Selfridges on Flickr.
Its a very long time since I’ve visited the bullring - 1992 was the last time I was there, I’d been to a James concert in Manchester and we were travelling back on a National Express coach back home to Greenwich. It was around this time of year and the weather turned - in fact turned so much that the police shut the M6 - all the coaches got diverted to Birmingham bus station where we spent much of the day - actually we found a pub just round the corner from the bullring. The roads didn’t open and we spent the night sleeping under a table in city hall with red cross food parcels and fine bone china !!! It was an experience for sure. Its difficult to remember what the bullring was like then - it was cold, the big round building was there - but the rest of it shabby to say the least.
Today’s a different story though - Birmingham’s gone up market. I’ve been wanting to visit birmingham for ages - of course Selfridges was a big draw - but surely there must be something else there too - so I decided to take a trip up and have an explore. I’m afraid there’s potentially a few of this facade - I know its been taken a million times - but it really is rather striking.
The day was cold and seriously overcast - by 9am (having arrived at 7am) I could have called it a day - seriously chilled to the bone, but I grabbed a coffee warmed up and went exploring a bit more. In the end I quite enjoyed my day there - there’s a couple of shots I wasn’t able to get so I’ll be back at some point. For now a mini series follows.
Oh - and I’ve been playing at the higher end of the histogram. I see lots of dark black architecture images - I’m guilty of that too - and some of them do look stunning but I’m keen to explore the other end - the end that we usually get in the UK and taking shots with completely overcast skies.
Quick question - is the reflection of the cathedral distracting? I quite liked it I thought it added a sense of reality perhaps - but I have one where this is not there - would be interested in your views.
John’s Wood 2 on Flickr.
I had originally planned to upload this straight away after the last but one thing got in the way of another which got in the way of another, so a few weeks - actually its probably a month since the snow was here the second part of an afternoon shot playing in the snow. As I said before the landscape is so transformed into snow - I’ve driven by this a few times since and I still wouldn’t give it a second look, but I do smile as I drive by knowing what it looked like and how peaceful everything was just for one afternoon.
Trinity Bridge 4 on Flickr.
This is the fourth installment of the Trinity Bridge Study from Manchester a few weeks ago
Trinity Bridge 3 on Flickr.
This is the third in a short series of shots of Trinity Bridge in Manchester.
Originally I had this as a landscape shot with the bridge on the left hand side and lots of negative space on the right. I liked it, it was different but perhaps not everyones cup of tea, so I present this here in a more traditional square crop
Trinity Bridge 2 on Flickr.
This is the second in a short series of shots of Trinity Bridge in Manchester.
weltschmerz 2 on Flickr.
More from my angst project. This is the Shard - 5 exposures all in camera on a single frame. Its shot in the fog which seem to be perfect conditions for multi-exposures. I’m still learning about multi exposure photography of what works and what doesn’t - I’ve had some preconceived ideas about what should work - but having taken the shots they just don’t - More London is a good case in point. Anyway will be carrying on with this for a little while and see where it takes me.
After work on Flickr.
I think I’ve said in the past that I’ve started to take my camera to work most days now. Its a bit of a heavy lump when you include camera, a couple of lenses, tripod, filters, remote shutter etc etc - plus work gear too - laptop books etc. I started doing this towards the end of last year (bought a manfrotto bag so it all fits neatly inside tripod included). At first I wondered whether it was worth it, but I soon realised it certainly was. I can now jump on the earliest train and if the weathers right (read fog at the moment) I can shoot for 30 minutes or so and still be in work for 8am, and then after work I can get another hour or so - but its all dependent upon conditions and being ready.
So this is an example of such a shot - taken last week after work. I hadn’t planned specifically on shooting but as I left work the conditions were pretty perfect, so I wandered round the corner to shoot canary wharf reflected in the water at Blackwall Basin. I’ve been to this location countless times and have this shot in just about every condition - but this one is the best to date. It was also my first outing with my ND106 and I have to say its great. Many times in the past I’ve wanted to flatten the water but at dusk the 10 stopper was too much I’d tried upto 20 minutes but never happy with the results and then stacking 0.9 and 0.6 but this wasn’t enough - but the 6 stopper gave me 2 minutes at f6.3 - perfect.
Number 7 Revisited on Flickr.
And my last shot of 2011, this is Number 7 More London Riverside - the same building as my previous post - just to provide a little bit of context. This is 2 landscape shots stitched to create a vertorama so that the verticals could be corrected.
More form More on Flickr.
Very much a labour of love this shot, I’ve been around a dozen times to get this shot and the conditions have never been right - but finally a few weekends ago the light the cloud everything (even security) was just right.
In terms of location this is More London on the walk between London Bridge and Tower Bridge
Connected on Flickr.
Connected from Canary Wharf, London
