More snow in Fulham

Winter continues with a vengeance in the UK and as a photographer, I cannot resist popping out and seeing what catches my eye of the snowscape on my doorstep in Fulham and capturing it with my Leica M8. Many of the shots taken with a recently acquired Leica F2.8 135mm lens, which is magic.

From a bicycle outlined in snow, to the snow covered street - uncleared or salted after two days, to a feral cat it all can be seen in the More Snow in Fulham slideshow.

Snow ........ in .......Fulham

Yup, we all know snow has fallen all over the country, causing chaos, delays and disruption everywhere! But that gives one time whilst doing one's errands locally to take the trusty Leica M8 and try to capture some interesting visual notes of it all before it turns into sludge and memories.

   From X marks the spot,

to a dog bursting with energy running back to its owners.

 and a motorbike covered in snow, there are visual treats everywhere!

So I end the day with a slideshow of snow in Fulham.

A street with no cars

The council decided to re-lay the asphalt in Marville Road in Fulham SW6 this week, so the night before, cars were banished from the street which presented such a strange sight, that out came my Leica M8 to chronicle the event.

The following morning the street was eerily quiet and empty.

The following day, the old tarmac was gone, stripped away.



This next shot begs the question "did something really nasty happen here?? - nah!"

A day later the new asphalt was down, awaiting white lining.

By the evening children played in the empty street.

Today the lines were painted back and await the return of the cars and normality!

The new road is strangely beautiful at night

Speedy service - The Wheatsheaf Pub Garden

Yesterday, at 9am I got a phone call from the manager of a local pub, the Wheatsheaf, stating that I had been recommended by Bruce, the master butcher at the Parson's Nose , as a photographer who could take some interesting images of the pub's garden that were now needed, for promoting it, now that summer or at least spring appears to have started! Speed was of the essence!

I popped in to meet Ali, to agree a brief and was able to quote him my fee on the spot. Hands were shaken, and half an hour later, I came with my photo gear and took a variety of shots with a wide angle and a fisheye lens, to capture it all. The sun was shining and there were strong shadows, so taking and processing the pictures took some care.

By 3pm I had downloaded the pictures onto my computer and using Adobe Lightroom 2 and PhotoShop CS4 created a slideshow of my selection of processed images that best matched the brief, which I uploaded onto the web and fired off an e-mail with the link to Ali.

At 8pm I had a response from Ali who had selected 8 pictures which he needed as 300dpi tiff files at A3 size which were to be handed over to ProntaPrint on the Fulham Road for inclusion in a large poster to be put on a stand outside the pub shortly. This morning at 10 I delivered the DVD with 800mb of high definition images and left with the cheque.

Eyefully good for all concerned!

Fulham trees @ night & Primrose Hill sunset

Out with my, by now trusty Leia M8 a few night s ago, I photographed some trees in Fulham at night, lit by street lamps.....

I find them really beautiful and helps me realise that there is something worth looking at, and photographing just about wherever one is. It just takes the right time, viewpoint and light to make it interesting.
At the weekend we had a lunch at a restaurant near Primrose Hill and strolled up the hill afterwards. It seemed half of the town, was enjoying the view with us!

Fulham Palace Cemetery

I recently found quite by accident Fulham Palace Cemetery and found it a place of wonder, both uplifting and depressing. Overall it is well kept, but there are areas of tidy dereliction, and many signs of people really caring about people who have died a long. long time ago as well as more recently.

Amongst the many graves are some heart rending but at the same time wonderful graves of the very young, tended with love and imagination.

To see more of my pictures please look at the slide show, on which you can also leave comments

Fulham Businesses - Profeet, Fulham Brass

I added another two pictures to my collection of local businesses in Fulham and think I am getting better and better with practice. I now use three lights rather than two, supplementing my two Elinchroms with a Quantum T5d, which gives me a bit more zing.

With the Profeet shop, who specialise in Hi-Tech sports shoes I used the new align and merge features in CS3 to show someone running along their indoor track. The shoot was a challenge, as I ended up doing it during a staff training day, so set up the shot using only the manager, then had only 8 minutes to take all the photos between the end of training and clients arriving.

At Fulham Brass I was a bit more subtle, but am pleased with the end result in terms of composition, posing and expressions.

Fulham Businesses - The Pilates Room

I continue to add to my portfolio of photographs of Fulham Businesses, which I am planning to exhibit at an open air location off Fulham Broadway, once final details have been agreed with the council - watch this space for news!

This time I photographed my colleagues at "The Pilates Room" using my my new Fuji S5 Pro, an on camera Nikon SB600 flash with a Lightsphere II diffuser and my Quantum T5D flash linked wirelessly with Firewire units. What a great combination it turned out to be - highly controllable and so easily transportable.

It was a challenge and fun, working with so many people in the frame and getting them all to do something interesting and credible at the same time with no closed eyes or yawns!

I had to work quickly as this is a busy place with clients waiting for their treatments, so all this was done during a 45 minute lunch break.

Happy Christmas to all my readers

A white Christmas in Fulham a few years ago! What will this year bring? and with global warming 10, 20 years from now?

Best wishes to you all for this Christmas and the New Year.