don't like the word (I sometimes have that internal struggle of trying to justify snapping away like a maniac) but he revels in snapshots.

It also makes me wish I had a camera that wasn't so bulky and imposing, yet still feature-full. Something like a Fuji X20. The silver and black one is nice... yeah... yeah... yeah...



Here's a nice video by Tate Modern about Daido Moriyama, a bit like a concise version of the full Near Equal documentary. And it's brought up-to-date as he's now shooting in digital (but still with a simple compact camera).

Linerider

I pretty much shot from the hip, pointing the camera at the road and waiting for cyclists to ride past. I was also walking alongside the cycle lane, hence the shaky and off-kilter shot, but I much prefer an out-of-focus subject as it adds to the feeling of speed, as does the road markings and uneven road wear (which converted nicely into black and white).

Family affair

A candid shot of Vinny, my godson.

Over the weekend I was at a family celebration and, being the guy with a half-decent camera (i.e., non-smartphone, non-point & shoot) I automatically became the day's "official" photographer. That meant taking the typical posed and organised photos to document the event.

Most people there were savvy to candids; you point a camera at a person and as soon as they see you they usually change their whole persona. I saw my godson playing in the garden, looking through a glass door and, seeing how he wasn't concerned with my camera at that moment took the opportunity for a non-posed shot.

Just the right amount of stuff I like: candid style, reflections, interactions and of course a nice black & white conversion.

Self shot

Not a huge fan of the "selfie".

This is my version, all lines and shadows; my silhouette, some crazy paving, and of course pigeons. But that's London for you, pigeons everywhere.

We used to called them "MySpace angles", particularly the ones where you'd place the camera up high and shoot downwards. Of course nowadays Facebook has all but slaughtered MySpace to be the self-indulgent stage of the moment, and front-facing cameras on phones have increased self-shot portraits to no end. The selfie lives.



My favourite "selfie" of the moment. Thanks, internet!

It's the ridiculous phone and duckface that does it for me.

(via)

Tunnel vision

I took this because of the converging lines and vanishing point. The walls and ceiling were also painted gloss blue which contrasted nicely with the reflected yellowy-white light from the striplights and patches of daylight on the walls. It did, however lend itself much more to black and white, especially where the shadow is interrupted by those box windows. I like how the repeating lines are much more prominent, and the ladder-like shadow on the ground is bolder. It's no longer about contrasting colours and now about the composition of strong lines and repeating elements.