Blog
According to the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, the ancient Chinese encyclopædia, all animals can be described as belonging to one of the following 14 categories:
- Those that belong to the emperor
- Embalmed ones
- Those that are trained
- Suckling pigs
- Mermaids (or Sirens)
- Fabulous ones
- Stray dogs
- Those that are included in this classification
- Those that tremble as if they were mad
- Innumerable ones
- Those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush
- Et cetera
- Those that have just broken the flower vase
- Those that, at a distance, resemble flies
Fortunately, my categorisation of blog posts is equally as logical and elaborate. So to limit this list of posts to a single category, please hover your mouse over the word “blog” at the right-hand side of the menu above and wait for the drop-down menu with different categories to appear.
CRUK 2013 night in Hornchurch
On Saturday the 21st September in Hornchurch, the right place to go was Club 2004 which hosted the annual Cancer Research UK Charity Event arranged by Jenni Winfield and Mark McIlven. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to come along and take some pictures from the evening.
Back at it again
After a 7 months hiatus, I’m finally back at the study again. The first exercise is a gentle start with 20 pictures of dry paint 😉
Photography from The Mountains to The Sea
The main lesson I took away from the wonderful Ansel Adams exhibition was not about individual photographs, but about the old master’s mastery of the print. Truly amazing!
Man Ray Portraits
Thoughts from my visit to The National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of 150 original Man Ray portraits.
Assignment 2 Feedback
Feedback from my tutor for my TAOP Assignment 2.
TAOP Assignment 2: Elements of Design
10 pictures of foodstuff arranged to match a pre-defined set of compositional design elements. It was a fun exercise that I learnt a lot from.
Dieselpunk, sexy girls and a vampire
Sexy girls and a bonafide vampire, 10 photographers, 2 make-up artists, around 30 flashguns. It’s the January meet of the Essex Strobist where we visited Dieselpunk Studios again.
A question of colour
Thoughts and notes about the exhibition Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour.
Whitby by night
A pictoresque ruin of an old abbey. Water. Hillsides. Sunset and sunrise. What more could any photographer wish for? I had it all in abundance on this trip to Whitby a few months ago, and I am pleased with the photographic results.
Rhythms and patterns
In my learning log for TAOP exercise 2-9 I look at repetition, patterns and rhythms in pictures, and manages to get myself somewhat confused.
Real and implied triangles
In this exercise, I investigated “real” and “implied” triangles as a compositional device.
Flooded Ouse
A picture of the flooded river Ouse in North Yorkshire reminded me of one of the conclusions from the press photographer 2012 exhibition: Pictures of natural disasters have more impact if there is a human context.
Christmas lights in London
Christmas pictures from Regent Street and Oxford Street in London, 2012
Implied lines
Exercise 2.7 is about implied lines – lines that aren’t really visible lines in the picture, but which the brain recognises as such. The typical examples are eye-lines, lines “made up of” points, and movement-lines.
Curves
Finding curves in the City proved to be more of a challenge than finding diagonals, and in the end I had to raid the archives for a good example of natural curves. Here are four images using curves to emphasize movement and direction. TAOP exercixe 2.6
Diagonals
Lane markings on Westminster Bridge, fairy-light covered trees, a Christmas Market stall and a building with a windmill on top demonstrates strong diagonal lines in these notes for TAOP exercise 2.5
World Press Photo 2012
I went to view the World Press Photo exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall in London. So many amazing pictures. Some unpleasant. Some optimistic. Some touching. Some showing detachment. But all of them evoking emotion and showing a human angle to the news and the world around us.
Lions boxing club
Lions boxing club. Six boxers, one kick boxer, a great make-up artist, and two totties. Is that sexist? Probably. But it fits the sterotype 😉 Oh, and ten photographers, 25 light stands, 30 flash guns plus and unknown number of light modifiers, bags, iPads, triggers...
What do you do with your pictures?
No, seriously, it’s not a trick question. What do you do with your pictures? A brief sotry about putting some shelves up on the wall, but as that wouldn’t really fit into a photo blog, it has been turned it into a blog post about the rotating photo exhibition at my Gallery Staircase. Does that not sound posh?
100 Megapixel London sunset panorama
The London skyline at sunset is too breathtaking and wide to capture in a single photograph. So I stitched 13 together for a 100 megapixel wide panorama of the city. Now I just need to find a 100″ frame and sufficient wall space…