SheyMouse's Photo Blog

Swan at Sunset, Chesham

2012-01-17T17:22:00.000Z

I love taking photos in February. The light is so crisp. Shame I have never taken the time to do it justice! One day I will learn how to convey the blueness of the sky and the brightness of the sun.

Yesterday, I was out for a stroll, and saw a swan in the local lake swimming about. The light on the trees at the other end of the lake was amazing. And all I had was my HTC Desire to photograph it.The photo below is straight from the phone to upload. It could do with a bit of work, especially cropping the creeping leaves centre-top.

For all the photo's inadequacies I still like it. A swan in a winter photo is always a winner. Enjoy!

Back To It

2010-11-15T14:38:00.000Z

It is amazing how my last post was about trying to get back into blogging, and then nothing. Well, here is another attempt! I'm doing so many things at the moment that I have no idea how often I will update this blog. The thing is, I am still taking photos with an idea to upload to here! So, here goes...

This photo was taken on my way to work. All the pigeons looked like they were waiting for the library to open, much the same as you would imagine (very dedicated!) students to do.


Now They're Getting Educated!

Chesham in Fog

2009-02-21T16:00:00.004Z

Wow, I can't belive I have not updated my photo blog in so long! Quite a lot has happened in the past 9 months (no, not that!), and I guess it has taken me this long to get back into the swing of things.

My first offering is Chesham in the Fog. This was taken about a month ago on my way home. The lights and were halo-ing in the fog creating such a dramatic effect. Unfortunately, being at night, the light was difficult. This particular photo was taken by balancing the camera on a post while crossing the bridge.

Sheep Wranglers Caught in the Act

2008-06-19T14:26:00.002+01:00

Well, not really. But it did look funny seeing truck full of mini Superlambananas stopped outside of the cathedral in Liverpool.

These were delivered around Liverpool as part of the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. A total of 125 Superlambananas have been placed around the city and are on display for 10 weeks.
Unfortunately, one has already been stolen from a small flock of construction Superlambananas from Hope Street, near where these photos were taken.
Being the cynic that I am, I expect there to be many more reports of the poor things being stolen and vandalised during their display period.

Inspirational Photography... in Lego

2008-06-11T10:40:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine sent me a link to a flickr album the other day which totally blew me away. As I've said before, I both love and hate flickr. This is a reason to love flickr.

One of the things I often say when viewing other people's photos is "I wish I could recreate that shot". Well, Balakov has recreated some of the most famous photos of all time in Lego. His Classics in Lego set contains macro photos in which Lego figures are posed to recreate a famous picture. Not only does Balakov give you the Lego picture, but he links to a copy of the original, and shows the setup of the shot too.

One of my favourites of his collection is the recreation of the Tennis Girl photo from 1976 (seen on the right). I unfortunately, never bought the poster as a kid. I certainly knew of its existence. There is a great story about the photo on wikipedia, which, for me, gives it even more importance in the world of photography.

Balakov's most recent (re-)creation is of the 1967 Bigfoot sighting. This is yet another image which has been in and out of sight during my lifetime. Every time someone announces they have seen bigfoot, the news/documentary/magazine drags out this famous still for comparison.
In this picture, I particularly like the fact a Chewbacca figure was used. I think it adds a certain irony; one picture contains a fictional furry character from a famous film, the other contains Chewbacca. :-)

The only problem I have now is that I see these images and say "I wish I could recreate that recreation of that shot"...

All images were used in this article with prior permission from the author. Thanks Balakov.

A Night on the Tiles

2008-06-10T11:00:00.001+01:00

.... 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.

:-)

Getting Back to Posting

2008-05-19T11:03:00.001+01:00

Having been back from honeymoon for a couple of weeks, I expected to be back to full speed on my posting, but I haven't got myself in gear for posting any of my pictures.
I have been attempting to go through the many photos of my wedding day and from the honeymoon. One thing that has been indispensable when viewing pictures online has been PicLens.

PicLens is a browser add-on which enables you to view, in full screen, any pictures or videos which are on whichever website you are viewing. You can also search flickr, picasa, youtube,facebook, and other sites directly in PicLens. Definitely worth a look.

Why I Love to Hate Flickr

2008-04-07T23:00:00.001+01:00

Like just about every other photographer who publishes their photos on the internet I have a Flickr account. In fact, posting my photos to, and exploring Flickr was what really got me back into photography. I loved putting my photos up for friends, family, or anyone to view and hopefully comment upon. I also loved the inspiration I got from exploring other people's photos. Many a better photographer than I uses Flickr as a showcase for their photos.

