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.

:-)

Three Badly Timed Photos

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

Macro Fun

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

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!