76 posts tagged “street photography”

Last night was the first time I actually had any time or motivation to pop out to take some photos as promised a while back. Actually, the film in my Holga 35mm needed finishing, which you'll be glad to know I did AND I also took the digital SLR out for a little evening walk in the cold winter night of London hence these few photos.

I really like cold crispy winter evenings in London. Mostly when I am indoors cuddled up nice and warm with a big cup of tea, so I consider last night some sort of sacrifice. :) Actually, it was well worth the little walk however cold it was. I caught some lovely moments last night.

I often plan to get the camera out at night time, but it never happens... funny that! :) There is something about the light and really the lack of it at night though. It's like taking another step further in the voyeuristic approach street photography has.

This year I feel like I have come to myself really when it comes to photography. I've found myself, my point of view really and confidence I haven't had before. There are moments I see and I'm able to capture them. I think that is one of the hardest things to do successfully as a photographer, but I hope other people "get me" a bit easily now. :)

I often talked about the ease of taking street photos earlier this year, there really is something that seems to have clicked for me along these past 12 months. There has been a long break between last night and when I last purposefully went out to the streets of London with a camera in hand - yet it felt like it was only yesterday. It's a lovely feeling and I really wish I'd have more time and energy to do more street photography than I've had time especially the end of this year.

After work I was out at Liverpool Street meeting a friend with a coffee earlier in the evening and was a bit early, so I managed to grab some of the photos above whilst waiting. It really was cold, but so gorgeously wintery.

Not having had enough of the skaters at Bishopsgate I came home via Somerset House, which is my favourite place this time of the year. The skating aside the whole setting is so gorgeous, yet all I have to show you is this very romantic photo by the toilets! :D

Oh look - more winter romance! :D Actually this is my favourite photo from last night and I'm very pleased with it. I saw the family, knew where I wanted to be, walked there, turned around and took this photo. Bingo. ;)

The Old Vic has some gorgeous lights going on as well. No Christmas trees this year though, which I'm surprised about. They usually have them on top of the title roof and they look so pretty. The credit crunch has robbed us of a lot of beauty I tell you!

Another nice moment which is very London. People just leave the most amazing stuff on the streets sometimes to be discarded. That looks like a good mattress that, or is that the credit crunch me talking...

Also, I caught this for the little back seat series. I should work a little bit more on these photos actually. The series has a lovely feel to it, but who knows when I next will be around with a camera in hand. There are the black&white Holga photos to be picked up and scanned (I forgot today after work, oh the shame!), so you're not going without some more stuff before the end of the year. But I do feel a bit bad that I've not been a good blogger these past few months... I feel like a New Year's resolution coming on... Oh dear! Better end here before I say something I'll regret! :D

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's another roll of film developed from my Holga 35mm! Wow! And not that long ago since my last one. ;) There were some more shots left from Covent Garden (see previous post) on this roll so I took the camera out again this week with me to finish it off.

It's always a nice surprise to get something developed after a while from actually taking the photos. None of this instant gratification of the digital era for me, I say! Just good old fashioned film, negatives and prints. The Fuji Superia 800 never fails with its colours on a sunny day out with the Holga either. It's a shame I'm a bit lazy to clean the dust off these scans properly, so please, just turn a polite blind eye to that fact and enjoy the colourful lounge wear! :D

Sometimes it still amazes me how close I can get to some people to take photos and for them not to care or notice. This couple had such nice mirroring positions and odd shoe arrangements I dared to step closer and I didn't even get them to turn their gaze at me. A lovely moment I wish happened every time I wanted to document something odd going on around me. :)

And here starts the "new" half of the roll (yes, he was yawning!). I went over to my favourite place of  quiet reflection on Thursday this week. I have spoken about the beauty and meaning of the British Museum to me before, so I won't bore you with the philosophy of it all today. Just enjoy the moments I had whilst visiting one of my favourite places in London.

The Superia really is superior for colour on gorgeous sunny days, don't you think? There is no editing on photoshop on the colours here. I swear! Just look at that intense blue of the sky. Good enough to eat, right?