After a while, I grew less enthusiastic about Flickr. One of my main problems is with the comments which people leave on photos. Quite often, all they say is "Great shot" or "You have been nominated to post this photo on [group xyz]". These kind of comments annoy me. Why did you like the photo or feel it should be nominated for a group? Which part was it? How can it be improved? If a photo moves you, say so! There is not one photographer I have met who would not appreciate praise of criticism of his/her work.
The other thing I dislike about Flickr is their map; although this is only since they changed it (about a year ago now, I think). I feel that it is not user friendly. It's default is a semi-working pseudo-tag-cloud. It is only once one plays around with it a bit (quite a bit!) that it becomes clear how to change the map to something useable (tip: click on the three pink dots in the top right). The map may have got me into geotagging my photos, but why change a main feature of your site to something less useful?

Finally, Flickr has come under attack recently for being overzealous with its censorship. Because the company is owned by the big monster that is Yahoo!, it must toe the corporate line. However, my personal feelings on this are that it is not so much a problem with people putting content on, it is that Flickr does not have decent enough filters. Why not have a level of censorship on the searches akin to SafeSearch where the user must adjust their search settings to be less stringent? It is not a perfect solution, but it would be a lot better than having "Flickr are censorship bastards" pictures everywhere.

10 Reasons to Like Flickr:

1. Put your photos somewhere for your friends to see them.
2. View other photographer's work and comment on it.
3. Have people comment on your photos.
4. Join Flickr meetups/scavenger hunts to meet other photographers in your area.
5. Browse by tags for similar photos or inspiration.
6. Surf a world map for photos taken in a particular area.
7. Find your digital camera model and see pictures that other cameras have taken with theirs.
8. Ability to specify permissions and access on a per picture basis (compared with Picasa web album).
9. Organise your photos quickly and easily.
10. Whatever your style of photography, there has been one taken for you to look at.

10 Reasons to loath Flickr:

1. Users who comment with "Nice shot".
2. Users who comment with "I have chosen your photo for group X" and don't tell you why.
3. A world map user interface which is difficult to understand and therefore off-putting to the less technical user.
4. If you don't have someone jumping in your photo, you probably won't get to be on the front explore page.
5. A very small limit of 200 photos and 3 albums (compared with Picasa web album).
6. "Hot Tags" always containing the same thing (pic-a-day).
7. Too many pictures being stolen by people who do not know international or local copyright laws.
8. A blog whose only real purpose seems to be to advertise Flickr's latest affiliation/marketing campaign.
9. Tag clusters; why can't I just drill down through tags?
10. Groups cannot be browsed for, just guessed in the search box.

Three Badly Timed Photos

2008-04-07T16:15:00.001+01:00

I spent the weekend up in Liverpool. There are some quite picturesque parts of the city. One of the nicest areas of the city is Hope Street. It is on the outskirts of the city and has a cathedral at each end (one of which is the fifth largest in the world). Other features of the road are The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Luggage sculpture, The Philharmonic Dining Rooms, The Everyman Bistro, and various other cafés and restaurants.
Every year there is the Hope Street Festival which is a food and drink lovers paradise, as well as including many varied performances from artists, actors, and musicians. I recommend going there if you find yourself in Liverpool.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

With everything that Hope Street has to offer, I thought I would take some photos with my new camera, mainly to blog about the street, but also as a possibility of placing them on Picture Nation (my stock website of choice). When I downloaded them off the camera, I was not impressed at all. They are very dark, and the shadows make the photos look very flat. one can also see that I didn't actually take a second look at all before taking the pictures.

Looking North Up Hope Street

So, back to the drawing board with this set of photos. If you are taking street scenes, or pictures of a public place, take a second look before pressing the shutter release. If I took a second look before shooting the cathedral, I may have seen the seagull flying past, and probably would have waited for the person walking up the steps to move away. The other two have similar problems (the person by the theatre, and the car). I also would have realised there was no longer any light in the street and not taken the photos. Still, if I got it right every time, there would be no fun in photography for me.

Looking South Down Hope Street

Post Processing Fun

2008-04-04T11:00:00.001+01:00

Part of my enjoyment of photography is the thrill of the hunt. I like trying to find a good shot, and then playing composition/exposure/aperture roulette to get the film to see what I see. I have taken many photos which I thought would look good, only to see I could have used a different aperture to reign in the depth of field.

Nowadays, in the digital age, this isn't as big a problem as it was during the 35mm days. One of my pictures of the last entry was a little red flower. When I brought it up on my monitor, I felt that the picture could have benefited from a shorter depth of field. Just one stop would focus the eye in on the flower, and hide a not so exciting background. So I went about trying to do this manually.

