Tag Archives: London

Instagram #16

19 April 2013

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It’s time once again for me to try and figure out a way of starting one of my regular Instagram posts without using a variation of the phrase ‘it’s once again time’. Looks like I’ve failed again.

That’s presumably because it is once again time for me to show off another small selection of my Instagram photographs.

The backlog I have for my Instagram shots is nowhere as voluminous as for the rest of my photography, but there’s still a few I feel the need to share with you. In this set we have a few shots from the snow that hit the UK a month or so ago, and some random shots of various bits of London, including a pub, an Ikea, and Waterloo Station.

If you like these, then check out my other Instagram posts, or check me out on Instagram directly.

Snow by the NFT
Snowy Church
Ikea Smoke Stacks
Pub Glasses
Train
Wood Pallettes
Tracks
M&Ms
Station #2

Cloudy London

31 March 2013

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Far back in the mists of ancient time, a whole week before the start of the 2012 London Olympics, my wife and I took a trip into London to see an all-night Dark Knight trilogy screening. We had a bit of time to kill before the midnight screening, so I ended up taking quite a few photographs. I’ve already posted most of them, in London at Night (Part IV) and In the Skatepark at Midnight. Earlier in the day, however, we wandered across Waterloo Bridge. It was a cloudy day, so I decided to experiment with HDR images to bring out the clouds and the sky.

f/3.5, ISO 500, 18mm (HDR)

f/3.5, ISO 500, 18mm (HDR)

Before we got there, however, we came across a weird steampunk show on the South Bank outside the National Theatre. It made for some interesting shots.

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Instagram #15

15 February 2013

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It’s time, once again, for another trip to my pile of choice Instagram images to display some for your delectation.

It’s been a bit of an interesting time for Instagram. they made the news late last year over proposed changes to their terms of use that seemed to say they would have the freedom to sell users’ images without giving said user a penny. Instagram have since relented and changed their minds about changing the terms, but damage was done and user numbers are reportedly down. It knocked me for a bit too; for almost a month after it all I didn’t use the service, and until they relented I was seriously considering deleting my account.

It took a flurry of snow for me return to using the service with any regularity. Since then I’ve gone a little bit crazy, sharing images of snow, trains and all sorts.

ALLTHETHINGS

Despite the quantity, I’ve been pretty pleased with the quality of the Instagramming I’ve been doing, putting me in a similar position with my Instagram images as I am with all of my other images: backlogsville. So, much like my other images, I’m posting in the order that appeals most, rather than sticky to any sort of chronology.

As always, if you like these images, then you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter, or my Tumblr which contains a selection of my Instagram shots.

Tracks
London
Boats on the Thames
Sleepy Head
London Skyline
Stairs
Chilly
Somerset House
Snowy Tracks

London at Night: Somerset House

10 February 2013

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I’m continuing to work through my backlog of images in the order that most appeals to me. Today we’re heading back to mid November and a trip to Somerset House with Catherine. Being November, the ice rink that set up there each winter was in full swing. Also, with it being November, it got dark quickly.

1/15sec, f/3.5, ISO 1000, 19mm

1/15sec, f/3.5, ISO 1000, 19mm

Much like a lot of other trips in the London at Night series, the building was bathed in strong, odd-coloured light. This is done to many of the buildings in London and, I’m sure, is mainly done to aggravate photographers using auto white balance. On this occasion, Somerset House was lit by an orangey-pinkey tint. Normally I’d consider dropping the colour temperature of the image to soften the warmth of the photo, but in this case I couldn’t do that either, because of the ice rink being so strongly lit with a brilliant blue light.

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To Tower Bridge

31 January 2013

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Apologies to everyone for the false start on this post earlier, I accidentally hit ‘Publish’ instead of ‘Save Draft’ and it was released to the world long before it was ready (and that time, it was called That London, very much a working title). Don’t worry, this is now the finished article. Unless I accidentally hit ‘Publish’ again, in which case it isn’t.

With All’s Well That Ends Well finally cleared from my to-do list, I can once again turn my attention back to the backlog of images I’ve been working through since summer. It’s not quite as bad as I thought it was, but I did just realise that there’s slightly more images still to be edited than I thought. Never matter, it gives me plenty to do – the main issue I have is knowing where to start.

This batch of photographs dates back to a sunny August afternoon, when I decided to combine my lunch break and the walk to a different campus for a meeting and take some photos on the way. This was a while ago now, so forgive me if my memory of this one is a little hazy.