Early morning is the best time to visit to get the best effect of the Great Court and see the play of the shadows the ceiling throws across this vast architectural space. A truly inspirational place to be standing in. And to think I remember the time there was no Great Court to admire when I first moved to London! Where would I be without it now? :)

Ah, and an old series creeps up on me... As a nice "lost" moment below me unfolds, literally. The best view of the Great Court is actually from the West Wing (no pun intended). Just take the first set of great stairs up from your left when you enter from the main entrance and go all the way up. From a small viewing balcony to your left at the top you're able to see the whole Great Court in the best light if you come first thing in the morning.

Like these shadows! I have taken photos in from this spot before, I know. I just can't resist the play of the people, the shadows and the architecture of those stairs here. And yes, this is a colour photograph (no more Superia gushing I promise!).

These tables at the cafe are usually more full, but for some reason there were only these two men, deep in thought, over their papers that Thursday morning. Nice light, nice posing. Shame about my scan quality. :)

In other (good?) news; there should be more blogging and street photography coming your way this autumn as the wedding season draws to a close and I can focus on some more personal projects. Next time I'll be out and about with the digital cameras, I'd think. Oh and I have been drooling over the new Olympus E-P1 cameras online. It's neither healthy or wise, but they look so gorgeous... Let's see how long I last before I cave in and get one! :D

Hello chaps! Remember me?!  :D Well, here I am after a lovely London Saturday on the streets of London after a long while. It's been aaaaaages since I've had a Saturday off and felt like picking up a camera, but today there I was. Armed with my trusty 35mm Holga, film and late August sunshine to spur me on I wandered about Farrindgon and Smithfields during lunch time.

Actually, it was early lunch time, as you can see and I was on my way to get my hair cut. (I wanted a change and I sure got one!) ;)

What a peachy Saturday it has been indeed. I get my hair cut at the Glass hair salon (site under construction by the looks of it) at Barbican, a skip and a jump away from Smithfields, so it was a lovely walk back for me showing off my new do. :D

Hope this wasn't a case of the old swine flu... She didn't look too well or too happy to be out and about today.

On a side note: Taking the Holga 35mm out with some film was so lovely. It's been ages since I shot anything on film and it was great. I had my prints done in SnappySnaps this afternoon though and they messed them up (again). So, I had to put the negs through my scanner and my Canon scanner has issues with film higher than 400iso. Perfect, as these Fuji 800ZPro prints come off nothing like the punchy colours they should be. (I called the lab and they are reprinting my film as they did 80% of the roll off frame *sigh* Labs just aren't what they used to be...)

Just couldn't wait for the reprints to show you these, so I'm posting these anyways. There were so many great moments going on today. I loved this guy hiding from me when he saw the camera. Really nice moment this.

Sometimes I wish I could zoom a bit with the Holga, but alas, this is also still quite nice. If the scan wasn't so crappy you could actually see the "Love" ads more properly at the front of the newsagent, just have to point them out for now... ;)

Dad's are great, aren't they? :D What a safe crossing for the little ones. I wish I caught some traffic in this, but the cars were too quick and so was the daddy. You can barely see a shadow of the traffic passing in the bottom left hand corner.

A true photographer always finds the best angle. She certainly had the right idea for her tourist photos. :) Blackfriars is undergoing some major works at the moment to get ready for the crossrail to come (for the Olympics of course). The traffic is bad, but it also provides a nice backdrop even on Saturdays.

There are also a lot of workmen around in their high viz gear around all over Blackfriars Bridge all the time. Not sure what he was supposed to be doing, but what he was actually up to was quite photogenic. Look at the lovely London clouds as well. Perfect August day today, really!

All the legs and shadows caught my eye in this. And then there's that ad up there pulling a nice oops-face as a bonus. Damn SnappySnaps, if I could only show you the prints from all these photos...

... this one especially. The scan does this no justice, but what can I do. This was actually my last frame before turning the film in for processing. It's a a hip shot from walking across the road. I saw this couple, aimed, shot and this is what I got. A nice photo for my ongoing couple series, don't you think?

It really was lovely to be out there again to be shooting, I can't say that enough. And of course on film. I really have missed my Holga(s) and good analogue action, but the weddings are still going on thick and fast and I am really enjoying shooting them as well. You can see my SusieShoots gallery for updated wedding goodness (in the gallery section) and I do blog over there now as well. This far 2009 has been an amazing year and I really have enjoyed it. Let's hope it can only get better. :)

This weekend is one of my rare free weekends this summer and funnily enough I had a big itch to get out there and do some good old fashioned street photography today. It has been such a long time, although I have been taking a lot of photos these past months. Just that it's not been on the streets of London. So, it was time to get my hands dirty again!

