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Category Archives: photography
The Beachy Head lighthouse
I’ve taken a break from street photography. Not intentionally – it just happened. But it looks like replaced it temporarily (and again, not intentionally) with landscape photography.
After my recent Dartmoor post, here comes the Beachy Head lighthouse. I’ve always wanted to do the East Dean to Eastbourne walk along the Seven Sisters path. I eventually managed last weekend.
The weather was ideal, my camera was ready and I wasn’t afraid to use it.
And a word of warning. This one here nearly stole my lunch. You’ve been warned.
Like these? See my other pictures here.
Also posted in gallery/photo essay
Tagged beachy head, landscape, lighthouse, photography
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London is rubbish
A forgotten picture I took some time ago near Brick Lane.
Wonder if the poster is still there….
We are all photographers now
Taken outside St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Who is photographing whom?
Tagged London, street photography
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The staircase at Heal’s
Another week, another nice discovery. Well, rediscovery, if I’m to be honest, as I’ve known about the not-so-secret spiral staircase at Heal’s in Tottenham Court Road in London - only I haven’t visited the shop in years.
Yesterday, while looking for a thing or two in that area, I went into Heal’s and my mind was temporarily blown by the gorgeous Art Deco (please correct me, if I got that bit completely wrong) staircase at the back of the store.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here it is (just excuse the Instagrammed-to-death picture, I didn’t have my DSLR on me):
A quick research on Flickr revealed more images of the beautiful staircase. And although very similar, they all highlight the staircase’s lovely features, only confirming that this is every (architectural) photographer’s dream location.
Here’s the link to my curated gallery of Heal’s images on Flickr.
Tagged heal's, London, staircase
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My favourite September picture
It’s not actually a picture I took in September, I just published it recently. I decided to go through my old files to make some more space on my hard drive and while deleting some old folders I came across a few images – mainly from my trip to Italy – which somehow had escaped my attention previously.
This one – taken in Bologna – must be one of my all-time favourites. It initially escaped my attention as it was badly framed. So it got nearly deleted. Shock, horror. I converted in into black and white using Topaz for Lightroom, cropped it a bit better and tweaked the contrast a bit more.
It’s good to revisit your archives every now and then….
Farewell to the London Olympics
I never thought I would miss the Olympics, but I’m already suffering withdrawal symptoms. I enjoyed every single moment of it – whether on TV or in person. I was really lucky and privileged to witness both the Opening and the Closing ceremonies.
More images from the latter are on my gallery page – click on the picture below if you’d like to see the full Closing Ceremony set.
Thank you athletes, thank you fantastic volunteers. Thank you, London.
Photographs of vacuum-packed couples
Image copyright: Haruhiko Kawaguchi
Yes, you read it right. This is probably the weirdest, freakiest, most dangerous – but also weirdly fascinating – photography idea I’ve seen recently.
Japanese photographer Haruhiko Kawaguchi puts Tokyo couples into an oversized ziploc bag – the kind of plastic bag you’d normally use to deep-freeze your leftovers in – then removes all air from the bag and photographs the result.
The photographer and his assistant take a few moments to position the couples in those oversized bags – on the floor, against a single-coloured background. Then, the bag is closed and a vacuum sucks all air out of it, creating a tightly sealed human ‘sculpture’. As you can imagine, at this stage Haruhiko doesn’t really have much time to piss about.
He has just a few seconds to take his shot from above and release the shrink-wrapped couple, who by that stage must be freaking out. I definitely would.
But as much as the idea makes me uncomfortable, I love the final result.
Watch the process – and squirm – here:
via Oddity Central
Revisiting New York’s High Line
New York’s High Line, a converted rail bridge along the Hudson River, is an amazing example of urban regeneration efforts. Last time I visited the place, soon after it opened to the public, it blew me away. But it was not even half-finished and I always wanted to go back to see the rest.
Last month I went to New York and managed to spend a couple of hours walking the entire length of the elevated park, from the gentrified and so-cool-it-hurts Meatpacking District to the Javits Convention Center.