I use GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as my photo processor mainly for the fact I cannot afford Photoshop. The advantage of GIMP is that it is free and contains many of the features of Photoshop.

So, a quick bit of searching lead me to GIMP Guru's tutorial. I followed the instructions and came up with this:

So, from this:

We get this:

I think it works quite well. Click on the pictures to see the larger versions.

Macro Fun

2008-04-03T15:07:00.001+01:00

Having bought my snazzy Canon Powershot, I haven't done much photography with it. However, a couple of days ago it was just light enough when I arrived home to take some photos.

One photographic technique I enjoy is macro. Nearly everything looks dramatic when taken so close that one can see all of the fine details. My new camera has a macro function which works quite well. I was very surprised by the quality of the shots, particularly when they were handheld. I think the built-in image stabiliser helped me out a bit. My composition leaves a bit to be desired, but I am rather happy with the results. Particularly the red flower.

White Flower Macro

Blue Flower Macro

Curly Red Flower Macro

By the way, if you know what these flowers are called, please leave a comment. I would love to give them a proper name rather than "Blue Flower...", etc.

New Camera - Welcome to the Digital Age

2008-03-25T16:34:00.001Z

Since starting this blog, I have become more enthusiastic about taking pictures. This resulted in me brushing off my 35mm camera (and getting a new body for it), and using my N95 more often for snaps. Well, this weekend saw the dawn of a new age. I finally went and got a decent digital camera. One which will (hopefully) enable me to take higher resolution digital photos, and become more creative with my pictures.
Typically, this weekend past was one of the worst weekends for running around with a new camera. It was cold, windy, and snowy.

So, about the camera. It is a Canon PowerShot A720 IS. I actually bought it without knowing quite what I was buying. I had wanted an A550 for a while, but did not even know the A720 existed. But having bought it, I am continually impressed with the features and cannot wait to get to know the camera better. Some of the features of my new camera are:

Aperture Priority
Shutter Priority
Manual Focus
Manual Flash Power Output
Panorama Mode

This isn't an impressive list of features for a DSLR. In fact you would expect them as standard. However, the A720 is a compact rather than and SLR. Having aperture and shutter priority it almost unheard of in all but the higher end of digital compacts. Certainly pricewise, this is not the most expensive, nor is it the most fully featured. But it takes excellent photos, so watch this space!

Police Seek Man After Assault on Amateur Photographer

2008-03-11T10:32:00.001Z

London Transport Police are seeking the man in the above picture after he assaulted an amateur photographer on December 12th 2007. It appears that this person did not like his photo being taken:

"The photographer told him he could not delete the shot as it was not a digital camera. The man then attempted to grab the camera and punched the victim in the face. The victim suffered cuts and bruising to his face as a result of the incident."

Quite amusingly the picture that the photographer took, and that the man was so keen to get hold of, is now being used on his wanted poster. Read the full article by clicking on the photo of following the link here.

As both an amateur photographer, and one who uses 35mm film, I understand the predicament. From my point of view, if I take a photo of someone and they do not want me to have it, I can only assure them that I will honour their request, and would offer to send them the negative and photo for their piece of mind. The article does not say if the photographer had offered this option. I can only hope he did.

As an interesting aside, one of the places linking to the story is the blog Going Underground. It is an excellent blog and well worth a look. One of the questions in the comments on this article was if photography is permitted or the London Underground or not. The reason for this is that the London Underground is private property, and therefore the owners can decide on the rules, rather than the area coming under a general 'public places' rule. Anyway, John B read through all of the info and it appears that amateur photography is allowed provided flashes and tripods aren't used.

Chicago Cloud Gate - Feb 2008 (part 2)

2008-03-05T15:54:00.001Z

And so, onto day two of taking photos of the Cloud Gate. I found myself awake quite early and so decided to head down to Millennium Park to get some shots before the place got too packed with tourists. Although there were tourists, they didn't get in the way too much.
On the way up to the area where the Cloud Gate sits is one of the best photo opportunities. Taken from the side of the Cloud Gate, it is possible to get an excellent shot of the Chicago skyline reflected while not actually featuring in the photo.
If one stands behind the wall in the photo below, it is possible to take the second photo.

Admittedly, the second on is not that great. The N95 doesn't have optical zoom, so I wasn't able to take a picture without the railing in it. I could crop the shot but I quite like the buildings in the background, particularly the steam rising from the CNA building.

Up on the Cloud Gate are there are some excellent shots to be had. I really like the one below because it shows such a large part of the Chicago skyline, with a much darker sky than the one behind the Gate itself. Yes, that is me on stage centre. I took the photo-op while people were watching some ice skating on the area below.