The London Pride parade was on today, but I decided to steer clear this year. I was not in the mood for crowds, especially as the week-long heatwave London has been baking in is finally coming to an end. Today was a lovely summer day and I caught the first bus across the river and started off around St Paul's.

It's not like I could avoid the crowds, but at least I had some room to manoeuvre to catch strange moments with the tourists. It was lovely to be out there today with my camera and just be. The freedom of not shooting for anyone but me was really lovely to remember and experience again.

It was also just lovely to amble around my favourite parts of London and try to get... lost in one word. I managed to cover some new ground around Barbican, so even though I started off in a default place I am still sticking to the plan of steering clear of old familiar hunting grounds.

Having shot a lot professionally these past months has made me look at composition in a new way. It's one of the things that actually I've improved upon. And there is something happening automatically now with my "eye" and the thinking process in the split second of seeing something and lifting the camera up to capture the photo. I am more efficient and economical somehow in the process of taking photographs. I wonder if that makes sense. :D

There were some lovely minimalist moments going on all around me today. I loved the box on the bag as well with this lady for example. She didn't look too happy having to wait for her ride to come and pick her and those quite heavy boxes up today though.

Nice minimalist moments all around me indeed. I love the red flowers in the background in this. :) I was out with my 50mm prime lens today. It was hard, and come to think of it I would have probably shot less economically if I'd brought something else with me. But the lens is the lightest to carry and was so easy to handle so I don't regret bringing it along today at all.

Barbican is one of my favourite places in London. The architecture is so ugly that it is fascinating, and there are always weird corners to go around and get lost in the place. The layout of the area and the very urban feel to the place makes a great backdrop for some interesting photos, too. Don't you think?

Different kind of eye contact in this one compared to the photo above! That dog (and the lead) really makes this for me, although I was initially going for that bright red hair on that woman to set off the telephone boxes. See, it's not only people now who are suspicious about me, it's the pets as well! :D

There are 30 of these "Play Me I'm Yours" pianos around London at the moment to celebrate the City of London Festival and I've been dying to see them in action. This one at Paternoster Square, right next to St Paul's Cathedral, was given a good seeing to by the lady in the middle. She roped all these tourists in to sing along with her, too which they gladly did!

My walk ended up at Liverpool Street Station and before going home I managed to capture this lovely lady texting (I presume) on her mobile in the middle of the hustle and bustle. All and all it was a lovely day out, weather and photography-wise.

For now I think the next photographs in this blog will be from my holiday to Finland and Estonia in a few weeks time. I'm not shooting another wedding again until towards the end of July, so hopefully I'll have some more street photography time as well for you. Hope you enjoyed these photos and are having a lovely summer! <3

The scent of jasmine is in the air in London. This for me is the sure sign summer is here.

The other scents wafting about London are not so pleasant... ;)

But before I digress: Today was my last day off from work. I took a mini-break this weekend and had Friday and Monday off, I might have mentioned already. Today I went over to the British Museum. It's one of my favourite haunts in London and most often the first place where I find solace when I am sad or stressed.

There is something about the vast staircases, air of history and scent of the rooms that I find very comforting.

It's a great place to just sit and ponder about the meaning of life...

... or just people watch. These photos are from my favourite part of the British Museum - the Asian wing. This one includes "my Buddha", the one for anyone born on a Monday. I bought a little replica ages ago when travelling in South East Asia and it watches over me at home. It's forever making peace. :)

Other people were enjoying the peace and quiet of the start of the week in the peaceful gaze of other statues.

And then there were the materialistic ones, desperate for a cup of coffee. ;) I love the variety of people's poses and the reflection of the Great Court in the middle window in this photograph. I was so glad there were just the right amount of people in this queue to balance things out.

Being a tourist is hard work you know... I believe true love lies in little moments like this. ;)

Some people find all the energy needed even for the stairs of the Great Court. ;) I haven't been working on my Run theme for ages and caught two photos for it today after a loooong break. Just by chance...

From buddhas to monks... I have no words to add to this actually. :D Just enjoy...

