Skater Girls

We were at the park today and I had my camera with me with my 70-200mm telephoto fitted, which is quite unusual at the moment. There were some girls on skates who I thought looked very retro and cool skating on the netball courts, so I decided to try to capture them for a few minutes. I have not done much photography at all the last few months so it was a bit like getting back on my bike, and particularly using this lens which is quite different to my shorter (24-70mm) telephoto. Nonetheless, I got a couple of shots which I am pleased with and post below. The light was late afternoon and quite flattering, and formed some nice shadows for the background grass and trees which are nicely out of focus. It felt good to take some photos just for me without any specific purpose except to capture some images.

Exercise 19: A single figure small

The task for this exercise was to photograph '... a place which is mostly free of people, yet with an occasional figure passing through it'. And I guess it should be somewhat interesting too?

I went walking at Southbank for a short while on the weekend and took a couple of photos. The first is a someone standard photograph of the front of the train station, with someone exiting the frame on the right. Although convention is to have people walking into the frame, I thought it was more interesting in some ways having him exit the frame, i.e. just arrived on a train and leaving the train station area. Not sure. Anyway, he is dynamically placed close to the edge of the frame. Bright blue sky in the background (matching my person's outfit, though obviously I didn't plan for that!) and lovely brick building with a yellow post as accent in the foreground.



The second photo is of one of the fancy hotels in the area, the Mantra. I had not spotted the pool before, and I think it fits in nicely with this exercise which was to see if you (the viewer) can have a delayed reaction in noticing the figure. In this case it is not the scale that is unusual but the presence of the figure indicates that actually there is a pool overlooking the road! I like the strange relationship of the traffic lights superimposed on the building and man, and also like the bold oranges and blues in this image. The strong geometric lines are effective also (though some may say might work better on a diagonal?)



The inclusion of people as small accents in these two photos _definately_ make for more interesting images of the buildings and this is a technique I will continue to explore with my photo making.

Perth Street Photography

I was in Perth (Australia) for work a few weeks ago and took the opportunity to take some street photographs. I used my point and shoot camera (Canon Powershot S95), a fabulous little camera which allowed me to be fairly subtle and less in-the-face than the big 30D. It was quite challenging taking photos of strangers in their rush hour heading home, but it was fun too, particularly playing with the strong contrasting light.

Starting off with a quick self-portrait (well, a partial...)

From Street_Perth

Girl at a bus stop (challenging bright light behind)

From Street_Perth

I like the shadows in this one, and the fairly severe expression on this womans face!

From Street_Perth

Look at those shoes!

From Street_Perth

Sneaky photo not looking through camera viewfinder.

From Street_Perth

Strong late afternoon sunlight and great facial!

From Street_Perth

Sleepwalking

From Street_Perth

Nice light separating my subject here from the background

From Street_Perth

Blurry but I like it

From Street_Perth

Still got a ways to go with street photography, but it's definately fun to try!

Update & portrait photos

A quick update on my one portrait project and other stuff... it rapidly turned into one a week, and now it's one whenever I can manage! The last few months have been hectic, and the next few will continue to be so! We are moving back to Australia in a few days so have been preparing for that over the last few months. It's all systems go (apart from my photography!)

I've recently finished TAOP and sent it off for the next Assessment. I'm excited to hear the results in a few months. The journey has been fantastic for me and I feel I've risen to the challenge quite well. I'm also working on People & Places which I continue to feel more comfortable with.

Here are a few recent portraits that I've taken, expect a bit of a pause from the blogging, but the next photos will be from Adelaide and then Brisbane!

Jazz Festival, Edinburgh. I took my camera out during the Jazz festival free event in the Grassmarket. It was a lovely day with constantly changing light conditions. I took loads of photos (for the P&P course, though I have not posted them here on my blog yet). These were my favourite portraits on the day.

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh. This was a sneaky shot, very voyeristic of me, but then she was lying there in the sun so I wasn't being that naughty! I like the composition of this photograph, and it works well with the strong high contrast sunlight. A rare hot sunny day in Edinburgh!

From Portrait_Project

Jupiter Artland, self-portrait. Not terribly inspired, but I liked the artwork and I never miss an opportunity to star in my photos!

From Portrait_Project

Rowena, an amazing yoga teacher who I've been very lucky to study with for the last 2 1/2 years (www.ro-yoga.com/). We had a short photo session in her yoga studio, which is a beautiful light place - perfect for practice and photography. I took some photos for the P&P course here which I will post in due course.

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

A friend. Would be better without her sunglasses blocking her lovely eyes, but then there wouldn't be the cool reflection of me in the photo too :) She was a reluctant sitter so I didn't push it.

From Portrait_Project

more to come...