Once the ice skating was over, people started milling around, and getting in my way, so I decided to take some photos from under the Cloud Gate itself, something I didn't get to do last time.

This photo and the ones below are taken from the concave area in the middle of the bean. I could have stood there and taken hundreds of photos. Everywhere you looked there were different shapes and reflections happening. I only took these three with my phone camera as there was a family walking towards where I was standing and would have interfered with the photos!

I hope you enjoy looking at the dawn and dusk collection of my Cloud Gate photos. I'm sure it will feature again on this blog since I will probably go out to Chicago again someday, and since I love the way it looks I will definitely go there again.

Be sure to click on the images to see them in larger format.

Chicago Cloud Gate - Feb 2008 (part 1)

2008-03-04T15:43:00.001Z

Recently I was sent to Chicago for a whole week. I spent most of my time in an office, but I did get couple of evenings and days to myself. Naturally, I used this as an opportunity to run around Chicago with my cameras taking as many photos as possible.
At the time of writing this article, my 35mm photos haven't been processed, so I will be dealing entirely with the photos taken with my N95.

My first real photo opportunity while I was in Chicago came on Friday night (I had been there since Tuesday). I got back to my hotel, The Hotel Sax, dropped off my stuff and legged it as quickly as possible to Millennium Park to capture what was left of the sunset in the Cloud Gate.
It can be most frustrating as a photographer when you have limited amount of time (in this case it was freezing, and the light was fading), and tourists want to get in the way of your intended shot. The couple in this one stood there for what seemed like ages just as I set up for my shot.

It was a shame, because this particular angle captured a as large an area of the Chicago skyline as possible, as well as the moon (click to see the larger image and see below), and the sky behind.

I must admit, I quite like the above crop. It looks like there are two different skies being photographed. What do you think?
In the end I had to take what I could before I both lost the light and my fingers; it was bitterly cold that evening. The photo below is the stronger of the ones I took on the Friday night, showing the skyline, and the sunset reflected in the Cloud Gate.

I am toying with the idea of cropping the building on the right out of the photo as it will focus more on the Cloud Gate reflection. However, cropping my remove too much of the distance element from the 'rule of thirds'. Once again, what do you think?

This is part one of my Chicago Cloud Gate Collection. I will post the next set tomorrow.

Exciting Photos (I Hope)

2008-01-28T17:17:00.001Z

I'm really excited. This weekend I finally managed to go to the weir near me to take photographs of it and the surrounding area with my 35mm camera. I am excited/nervous about the shots as I tried lengthening the exposure on some of them. I am going to put my film in for development soon and see what comes out, so watch this space! In the meantime, here is a photo of the weir taken on my N95.

Weir From an Old Watermill, Chesham

I really like this area of Chesham. There are a couple of lakes nearby with various birds in them. Further on from that is the Chess Valley Walk which provides some wonderful scenery. Now that I've found my tripod, I'm sure you will be seeing more from this area soon.

Mind Blowing Photographic Opportunity

2008-01-10T13:54:00.001Z

The Cloud Gate, Chicago

One of the greatest photographic opportunities on this planet must be the Chicago Cloud Gate. It is a highly polished piece of stainless steel. Last summer I was over in Chicago on business and was able to go and see this installation on the north west corner of Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.
The thing I like about the Cloud Gate, or "Bean" (as the locals refer to it), is that no matter where you stand, there are the most amazing reflections of the sky, buildings, people, and and everything else around it.
If you are in Chicago, you would be a fool to miss the Bean out on your sight seeing.

Clicking on the photo will take you through to my Picasa album where you can see a map of where the photo was taken.

Macro Apple

2008-01-04T16:57:00.001Z

Just before Christmas I sent off some old films I had lying around to be developed. You know the kind, you put it aside to get developed, but moved/forgot/etc. The picture below is from when I was testing my old Dynax 2xi body to see if the rewind motor was truly dead (which it was). Do do this I ran a film through and took a load of handheld macros just for fun.

I think this photo came out fairly well. The lighting was from a desk lamp which accounts for the orange tint to the highlights on the rind. I do own a filter to adjust for bulb light, but did not have it on at the time. Still, I think it is quite nice despite the lighting.

I think I will repeat the exercise this year, but with more preparation, and a tripod. I really quite enjoy macro photography.

Watch this space!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T23:37:00.001Z

While watching the neighbours attempting to burn down their houses in celebration of the New Year, we attempted to write 2008 with sparklers.
The better pictures (I hope!) are in my 35mm camera, and so will have to wait. Instead this picture will have to do. Note the car.

