I’ve posted photographs shot inside galleries her on the blog on a number of occasions before (e.g. here, here, here, and here). They are not always the easiest places to make pictures as they can be quite dimly lit, necessitating slow shutter speeds, wide apertures, and the chance of motion blur and camera shake becoming present in the photos. They are, nonetheless, quite appealing locations, I find.
The photos today were shot in the Tate Modern gallery in London.
I generally try to find a Christmassy photo to publish on the big day. The only recent picture I have that fits the bill is this one of the Christmas Tree being erected in Trafalgar Square in London. It didn’t have any lights or decorations affixed when I took the shot.
Each year a tree is gifted to the people of Britain by Norway in thanks for British support during the Second World War. The tree would feature in the British childrens television programme Blue Peter quite frequently at Christmas, when the presenters would assist in it’s felling and transportation from Norway, and it’s erection in Trafalgar Square. Blue Peter is still being shown – it first aired in 1958 – and is the longest running TV show in the world. In 2008 presenter Andy Akinwolere presented the feature on the Christmas Tree and accidentally dropped the star when attempting to fit it to the top of the tree.
The Shard was, at the time of its construction, the tallest building in Europe, standing at 308.5 metres in height. It has since been surpassed by a number of buildings, including the Mercury City Tower in Moscow, Russia, and the Varso Tower in Warsaw, Poland. It remains the second tallest structure in the United Kindom although the tallest – the Emley Moor television transmitter – is not a habited building.
On the day I took this picture, The Shard’s pinnacle was lost in a shroud of fog. There’s a viewing gallery up at the top, though it probably represented a lesser experience on this date (unless you really like being in a cloud).
Down at the bottom end of Woodhouse Washlands there is an oxbow lake. It’s actually not much of a “bow”, more a strip of water which lies maybe fift to a hundred or so metres from the current course of the River Rother.
A tree stands at the edge of the water – a willow, I think – and is the subject of today’s photograph. The fog masks so much in this scene which, in clear conditions, would reveal houses and other structures on the valley side in the distance beyond the tree. Thank you fog.
It’s been a while since I posted a power-lines picture I think, so let me rectify that. If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ll perhaps realise that I find pylons and power lines an appealing choice of subject matter. Not to the extent that I go looking for them purposefully, but they often draw my eye. This pylon, stood like some metallic sentinel on the foggy and frosty Woodhouse Washlands certainly caught my attention.
I took myself off for a trip to the seaside today. I don’t often tend to go there on cold January days, but I figured that a change of scene would get my creative juices flowing (plus I could eat some fish and chips while looking out at the sea…). The day was sunny and bright, but bittely cold with chill winds – the remnants of storm Malik that was now headed east out to sea – so a hat, gloves and a fully zipped up jacket were a definite necessity. I’m feeling tired now, and ready to hit the shower when I finish typing this, but my belly is full of my fish and chip dinner, and I have two rolls of 35mm film to be developed, so the day counts as a success. The pictures will turn up here in a bit, although I’ve got two other rolls of stuff to root through before that happens. It’s nice to be back in the black again, photographically speaking.
I usually tend to write these blog posts later in the day, after I finish work and have eaten, but I’m writing this one earlier. It’s Sunday, so I’m not at work, but I am going out to eat lunch with my wife shortly, so don’t have unlimited time. And I can’t think of what to write.
It’s something that I often fret about when composing these blog posts, probably as a factor of putting them out every day. What to put into words without it feeling like it’s for the sake of it. I doubt my success rate is high.
I could go down the route of describing how the picture was made, giving background on the events that led to its capture along with the equipment and techniques I used. Or I could describe the picture itself, breaking it down as I see it. Or I could talk about something completely unrelated and drop the picture in either to illustrate a point or, more likely, just to publish a picture. Sometimes it’s just a sentence to get it over and done with.
It’s not so much writer’s block on days such as today, more a lack of direction and no particular topic inspiring me to words. It feels frustrating and that the blog post serves no purpose on these occasions – either to anyone reading, or to me as the author.
Don’t forget to come back for more random blathering tomorrow! 😀
I’ve spent this afternoon developing a roll of Ilford FP4+ that I shot last weekend, and also scanning a roll of Fujichrome Provia 100 that I also shot suring the same session (but which I had developed by my local lab as I don’t have the gear for developing E6). I’m pretty happy with the Provia scans, and they’ll start to appear on here after the weekend. The FP4+ negatives look nice too, although I can never truly tell until the scan appears before my eyes.
Today’s photo is another from the foggy morning’s walk a few weeks ago and was shot beneath the viaduct that featured on the blog a couple of days ago.
This pollarded tree has featured on the blog at least once before (and probably more times, but this is the only one that my quick search pulled up). It’s usually difficult tophotograph in isolation due to all the surrounding elements. There are other trees close by that can creep into the shot and cause background distraction, there are power lines and pylons in the area, a concrete viaduct spanning the valley, and older brick railway viaduct, plus a whole bunch of industrial units on the valley side. It’s still possible to get interesting pictures, but you generally have to work the other elements into the shot.
On foggy days though most of these things fade away. There’s sight of some of the other trees in this shot, plus the vague lines and shapes of the power lines and some factory buildings, but the fog serves to mostly obscure them.
I shot this roll of HP5+ at 1600asa and pushed it in development as the light was very dim. There is added grain in the resulting images and perhaps a little more contrast, but I think they serve to add some grit to the pictures.
Two quite similar photos today, both of the A57 viaduct where it crosses the River Rother and railway lines. There was thick fog on the morning they were shot and it just disappeared into the blankness. I’m not sure which of the two I prefer though. I like the composition of the first, which is quite clean and layered, but I like the interest of the foreground grasses in the second (although they’re maybe a little messy). Anyway, both here to see, whichever you prefer.
It’s not really inconvenient, it’s just that it was closed at the time I took this picture.
I think the place opens a little later in the morning and then stays open until late in the evening, so actually pretty convenient. It’s not a place I use often and isn’t that close to where I live, but it accepts parcel returns so it’s very useful in that regard. I didn’t set out with the intent of photographing the store – I was heading out to the washlands to get some foggy-morning pictures – but it caught my eye as I drove past and so here it is.
Steel City Snapper photography 