Street Photography

On Saturday I took part in a photography workshop with the British Photography School. It gave me a chance to check out some really cool locations in East London and give me even more inspiration (like I need more ideas floating around in my head!). I took over 200 photos in 2 hours so bear with me while I edit them! Here are a few to get me started. Despite the terrible weather, I still managed to get some really good images and the weather didn't win in dampening my spirit! As always, feedback is very, very welcome!

This is definitely my favourite from the shoot

Willesden Lane Cemetery Part 2

Here are a few more taken from Willesden Lane Cemetery. Lots of lovely textures from the leaves and the markings on the graves, and the creepy one at the bottom of a coffin. Scroll down to read more!

   

     

No cemetery would be complete without a....er... dog bin?! (Bottom Left) OK!

This one to the right was taken through a broken window of a crypt. Being only 5 foot nothing, I had to climb up a little, point and shoot. It was so dark inside that I couldn't make any shapes or anything out. PLUS (!) there were loads of cobwebs and anyone who knows me, knows just how much I hate those eight legged freaks so quite a big achievement for me! When I got home, I got straight to editing it and although it's not really clear, there definitely is a very old coffin in there. And actually, on this one occasion, I can forgive the presence of spiders and their webs because I think it works really well in this photo! 

Willesden Lane Cemetery

Not much to explain about this post. Me, my camera and Willesden Lane Cemetery. And this isn't all of them, more to follow.

 

                         
                                                                                                                                                                           

          

                        

Let the sun shine....or set

I always used to love drawing pictures of the Sun as a kid, you know, with the big rays coming out and filling the page? And colouring them in in vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. Although you don't tend to get the Sun actually looking like that, I still love the rays you see when you photograph the Sun in the sky and I never miss an opportunity to capture it. Here are some of the images I have taken (on the odd chance the Sun has come out to play in England this year!)

This was taken at Hampstead Heath on a very, very cold winters morning! I love how the light is reflecting off the dew and making it glisten. The Sun was so low and big in the sky and, maybe it's just me, but you can literally see the Sun is on fire. 

The rest of the photos were taken in my back garden. I love the variety I'm able to achieve without even having to leave the house, excellent! And thrown in a few sunsets for good measure too. Hope you like!

                                                       

                                                               

More Millie!

To those of you who follow the blog regularly I'd just like to say that you better get used to all the baby photos of my niece you are going to see over the next few years at least! Having said that, I have heard of this new craze where parents take a picture of their child every day to document their lives. I won't be that bad with Millie, but only because I am not lucky enough to see her every day! But this is going to be my own take on that project.

Here she is at 4 weeks.

This is Millie at 6 weeks old. So cute! And looks like she's already getting used to her aunty putting a camera in her face, definitely getting the hang of posing for me. A natural maybe? She has got long legs for a littl'un, could be a model in the making!

And Millie at 9 weeks at her 'Meet the Baby Party'. She had met most people already but we don't need much of an excuse to have a party in our family and I think she liked it too!

What a beaut!

No smoke without fire

I have a notebook at home that any idea, however weird or wonderful, goes in to. And 'smoke' has been written in my notebook for some time. So, with the weather as delightful as it is and preventing me from going out to take photos, I thought now was as good a time as any to do some smoke experiments.....

                                                                           

Not bad for a first attempt I don't think! I looked up a tutorial and got straight in to it. The tutorial said patience was key and I can vouch for that! However, I am pretty pleased with them. Of course, there is always room for improvement but smoke makes so many beautiful patterns and when you add colour to the images it brings those amazing shapes to life.

To achieve all of these photos I had the ISO set to 100 and used my flash gun, a home made reflector and snood. I found it really hard to focus because you have to use a manual focus and it's not easy in the dark! But I did it and had fun so I'll definitely be practising it more in the future.

Looks like I'll have a lot more of these to showcase seeing as this rain doesn't look like budging any time soon.

One weekend in sunny June....

One weekend in sunny June......... Actually, it was probably in May, I don't think we've had a sunny weekend in June this year have we?! Well, have no fear, I managed to get a photo with rain in it as well, just in case anyone got withdrawal symptoms of the moist stuff.

I don't think I need to explain why I took these photos. But I will anyway; the colours. When the Sun is shining and I'm lying on the decking in my back garden this is what I get to look up to. It's almost like being on holiday when you get to look at these vibrant, rich and varied colours. Until you hear a bus go past anyway!

This photo was inspired thanks to a recent trip to a card shop. Some had random figurines in equally random places. A juxtaposition, if you will.  So it made me think about what random objects I have at home and how can I take them out of their 'normal' habitat. Just a bit of fun really. Having said that, I might make myself a project out of it now, take this little storm trooper out with me and see what random places I can photograph him in........ Although to be fair, this isn't a very random place to put him. In my garden, yes, but on a rock is not that far removed from where he would live if he really was in Star Wars.

And the rain reins supreme once again! But I always like to see an opportunity in any given situation and I just love looking at raindrops on windows. Water can really distort the way you see something but in this photo, it's where the rain drop of is that's clearer. The image doesn't demonstrate just how much it was lashing it down at this point either. If I'd been in a car the wipers would have been on full whack!

So there you have it; ONE weekend, ONE camera, ONE location, FOUR very different photos. Enjoy!