And speaking of abandoned projects and themes... here's one for the Lost-series. The stairs at St Paul's never fail to give me great moments to photograph. I love not only the couple in this, but the birds and the hands in the top right hand corner. Oh, and that face! :D

There was a little lapse to usual territory coming home via St Paul's, but I am sure you can forgive me! For the past week I have been doing my street photography on the Canon 5D body which unfortunately is not mine and needs to go back to its rightful owner. It's bitter-sweet being able to borrow it as I got a taste of the wide-angle goodness again, as well as what the Holga lens for a Canon digital body can do, so parting is such sweet sorrow... But as it is back to work tomorrow I wouldn't have more time to get out this much to take photos in new places anyways. So, until next time! ;)

I had a little spurt of street photography yesterday afternoon on my way to London Bridge. The walk along the South Bank that way is quite nice so I had my camera poised. And technically it's not part of my old haunts as I always go the opposite way towards the London Eye during "default days" of street photography. So, I would still count it as chartering new territory. ;)

Londoners in action! Why sit and read when you can catch up on the daily papers this way. Women do this a lot on the tube as well, reading both books and papers. How no one ever bumps into them is a mystery...

The birds went crazy for this street vendor. I love the details of the ninja under the bridge caught in this.

A true Londoner never leaves the house without their umbrella. No matter how hot and sunny it is. ;)

And this is the more elegant way to carry ones umbrella. I love the classic British clichés all over this photograph, including the beige mac. :D This is from Borough Market, a great place to mooch about on a Friday afternoon by the way!

All the flowers in this caught my eye, but since she was at the cash point she was gone in a split second and I couldn't get a better better angle. Great moment nevertheless... that sure is a lot of flowers from one woman to carry on her. :D

London cuteness. ;) She was poised so beautifully by the Thames I couldn't resist...

And that my dears is what I caught in my viewfinder yesterday afternoon. Hope you have a lovely weekend! :)

Today was a little adventure for me as I went over to West London to take some photographs. Part of the shooting street photography in different, more unfamiliar parts of London, is getting me travelling far and wide at the moment. :) Today's route took me by a bus to Notting Hill from where I walked via Queensway to Hyde Park.

Notting Hill is an odd place where odd things happen. :D I popped across Portobello Road as well, but it was too busy and too full of serious tourist cameras for me to enjoy, so I criss-crossed around the back way back to Notting Hill Gate and popped in Starbucks for some refuelling.

I really liked the light and colours at this scene. For some reason this also makes quite melancholic.

I was out with more gear than usual today, too as Marianne was kind enough to lend me her Canon 5D body. I bought a Holga lens modified for a Canon digital camera almost year and a half ago and haven't been able to try it out at all. Since the lens needs a digital body that can do full frame for the full Holga effect (and for the fact I lost the lens for about a year!) it took me until today to do a little test drive.

London continues to enjoy gorgeous spring weather. I had a day off today and headed out to the streets of the Square Mile today to see if I could catch some magic in my photos. Not sure about the magic, but there were some nice moments out there I saw and captured, like the above. Is it just me or does it look a lot like the good guys vs. the bad guys in this? :D

Looks like I've been converting more of my shots to BW recently. Something about that changing aesthetics I was rambling on about in my last post I suppose. Although sometimes when I am out there I see certain things and scenes in black and white rather than in colour. Not sure if that makes sense, it's a bit hard to explain since I've been always shooting majority of my photos in colour. But sometimes, especially in the old parts of London, I tend to just see and prefer things monochrome.

It might be also the suits, not just the arhchitecture. Go figure. :) I love how these guys were bunching up together in this scene. The tie makes it for me personally. Men and bags. Always a good moment to capture. :D

Saying that, there seem to be awful lot of men in my photos from today. I blame the demographic of the City of London! ;) It's kinda creepy how many people out there are on mobile phones, all the time. And look, once again I went for some eye contact. Not sure how long this phase will go on either. :D

He was very cute, and had about the same attention span as I do. Not sure where he was gazing up to, I didn't dare to lose the moment. I'm always a bit nervous shooting babies/kids anyways. Something about the respect to the little ones, but he was too cute to just walk past.