The main thing I was interested in capturing was a shot of Tower Bridge whilst it still had the Olympic Rings on it, before they were taken down and substituted for the Paralympic Logo. That was at my destination, however, and I had plenty to see before I got that far.

f/9, ISO 200, 70mm (HDR)

f/9, ISO 200, 70mm (HDR)

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2012 in Pictures

1 January 2013

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CreativeSplurgesIn last night’s in-depth rundown of 2012, I included what I considered to be the best picture of each month (you can also see them as a set on the Creative Splurges Facebook page). It was often very difficult to choose just one single image to represent the whole month, however, so it seems like a good idea to look at some of the best images of last year. Much like the roundup, this will be on a month-by-month basis.

No doubt you have your own opinions on some of the best images of the year, so if one of your favourites is missing, please berate me in the comments!

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London at Night: Covent Garden

3 December 2012

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1/5sec, f/18, ISO 1600, exposure bias -0.33, 18mm

1/5sec, f/18, ISO 1600, exposure bias -0.33, 18mm

Whilst waiting for my wife to finish work to go out for a meal last week, I went for a walk around Covent Garden with my camera. That’s how I kill time these days – find somewhere and point a camera at it.

Covent Garden is not far from Trafalgar Square, an area of shops, market stalls and eateries. There is an air of Borough Market about it, but not quite on the same scale. It isn’t just a market, however; there’s numerous street performers, pubs and bars. In other words, one of those quintessential London spots.

There is a central covered area containing independent stalls as well as more mainstream shop units, called the Apple Market. When I went there it was all decorated for Xmas.

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November No More

1 December 2012

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The penultimate month of 2012 has now been and gone, and the inexorable march of time I keep mentioning because I’m too lazy to come up with a more creative way of describing it has brought us round to December and the last 31 days of the year. I always seem to wax pretty lyrical at the start of these monthly reports. It’s all just shameless filler and hopefully I’ll soon grow out of it.

November ended a bit unusually. I got taken out a bit by some bug that had some mild flu-like symptoms and has left me off of work with a bit of a debilitating cough for the last few days. I’m not looking for sympathy here, nor am I making excuses; I’m attempting to convey the weirdness of the end of the month, especially for someone like me who can be a real stickler for routine. Anyway, being off of work is usually a reason to get stuff written so I have no excuses.

Routine was almost accidentally the theme of the month. I slipped, subconsciously at first, into a regular posting pattern. I tried to make it last, but I didn’t quite make it; that is the one effect of the sickness (that is too much to be a cold but not enough to be the flu) this month. But I will come to that shortly. Let us, as ever, go back and start at the beginning.

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In the Skatepark at Midnight

28 November 2012

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I haven’t quite managed to keep up with posting every Monday. In my defence, I’ve been afflicted by something that had many of the hallmarks of either a mild flu or a bad cold and didn’t manage to complete anything over the weekend, and I’m currently sitting here as I type this with my body apparently trying to cough up my own lungs. Hey ho, nothing like a day off of work to give me a chance to complete some writing and hack up my internal organs in peace.

Whilst wandering around London one night waiting for a movie to begin, my wife and I happened across a small area designated for skating that exists on the South Bank. It’s been there for quite a while, but I’ve never stopped there to photograph; I’ve passed it a few times when armed with my camera, but there’s often a significant imbalance between spectators and skaters leaving me feeling too self conscious to photograph them.

1/15sec, f/4, ISO 2500, exposure bias -0.67, 24mm

Funnily enough, the skatepark seems brighter at night than during the day; at night, the place is well lit, but these lights are off when the sun is up. As reasonably well lit at this is, it made for an interesting challenge, as there was precious little light for shooting action.

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Along the Thames

19 November 2012

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Whilst chasing the Olympic Torch back in July, I used the Thames path as a way of bypassing the closed and inevitably busy roads as the torch made its way around London. I made the three-mile trip on my bike from Richmond to Kew Bridge along the river in the hope of heading the torch off at the pass and having another go at shooting it. Not realising how much time I actually had to make the trip I didn’t stop for anything, but couldn’t help noticing shots to capture.

On the way back, I took a little more time, and stopped to photograph some of the great scenery along the banks of the Thames.

f/8, ISO 320, 18mm (HDR)

Actually, that isn’t entirely true. My first couple of shots were taken on my way to Kew. I caught sight of an interesting undergrowth in the floodplains of the Thames and just had to capture it.

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