A Night on the Tiles

.... or Tales of a Park Bench.

The other night I went out to meet friends. I went to the Clachen in Soho (no you aren't on Lifelongpubrun). I won't blog about the pub just yet as I didn't manage to get many pictures of the pub.

One thing I did do was take a few photos on my way home. When going from Soho to Chesham, one must go through Baker Street station.
This station is filled with references to Sherlock Holmes because he lived at 221b Baker Street (now the home of the Sherlock Holmes Museum). The tiles to the left can be seen in the concourse area of the station. There are also friezes representing some (if not all) of the Sherlock Holmes stories down on the underground platforms; probably something worth gong to photograph at a later date.

Once I have reached Chesham, I have quite a long walk home. One way I can go is via Bois Moor. While walking I took a few photos of various things I passed (trees, muggers, etc.). Upon reviewing them, I noticed two photos which looked quite nice, both of the same green park bench. Admittedly I did get a bit snap-happy, mainly because I could; I love digital photography!

I really like this photo. Admittedly, the park bench is not the most photogenic, but the way the flash plays across the bench and touches the tree gives me a sense of solitude. The grass also looks quite frosty, which is again the flash doing its bit, this time with the dew.

 

It took me ages to work out what was going on with this second picture of the bench. The night was quite warm, but it was too far away from sunrise for the dew on the grass to start evaporating. I also don't smoke, ruling that out. The only explanation I can come up with is that I breathed quite heavily before taking the picture, so that the foggy breath reflected the flash. I feel it gives a certain eeriness to the picture.

These three pictures are a great example of why digital photography is great. Sure, none of them will win any awards for topic, composition, or quality. What they do show is that no matter where you are, or what time it is, do not be afraid to take pictures. First of all, you never know what will come out. Secondly, if you don't take photos, you cannot review them and try to improve! In computing, there is a saying RTFM (I'll let you google that one). In photography, it should be TTFP.

:-)