Street Photography - Knightsbridge

This weekend, having some shopping to do, we went off to Knightsbridge, had a nice fish lunch at One-0-One, then off to Harrods whilst toting my faithful Leica M9 and my super wide angle 15mm F4 Voigtlander lens. here are some of the images I got:

Street Photography and the Stefan Lubo Embankment QuizTrail

Hello Trailblazers around the world!

Have you tried my "Stefan Lubo" amazing "Embankment Photo Trail" in London where you can enjoy beautiful secret places?
Not yet? Come on, you just need to download it on your iPhone on www.quiztrail.com/store - and play!

Its all about discovering London in a fresh and exciting way, finding hidden corners with the opportunity of winning prizes by doing some street photography.

but first a few words on the subject of street photography, why I love it, mixed in with some samples taken over the years on various Leica's, Nikon's and most recently what with smartphones being so popular and ubiquitous a Sony Xperia Z.

Having started taking pictures with a Brownie Box camera at the age of eight, I have always been fascinated by my environment and have generally seen it in a positive light. Early photography was mostly of family and friends but it was always informal and taken whenever the urge to record a moment came over me, so even in the home it had the character of street photography.

 

Whilst at school in Yorkshire, my first self-developed, black and white film was of an Air force helicopter landing on the cricket pitch and my school chums ordered prints to show their families. I went on to run the school then university photography clubs and kept clicking away whilst working as a civil engineer in the UK, Switzerland and the Sultanate of Oman, then later as a project manager in charge of developing private hospitals and nursing homes all over the country. Then setting up and owning an internet consultancy for eight years taught me the power of images in the internet age and led me finally to turn my lifelong hobby into a profession, which I have practiced since 2006 as distinguished photography , keeping a nice balance between commissioned and personal work.

The passion for street photography comes from the urge to record striking scenes in virtually any place or situation: right on my doorstep in Fulham, in the bustling side streets of Soho and Southwark, Durham at dawn, Lisbon at Christmas, at 45 degrees in the Kalahari desert in Namibia and minus 20 degrees in the Mazurian lakes and towns of northern Poland and a myriad more.

I have an aesthetic eye, so I am drawn to pleasing, striking compositions, often where people interact with their environment of things, other people, foreground and background, movement and stillness. Sometimes, Black & White allows the shapes to be more graphic and the information be restrained, other times it is precisely the colour that is the message.

I like working with the Leica M series as they are quiet, small, cover only part of your face and have a frame in the viewfinder that allows you to see what is going on outside it. Sometimes, surreptitious photography works with the subjects unaware they are being photographed. At other times, a second's eye contact, will tell you if it's OK or not. Often, you can make lifelong friends by simply showing people the pictures you took, on the back of the camera, or coming back later with some small prints.

Finally, comes the fun and the feedback from sharing your pictures, with friends, family and work mates. Maybe even an exhibition in a gallery, or as is now ubiquitous doing so, via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest etc. and last but not least Quiztrail can add the icing to the cake, taking you on interesting routes, telling you surprising facts and stories and getting you to deeply know your surroundings. The feedback you get from all these sources constantly helps your photography develop as does looking at other peoples work.

So please get out there with your cameras and smart phones and explore and capture what you see, from your doorstep to the farthest reaches of your world and let's see the results!

Leica M9 in a bus

The other day I happened to take a bus to and from the West End and had my Leica M9 with 35mm F2.0 lens with me. I took a number of pictures impulsively when stuff caught my eye and rather like the results.  the last picture was taken on foot in Belgrave square. #Leica #LeicaM9

London Fashion Week Russian Fashion Show after party by RuStyle @ The Collection

On the night of the 22nd of February I had the pleasure of attending a London Fashion Week Russian fashion show after party by RuStyle at the very trendy Collection in Brompton Cross, Knightsbridge.

I took along my Leica m9 with Elmarit F2.8 21 mm lens and a Summicron F2. 35mm lens and using a variety of ISO setting from 800 to 2500 got some fun shots of the goings on

You can see more images in a slideshow of the evening

I emerged at the end of the festivities to find a beautiful Jaguar E-Type parked outside.

My "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" draws to a close

As reported on several times over the last two years, I have had the enviable task of photographing a huge variety of scenes and activities to tell the story of a "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" on the borders. Over 3,000 photographs were edited down to roughly 800 which were then laid out in a draft book of over 350 pages, which was printed via the excellent Blurb book printing service and then pored over by and then discussed with the client.

Changes were made and a small shot-list produced of scenes and people who still needed to be added to the book. I went up in mid June and took over 300 pictures with my new Leica M9 which has now replaced the excellent M8.

 The book with some of these new images added and  further editing now moves on to its final draft, then several 10's of copies will be printed for distribution to the client's family and the staff who make the estate such a wonderful place which is a home, a working farm and a sporting estate.

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