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas

2007-12-19T11:53:00.001Z

One of the blogs I read is called Digital Photography School. I only recently discovered it, which is a bonus as Darren (the owner) has recently written an extremely useful article. 16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas does exactly what it says on the tin, it describes sixteen tips for taking better photos over Christmas.

Beware all those who cross in front of my camera this Christmas!

Photos I Want to Retake

2007-12-06T22:56:00.001Z

One thing that has helped me continue to rekindle my love of photography is taking photos with my mobile phone. The more photos I take, the more I find myself looking for photo opportunities. This has lead to me having quite a few photos which were taken in good places, just badly composed or out of focus.

West India Quays At Night

This photos is one I would like to retake given a chance. This is the view along West India Quay at night taken with a Nokia N73. I think it is a very nice photograph but would look better taken with my Minolta. Maybe one day I will revisit the area to recapture this view.

Even More Photos for Sale

2007-12-05T11:54:00.001Z

I haven't written about my For Sale photos for a while. That is because Photo Nation have been taking an age to approve photos. According to their news page this is because they have so many submissions that they are having a hard time getting through them all. In a way it is quite frustrating that it takes so long, but I am happy to sit and wait since this is in no way my main income (just as well with no sales so far!).

So, the following photos are for sale from Photo Nation. Feel free to click on the images to take you through to the site.

Chicago Skyline

Graffiti Cat

Lights at Night

Disabled Access

Abstract Fan Surround

Scams: Avoiding fake photography contests

2007-11-27T23:33:00.001Z

I've just read the article below about photography contest scams.

Scams: Avoiding fake photography contests (Photoethnogrphy.com)

Given that this article was originally posted in May, 2005 and it is still receiving comments in November 2007, it is an issue that is not disappearing.
One of the main sites mentioned is photo.com (deliberately not linking to this site). If you are 'lucky' enough to get through to the finalist section of the competition, you will be invited to their gala for about $1000. You are also invited to order the 'coffee table' book with your photo in it for about $60. All this isn't bad, but the small print of the contract you sign you waive all rights to your image. In short, you should stay clear of this very expensive scam. Apparently, you will get your book eventually, but it may take years.
Some comments mention that bananabana.com is running the same type of scam with baby pictures.

There is mention of another scam involving stock photographs on a CD but I do not think this kind of scam catches as many people out if the comments are anything to go by.

In conclusion, if you are going to enter a competition, read all of the small print. If you have to pay to enter a photography competition, make sure it is as legitimate as possible; the Photoethnography article mentions that these competitions sometimes name the judges so you can research their credentials.

Thanks to Clockworkpink2 for linking to the original post.

Testing Windows Live Writer

2007-11-21T14:31:00.000Z

Today I was told about Windows Live Writer. I am taking a look at this tool as a way to blog without having to use the blogger web interface (which is not the easiest to use). I was recommended this by Hoshisoto, who uses Live Writer as his main blog updating tool.

First impressions are that this is a pretty clean bit of software. The user interface looks as though it has been given a bit of thought. I haven't had a chance to check out all of the features, having just installed the software.

The main thing which will keep me using this is how easy photos are to insert and manipulate using the software (this being a photo blog and all that!).
So far, I am impressed. It was easy insert the picture on the left and manipulate its position to enable the text to wrap around it. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship? Watch this space!

Hoshisato - Travel and Photo Blog

2007-11-15T11:31:00.001Z

Hoshisato is a friend and colleague who, like me, has a passion for photography. Actually, his knowledge and skills far exceed mine!

Hoshisato's pictures vary in style and subject, quite often due to experimenting with a new photo or processing technique. For example, panoramas feature quite prominently at the moment due to experimentation with PTGui and Photoshop. I particularly like this Southwark Bridge Panorama as it has quite a fish-eye look about it and draws the eye along the whole length of the bridge.

Panoramas aren't the only, or indeed main, style of Hoshisato's photos. Many of the photos on the blog are of the reportage genre; people going about their business unaware they are being watched and photographed. I am quite fond of this type of photography, although I don't generally take many photos in this style. I enjoy the natural poses which can only be captured when people are unaware they are being photographed. My favourite reportage photo from the Hoshisato blog is of a forklift driver in the Tsukiji fish market.

This photo is part of the Japan collection which contains many travel photos from a recent trip out there. The reason I enjoy this particular photo is that it gives a sense of urgency which one could imagine being the general atmosphere in a fish market where the freshness of the produce is everything. The choice of black and white seems natural for this type of scene. Colour would probably dilute the crispness and contrast which gives this photo its busy feel.