Single? In London? Looking for The One? Look no further than Love Lane in the City of London! It's full of guys just waiting to be picked up. It was quite funny actually. I don't usually mix equipment whilst out there, but I spent a long while just waiting for something to happen at Love Lane and also caught the below on my mobile phone camera:

Seriously ladies, they are just ripe for the picking! :D

This couple was super cute, too. ;) I couldn't resist her in her pink and all.
Young love...

A quirky spotting of today was this stowaway monkey. Poor little fella, having to travel like that! :D

And speaking of monkeys (ooooooh, snap!), I also bumped into Michael Portillo today. He seemed to be filming some sort of interview on the Millennium Bridge. I couldn't resist snapping this picture of him. I actually bump into a few celebrities on the streets of London, but most of the time I try to act all cool about it (like majority of Londoners do), but really inside I'm going "OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO PUT THAT ON TWITTER AS SOON AS I'M IN SAFE ENOUGH DISTANCE!" :D Not so much about Portillo though...

Side effect of spring time: yucky smoochie couples all loved up in the parks of London. Lucky that I've made whole business of shooting a series of them then isn't it? ;) Loved the woman on the left in this scene. The composition isn't as strong I'd like it to be, but I was out with my 50mm prime lens today, so had to make do with this. Actually, this is probably one of my favourite photos I've taken this year. ;)

Also happy to report that: I tanned a bit today out there, I'm keeping to my word of venturing out from my geographical comfort zones still, there's another wedding I'm doing assistant photography for tomorrow and as a result I've been working on a "serious professional website". When it's up and running I'll let you know. Have a lovely weekend! :)

I had this funny urge to start tidying up last night about 11.30pm and it continued to this morning, but really it was such a gorgeous day today I just couldn't stay in and clean. So, inspired by some photos of Nick Turpin, I took to the streets of Soho today to see what comes my way, like clever parking by fellow Londoners. ;)

My aims and aesthetics seem to evolve and change constantly by what I see and experience in my life and this affects my photography. I suppose it's a natural progress, but it doesn't stop amazing me every time I notice it. Today, unlike the usual, I was after some contact with the people I was shooting.

  What a difference it makes to connect with the people out there on the streets. Some find it hostile, but mostly I get away with a lot. And I mean, a lot. :)  I think being female has a lot to do with it, and to be honest I don't mind. Being a woman and a street photographer has always put me in a minority of the minorities in the photography circles, so I'm used to the challenge. It's actually quite amazing how many people don't mind having their picture taken when you are gracious and open about it.

Although, the suspiciousness and hostility is part of it all. Trust me, when it comes to connecting with people, I'm not going to start make it a regular, confrontational and/or aggressive thing. There are street photographers who do that for the reaction they get, but that's just not how I roll. :D

There were some interesting things going on today in Soho. It's not a part of London I go shoot to often, but in the spirit of the last entry where I was talking about moving out of my geographical comfort zones it was good to see and experience somewhere I know, but don't often document.

And I'm glad I was out there. It felt fresh, it felt challenging, it felt good. And spotting and catching stuff like this makes me very happy. :) Sometimes it really is in the little things...

The little things like movement... He was trying to grab a photo of the giant electric socket art installation above me. Me instead was trying to catch him doing something interesting in view of that window display. So I caught him going all dance-y on my in synch with the mannequins. Fair trade, no? :D

As a side note, I think I am shaking off the colour red for now and seem to be replacing it with arrows. :) There were a lot of subconscious(?) arrows juxtaposed with things today in my photos going through them. Something I took away from doing project rainbow last year is the fact that I am more observant of colour and it's relationship to its environment. Just something about red that has stuck with me the most I think. :D

Have no idea what was going on with him, but liked it; liked the sign above him, like the shot. Simple as. And all that colour in this is orange, by the way. :D

This was shot from the bus window on my way home. I usually turn my camera off and put it away when I make my way home. I don't know why, it's a strange ritual really. But this man caught my eye and I love these posters by the King's College at Aldwych. I think there is a great shot still waiting to happen by Mr Maurice a bit further down this bit...

And this my friends is my personal favourite from today. It's one of those photos that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside actually. Love the comment about Oyster cards, and him looking inside his hat. A weird and wonderful pair of things. Al and all, it's been a lovely weekend; it's been relaxing, productive and creative. A perfect balance really. And I'm glad I got to see something fresh through my viewfinder today. ;)