Photochallenge
Week 7: Still Life - Camera
A good opportunity to showcase my collection of film based Olympus XA cameras. From left to right we have the XA2, XA, XA4 and finally the Rollei A110, all fully functional! 10 Likes
Week 8:Birds in Flight
Fun fun fun. After spending time in St James's Park looking at birds swimming, landing on the pond and watching two guys feeding pigeons I went over to the South Bank, close to the London Eye and took this photograph. The birds were attracted by food, people leaving/offering MacDonalds fries so they would circle then land then fly away again. Needless to say I took many photographs, this being the best, the birds showing different stages of being in flight. 62 Likes
Week 9: Landscape – Panorama
A more interesting challenge this week involving a genre I rarely use. This photograph shows one of the best views of London, taken looking east from Waterloo bridge. Before settling on this I took a number of photogrpahs from the Oxo Tower looking both east and west, however the image quality in those wasn't quite good enough. 49 Likes
Week 10
To quote Elliot Erwitt "the whole point of taking pictures is so that you don't have to explain things with words." I knew I wouldn't have much time for this challenge so after a few false starts I got out the Scrabble set. This phtotograph was taken after about half an hour of moving the words closer or further away from the camera. 95 Likes
Week 11: Still Life – Toy
A tricky one, not having access to many toys. I had a few ideas - a long exposure of a slinky (didn't work), a photograph of toys in a toy shop (also didn't work.) Then when I'd almost given up I saw this Porsche 911, which I guess some people would regard as a big boy's toy. The photograph was taken with my phone and came out pretty well considering that. One of the comments was slightly odd, to quote "Very realistic. Nice lighting and staging." 15 Likes
Week 12:Buds
This challenge was dull. I spent too long looking for buds and finally settled on this shot, taken outside a cafe on Store Street. 16 Likes
Week 13: Vanishing Road
A simple challenge this week but I wanted to do something slightly different so left it until the evening to take this photograph. The location is close to Clapham Common, a residential road, that's fairly quiet. Initially I'd thought of taking the photograph looking north along the road, it slopes downwards towards the northern end. However this view, looking south worked out better. 23 Likes
Week 14: Rule of Thirds
A more interesting challenge, requiring a bit of thought about composition. I decided on this sculpture, called Ob o8 by Steven Gontarsk, located at Central St Giles in London, because of the bright colour and its location, with offices and sky in the background. The sunny weather meant the shadow could also be captured in the photograph. 25 likes
Week 15: Still Life - Container
"I still have a few of these lying around..." This was more about light than anything. As the sun sets one room in my flat is filled with sunlight, which I always feel I shouldn't waste. As for the contents I thought it was a no brainer; a film and a couple of canisters, or containers. Getting the complete reflection was a bit tricky, luckily it was a clear evening so I had time. 14 likes
Week 16: Water (Long Exposure)
This week's challenge was both interesting and easy. Options wise I was considering Regent's Canal over by Limehouse Basin, Teddington Weir or Chiswick Business Park, which I settled on. Typically on the one occasion I didn't want too much light there was blazing sunshine! Luckily there were a few clouds in the sky which gave the opportunity to take this photograph. 43 Likes
Week 17 - Leading Lines
"Sometimes it's good to look up..." After a bit of thought I decided to take a photograph of the spiral staircase in Heal's, a subject I've photogrphed before. I probably spent 15 minutes there taking photographs, looking down to the bottom of the staircase from various points, then looking up and a few more looking down before deciding on this final shot looking up. I used the flash to brighten the lower part of the staircase but didn't want the top to be too bright. I was surprised it was so popular! 142 Likes
Week 18 - Still Life:Books
"A few I've read and re-read and a few I refer to." Another week and another Still Life challenge. After thinking about libraries, bookshops and doing something clever spelling out the word books I decided on this shot. I selected these books intentionally early on in the week, then had to wait few days for good light. 27 likes
Week 19 - Mother Nature
"The Proud Parents" Another week another not-so-interesting challenge. I spent too long taking photographs of buds and flowers before heading to St James's Park and taking this photograph. Unfortunately I think it came out too dark and would have benefited from some photoshopping, however I left it as is. 19 Likes
Week 20: Landscape - Minimalist
This week I cheated, whilst I found the challenge/topic interesting I knew I wasn't going to go out of the way to take a special photograph. Instead I located this one, taken on Holkham Beach back in 2011 with an Ixus 750. It generated a few comments, people giving me tips on cropping and no-one suspected anything! 72 Likes
Week 21:Symmetry
My first thought was here we go again as I remember this challenge from last year. If I recall it appeared as if some of the photographers didn't fully grasp the concept of symmetry! Anyway finding perfect symmetry in nature or architecture is quite hard, so I figured a reflection would be good. After spending 30 minutes at Paddington I settled on this shot, which I cropped slightly. 19 Likes
Week 22: Technology
An easy challenge but one I took too much time thinking about as opposed to taking photographs. I settled on the idea of an electric car at acharging point, and wanted it around dusk so the lights would be visible. I was lucky to find and photograph this Smart car as the owner returned 10 minutes after I started to photograph it and drove off! 20 Likes
Week 23 Nature & Wildlife – GROUND
Yawn, what to photograph this week I thought. I could be cool and photograph the Look Right sign painted on the road by pedestrian crossings but I figured not everyone would get it. Taking a stroll around the gardens off Matrimony Place I found a corner with compost this log. I took a few photographs but settled on this one mainly because of the worm and light. 13 likes
Week 24: Landscape – Sunset
A photochallenge that is dependent on the weather is a challenge indeed! The weather forecast for the week was mainly cloudy, however Tuesday was supposed to be clear and sunny. The sun was due to set at 2120, so I headed to my vantage point, arriving in good time, and it was cloudy, typical! I missed Thursday's red-sky-at-night sunset thinking it would be cloudy again and going out without a camera with me. Then Sunday arrived, sunny all day and an OK sunset takenf from my bedroom window.
Week 25: Composition – Framing
"My lunchtime hangout..." Framing, an interesting challenge. I had a couple of ideas in my head but went with this one in the British Museum. It was a sunny day, so the shadows from the roof were quite prominent. Typically a lot of patience was required in composing the frame then waiting for people to move to get a clear shot. It's possible the frame is too dark, but I also think the shadows could be darker still, anyway... I was surprised by the lack of Likes, still.... 15 Likes
1461.jpg
IMG-0422.JPG
IMG-2930.jpg
IMG-2931.jpg