Finally, if you click on any of the images on the blog, you are taken through to Hoshisato's Webshots page. Here you will find many more photos which aren't on the blog. Go there or click on the link on the right for the main blog. Both are well worth an explore.

Twins By Antony Gormley

2007-11-14T13:25:00.000Z

If you walk down Euston Road between Euston and Great Portland Street stations you will encounter the Twins by Antony Gormley.
These statues are positioned either side of a window which makes them look like one statue reflected in the mirror-like window of the building. It is only upon a closer and concentrated look that one notices that both statues are significantly different.

For a map of where the statue is located click on the picture.

The Chesham Sunset

2007-08-30T11:18:00.000+01:00

If you read my Mouse's Musings blog, you will know that I now live in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Last night the sunset over Chesham was so beautiful I just had to take a few photos of it. This one is the best in my opinion. You can't beat light being reflected in vapour trails on a clear evening.

Another Photo for Sale

2007-07-18T14:31:00.000+01:00

WooHoo! Another photo for sale on Picture Nation.

This one is a scene taken at a train station after a snow fall.

Train Signal in Snow

Many of my friends have commented on how this is one of, if not, the best picture I have taken. I must admit, I didn't think anything of the picture at the time of taking it. I moved the lights off centre because I thought that would give better perspective.
See what you think. Click on the small icon below to take you through to Picture Nation.

If you really want to see a larger sized version, you may view it on my flickr or on Picasa. Please take a moment to click through to my photo on Picture Nation though as every hit shows support for them and they are a relatively small company in quite a cut-throat sector.

More Streatham Graffiti

2007-07-18T10:31:00.000+01:00

I noticed both of these recently in Streatham. I'm not going to pretend that these pieces of graffiti might be Banksy s. But they are definitely worth putting up here as they are quite cute. There is rumour of a third cat around Streatham which I will post if I find it.
If you would like to see where the photos are in Streatham, click here.

Banksy in Streatham?

2007-06-29T14:45:00.000+01:00

Last night I took a photo of a stencilled bat on the side of the Horse and Groom pub in Streatham. It looks like a Banksy but I am unsure. There's a couple of others around Streatham, but my phone ran out of space after taking this picture.

Photo For Sale

2007-06-21T10:13:00.000+01:00

I now have a photo that is available to buy from Picture Nation! It is a picture of the Scarlet Ibis which was taken that last time I went to South Africa. So follow the link to see my picture on the site.

Link to Scarlet Ibis

And yes, it is the same one I mentioned in one of my first posts here.

Royalty-free images from Picture Nation

How Slack?

2007-04-05T14:08:00.001+01:00

Yep, I’ve been slack with keeping my blog. How will I ever become a famous blogger if I don’t blog? How can my friends and family ever figure out what’s going on if I don’t blog? How can I ever get into the habit of writing often (so I can potentially write a book) if I don’t blog? On a scale of 1 to 10 in slackness I go all the way to 11 (thank you Spinal Tap).

On a plus point, I am still taking photos, but they are in 35mm format and I need to take a few more photos before I can send the films off to be developed. With such a nice Easter weekend being predicted by the weathermen, I think I will have no problem taking photos.

Bring it on!

I Can See For Miles and Miles

2007-03-03T09:05:00.000Z

Yesterday I was taking photos around the area I work. It was so clear in the late afternoon that I was able to see the London Eye from there. I really like being able to see all the way across the city. I can sit at my desk and daydream and wonder what is going on over theeeere.

R.I.P Minolta Dynax 2xi - Long Live the Dynax 500si Super

2007-02-19T22:42:00.000Z

I dusted off my 35mm camera two weekends ago. I have a Minolta Dynax 2xi which was given to me on my 18th birthday. I hadn't used it in a couple of years, but recently bought a new battery for it and thoought I would take it for a spin. There were three photos left on the old film, and I had a new film in my pocket.
The scene for this photographic resurrection was to be the Horniman Museum in south Lonodon. I cannot recommend this place highly enough. Go and visit it.
After taking the final three photos, I waited to hear the familiar whirring of the camera as it rewound the film ready for the next one. This didn't happen. I got a bit of a whir, and then nothing. Silence. I was very disappointed as we were only half-way through the museum, and I had so many more pictures I wanted to take.
The next day, I took the camera to Jessops where they used a dark bag to open the camera up and rewind the film by hand. It was possible that the emulsion from the old film had degraded and stuck to itself on the spool so I put another film in to run it through. I took some closeup photos with my +4 macro filter (not sure how these will work out, but if any look good you will definitely see them here). Upon getting to the end of the film, the same thing happened, a small whir, then nothing. My beloved 35mm Minolta Dynax 2xi was dead.