It was a hot Sunday and the place was packed with tourists, locals and numerous newlyweds who monopolised parts of the park for prolonged periods of time. Forget Central Park, it seems having your wedding day snaps taken against a derelict warehouse is in this season.
The gallery below has no newlyweds in them, but a few of my favourite snaps from the day. And I’ll definitely be back to see the next phase of the project when it’s ready a few years from now.
Also posted in gallery/photo essay, photojournalism
Tagged New York, NYC, The High Line
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Can Murray do what Serena Williams did?
Last Saturday was my first time ever on Wimbledon’s Centre Court. And what a day it was.
The first person we saw the moment we entered the grounds via Gate 7 was Serena Williams.
That was before her match with Jie Zheng, which she won. Obviously. I snapped a few pics of her during training and I’m glad I did as I sat slightly too far from her during the actual match – and I left my long lens at home. Very wise, I know…
Still, I enjoyed the match if not the actual picture-taking:
Mind you, there were enough gigantic lenses around – if I *really* wanted to use one, I’m sure I could borrow one from someone.
Apart from the snappers, there were plenty of merry spectators. And I do mean PLENTY. And yes, before you ask, strawberries, cream, champagne and summer hats were all there too:
And in fact we did have proper summer weather, which made the experience on the centre court – and off it – really amazing. I have to say I was very impressed by how well the event was organised and how perfectly everything was choreographed on the court itself during and between the matches.
I’m writing this post a day before Andy Murray’s historic final against six-time champion, Roger Federer. Hope he is as impressive tomorrow as he was last weekend when he played against Marcos Baghdatis. Hope he is British again…
Also posted in gallery/photo essay
Tagged andy murray, serena williams, tennis, wimbledon
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In bed with Tamron
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8-Di-VC-USD Lens image via The Digital Picture.com
A couple of months ago I went to an event at Calumet London and saw the new Tamron 24-70mm f 2.8 with image stabilisation which was about to debut in the UK.
I’d had a brief fling with a Tamron lens 5-6 years ago and my impressions back then were less than positive. I’ve been using Canon lenses since then and never thought I would feel the need to invest in a different brand.
At the Calumet event however I had he opportunity to play with the new Tamron, which was – and still is – the only 24-70mm f2.8 lens with image stabilisation, or, as the manufacturers prefer to call it, vibration compensation.
The few pics I took with it back then looked promising and the only pre-release review on ephotozine was very encouraging. Clearly Tamron has improved its reverse-engineering efforts since the last time I played with their kit. But old habits die hard and I decided to wait for more reviews before making a decision.
So why did I even consider this lens, particularly when my Canon 24-105mm is really great as a general lens? There were two main things about the new Tamron: it was faster than my main Canon glass *and* came with image stabilisation. Well, three things, in fact. It’s also much cheaper than the latest Canon 24-70mm f2.8 II, which retails at around £2,000 and doesn’t offer image stabilisation. Which is not an issue when you shoot with a tripod or in the studio, but I largely don’t.
I used the new Canon lens and its quality is superb. But it failed me several times when I tried using it hand-held in dimly-lit situations. Therefore spending that kind of money when I know I won’t schelp my tripod with me all the time was a bit pointless.
In the meantime, more reviews appeared and they were also largely positive, and even claimed the Tamron lens at times outperformed its Canon equivalent (see the video from F-Stoppers below). It’s supposed to be great for DSLR video, which is music to my ears.
There are however a couple of issues most reviewers identify – some noticeable vignetting at 24mm and varying levels of sharpness at various focal lengths. I’m not that bothered about vignetting, Lightroom usually deals with it nicely. Sharpness might be more problematic, but let’s not pre-judge anything.
I’ve decided to make the jump and play with the new lens for a bit. I’m quite curious about it.
Look out for some test images over the next couple of weeks. And if you know something I should be aware of, speak now, or forever hold your silence…
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