Balloons and shadows times deux !?

I was commissioned to take photographs of a Godiva Chocolates promotion in London's Regent Street yesterday and will post a slideshow of this fun event later today. However, one picture I took just before it really got started had some wonderful light and a graphic quality that I really liked. It reminded me of an iconic picture by Rene Burri taken of three men on a Sao Paolo office building rooftop. The picture above is how it came out of the camera, shot in jpeg mode as the client wanted to have pictures available immediately. As you see the highlights are blown but there is lots of lovely detail elsewhere.

I decided to try and recreate what I actually saw and copied some balloons, more properly exposed from another picture I took a few moments later just to the right of the scene, then added some sky and clouds from yet another picture. Then I converted it to B&W which it seemed to ask for.
I like the end result, but I also like the original - what do you think? Is the final version, better or worse, if worse why?, if better - why? If you had changed the original how would you have done it?

The Lightsphere II earns its keep

This week I used my Lightsphere II for a paid assignment, which was to photograph Beata Aleksandrowicz, the founder of Pure Massage in Fulham for a poster announcing the opening the opening of a branch in Fenwick's department store in Bond Street.

I got the assignment on short notice and had little time made available for the shoot as Beata was busy with the new branch, so rather than take my trusty Elinchrom flash system, I thought I would try working just with the Lightsphere. It proved a revelation. Twisting it this way and that and varying the flash settings I was able to get a great variety of light set ups some in the very confined space of a corridor off which, the massage treatment rooms lay and which required total silence on our part so as not to disturb the peace for the clients. The resulting pictures pleased the client and look in my view as if they were taken with a full set of studio lights.

Once a number of pictures were selected I then created a number of versions of a poster of which one will shortly be seen A2 size in the Fenwick window display. I look forward to using this set up again soon.

Three pictures - one afternoon

I took these pictures the same afternoon as those in Trafalgar Square. The first is a lady in the entrance of The Photographer's Gallery in Newport Street. I loved the overall shape and the interaction with the ladies outside.


The next was in Trafalgar Square, and is a notice outlining all the rules and regulation that apply, typically done in a way that no one actually sees them! apart from some wit whose comment is a non-sequitur, or maybe I am not on the right wavelength!?


Finally on a wall leading to a private mews in Knightsbridge a shadow of a hedge on a white wall.

Isn't the sheer disconnectedness of these images all taken within a few hours what makes photography so addictive?

Trafalger Square and King George IV

I was in Trafalgar Square with my Leica M6 and 35mm F2.0 lens and took this rather uninspiring photo of the statue of King George IVth, when I noticed the light was changing and in particular bouncing off a hoarding behind it, leaving it as a stark silhouette amidst a slowly darkening square.

As one moved further away, the horse took less and less space against the hoarding and resulted in my going home full of anticipation for the results.

I think they ended up, just as I had visualised them and have a slightly magical feel to them.

The diagonal

This is a sort of homage to Saul Leiter, but I only realised so, after taking it, while waiting for an underground train a few days ago. One of the classic "New York Phot0graphers" of the 40's and 50's he took pictures of street scenes nearly always with a strong light, with lots of black and aways something quirky which got better each time you re-visited the picture. There was always some graphic element that just caught the eye.

After I took this and looked at it carefully on the computer screen I made the connection. Look at the boots, the stance - it makes you want to know more, but all you have is the photo.

If you know the work of Saul Leiter, tell me what you think. If you don't then look for him and then say what you think.

Christmas past! Discarded Christmas trees

A sign of the times we live in is rubbish! and there is no better period of the year to be aware of it, as just after Christmas. I spied a poignant example of this in the huge number of Christmas trees which had until very recently enlivened the homes of many people and were now dumped in the street in varying degrees of order awaiting collection.

So this Sunday in just one hour walking up and down about ten streets in Fulham, London, I snapped over 50 examples, often lying alongside bags and bags of rubbish.
Please see my slideshow to see them all. What a crazy way we all live!. I can't preach as I am guilty too!

What are your views on this matter and what should we do or not do in the future?.


As a contrast please see the slideshow of some scenes of Fulham Broadway and Parsons Green taken this summer.

Feeling blue

With the festivities over one can feel a little blue, so I got thinking about last summer in Turkey and show below, two pictures of boats I photographed at dawn on Olympus Beach in Cirali.


One is a "blue" interpretation of a golden sunrise.


The other was taken even earlier and really was blue and all I have done is heightened the colour and worked with some blur to highlight the boat.

I can now go back to dreaming of my next holiday!