One visit to Ebay later...

I have bought a Minolta Dynax 500si Super body. Because it was only the 2xi's body that was kaput, I only needed to replace that. The standard 35-85mm lense I had would work with any of the xi or si range from Minolta. This weekend past I was able to take it out on the town with me, and it was a joy to use. The 2xi was the feature-lite model of the Dynax family. This 500si has lots and lots of features to play with like:
Exposure modes (portrait, landscape, sport, night portrait)
Double exposure
Continuous exposure at 1fps
Apperture and shutter priority
Best of all, the camera has a built in flash. My last camera didn't have one which could be quite annoying having to carry around a hot-shoe flash.
If my new camera takes photos at the quality if the 2xi I will be mightily pleased.

Watch this space.

Lack of Photos

2007-02-13T13:45:00.000Z

I have not had the opportunity to take and post any new photos recently. I've been struggling with a cold and sinus problem which has meant I have been out of commission for a few days.

I am almost back to full health, so watch this space!

Night Photography

2007-02-01T10:25:00.000Z

I seem to be taking a lot of photos at night recently. I guess that is because I have a little bit of free time during the evenings more often than during the day.

I love night photography, particularly in London. Parts of the city come alive at night, or seem to glow in the dark with all of the lights. The Canary Wharf area has many, many lights in quite a small area. As a result, I often find myself staring at the buildings trying to compose photos incorporating the lights, water, and grandeur of the area.

I recently took the photo to the left while walking around West India Docks in the Canary Wharf area of London. I quite like how this photo turned out. It was already in colour, but I used Picasa's incorporated tools to change it to black and white.

Last night I was out in the South Bank area of London. This is the area that contains the Royal Festival Hall, National Film Theatre, and National Theatre, not to forget the London Eye.

The London Eye has been kitted out in new red livery to celebrate the start of Comic Relief 2007. If you have a chance to go and have a look, it is quit spectacular with the trees still wearing their blue LEDs and the London Eye with its new red livery.

Unfortunately my camera is nowhere near capable of doing this view justice, but I think this photo in particular looks nice because you can just make out the two large poles holing up the Eye looking like dim red beams thrusting upwards from the ground.

As always, click on the photos for their larger versions.

The Way We See It

2007-01-29T16:11:00.000Z

No photo for today's entry. I'm doing a mixture of recovering from a heavy weekend, and trying to catalogue all the photos I took. I therefore have a new photo site for you to look at. The Way We See It is an excellent London photo blogging site. Every week the owner, dicksdaily, puts up a location for people to visit, take photos of, and submit to the site.

I am quite looking forward to joining in with this community. I think it is a woderful idea for getting out and about and taking more photos of places one would not otherwise consider visiting.

Snowing!

2007-01-24T15:59:00.000Z

Last night the conditions were perfect for snow to happen in Streatham. Here are some photos I took this morning on the way to work.

Snowy Weeds

The light looks like a bright candle

A Snowy Tree

Light and Dark at Streatham Station

Cold and Waiting for a Train

The Millenium Dome

2007-01-23T11:57:00.000Z

It's been a few days since I last posted any photos on here. I haven't been out and about to take photos for nearly a week now. The last time I was out, however, there was beautiful sunshine. I walked all the way to the end of the West India Docks and took the following photo.

Millennium Dome from the Thames

Flickr Badge

2007-01-18T19:49:00.000Z

Woohoo!

I have finally managed to get my Flickr photostream onto my photoblog. I'm very excited about this as it is a way for you to see some of the photos which do not make it to this site.

Enjoy

Panography

2007-01-17T23:56:00.000Z

I recently read an article about panography. It is where one takes many photos of a subject (large building, town square, nice view). The photos are then arranged in an overlapping mosaic kind of way to form the full photo. The is technique can be found on the Photojojo website in the tutorials section.
Today I completed my first attempt at a panograph.

La basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre

This is my first attempt at a panograph, and I can already see where I could improve. I have a couple of ideas for future ones which I will show off here and on my flickr.

Feel free to tell me what you think of this in the comments area.

Photo Websites

2007-01-16T16:11:00.000Z

I have decided to put the addresses of photography websites I find interesting on my photoblog. First into the foray is photo.net

The site is a user led critique forum/community. I am not a member of this site, but visit here regularly to veiw some truly amazing photos and read the odd article in the learning section.

Out for a Walk With a Phone

2007-01-15T14:55:00.000Z

At the moment I am on a bit of a health kick so I try and go for a brisk walk as often as possible. Yesterday I decided to walk to Streatham Common to take some photos of the Rookery [map].
The Rookery is a Victorian Garden (actually visited by Queen Victoria at some stage).

I entered the woods from the Eastern end of the Common and walked through the woods to the Rookery.

Into the Woods

Once in the Rookery I spotted this lone flower in small stream running through it. I thought it looked lonely.

The Lonely Flower

Onwards down the hill into the walled garden.

Western Entrance to the Walled Garden

It is is very peaceful in this garden. Even in winter there is some colour.

The Centre of the Walled Garden and the Wishing Well

At the end of the rookery, some more pillars leading you back up the hill. The photo of the sqirrel isn't particularly good, but it was nice enough to pose for all the passers by, so it's photo makes a guest appearance.

The Eastern Exit From the Walled Garden and the Posing Squirrel

Finally, on the way home, I saw that someone had trapped cemented a flower pot to a wall around their garden.

Trapped!

This photo invokes a feeling of being trapped. This plant will never be free. **sniff**

The main reason for this entry is to show that, with a bit of patience and a steady hand, reasonable photos can be obtained by using a 2megapixel camera phone.

Photo With Movement

2007-01-13T10:13:00.000Z

I am in the middle of a blog post which will cover my journey to and from work. While doing this I attempted a bit of a study in movement within pictures. Most of the photos looked pants, but I did take one on the platform of New Cross Gate station which didn't come out too bad. Here it is:

New Cross Gate Station at Night

I like the mixture of static and movement. I think it works well in a photo about a train station.

The Scarlet Ibis

2007-01-11T10:45:00.000Z

While trawling through my old photos last night I found this picture of a Scarlet Ibis I took while at the World of Birds, South Africa.

The Scarlet Ibis

I love this photo, the red of the ibis is made all the more vibrant by the drabness of soil, rock, and dusty plant.

I highly recommend clicking on the photo, or here to see it in full size.

15/01/07 - This post has been edited to correct Red Ibis to Scarlet Ibis as this is the species name.

Geotagging Rocks!

2007-01-10T14:35:00.000Z

As you may notice, on the sidebar I have a link to my flickr photostream (all the photos I have marked for public viewing).

Flickr is a great website for storing photos on, although only 200 can be stored unless you sign up for a pro account (about $25 per annum).
One of the things I like about flickr is the ability to geotag photos. Basically, this is placing your photos on a map in the location they were taken so that anyone looking at the map can see what there is to see in that area. My flickr map is located here. As you can see, I only have a few photos geotagged at the moment, but I will add to them whenever I have photo worth placing on there. Zoom in on one of the sets to see exactly where they were taken.

If you want to see everyone's geotagged photos you can go here.

Graffiti

2007-01-10T12:00:00.000Z

I went to Chalk Farm last summer and while walking back to the tube station I saw this bit of graffiti.

Cleaning up Chalk Farm

It is kind of in the style of Banksy, but doesn't appear to be politically motivated like a lot of Banksy's stuff. I like the wit of the picture, which is what made me stop and take the photo.

Most of the wall was exposed after some of the concrete fell off. The artist painted the cleaner around that part and ehanced the brickwork with paint.

When One Just Isn't Enough

2007-01-08T23:05:00.000Z

I decided that I should stick to only one entry per day lest I end up running out of ~~quality~~ photos, but thought that my first entry on this blog was a bit too lame. So, below is a picture I took last summer while wandering London.

Waiting for a Sweetheart

I saw this and thought of someone waiting for their sweetheart to arrive. A "I'll leave a flower in the letterbox so you know which door to knock on", kind of message.

I particularly like this photo because it is an impromptu photo. These are my favourite types of photo as you cannot plan them, but they can be some of the best you've ever taken. I took this with my 2 megapixel camera on my phone.

Lower pixel cameras do have their uses. After all Daguerre didn't have any fancy cameras and lenses!

In The Beginning...

2007-01-08T14:02:00.000Z

Everything has to start somewhere. Like this blog.

It starts here.

A bit about this blog...

I have recently got back into taking photographs again. I'm not brilliant at it, but enjoy taking photos. Every now and then I take on which makes me sit back and nod my head in a satisfied way. The overall aim is to have those photos appear on this site. However, I'm going to start with just random ones which I may delete as I run out of space.

About the author...

I live and work in London. I live in Streatham, and work near Canary Wharf.

In fact, here are a few pictures of where I work:

My Desk

And out the left and right windows of where I face from my desk:

So there you have it. Certainly not the biggest bang of any blog beginnings. Hopefully I will do the good wine thing and get better with age.