During the weeks of lockdown, the garden flowers and blossom start to look very attractive objects to photograph. luckily I have my macro 100mm and ring flash to take pictures. I have also experimented with different views of the flowers from the more traditional look to close up macro. I have also looked at different lighting approaches. Here are a few of my pictures taken in my garden during April 2020 lockdown.
The Great Western Arcade is situated near Snow Hill Station and in the morning is a throughway through to other parts of the city. It is lit up to show the different shops that are in the arcade. In the morning Greggs attracts many people to its store. There are lovely smells of fresh bread from the No1 the Bread collection. There is also the colour of Miss Macaroon. I loved the guy in glasses cleaning the opticians windows. The wedding dress shop window dressing is lovely but the passerby is more intent on her mission to get to work. The arcade is a reflection of the history, the present and the future of Birmingham.
I was asked to a conference in Cologne and whilst doing the necessary preparation for work, I also get ready and planned my photographic journey for the trip. When researching photographs of Cologne a few areas were highlighted. The Cathedral and the River Crane Buildings were prominent in the Google pictures search. The journey fro Birmingham was plane to Dusseldorf and I arrived into Cologne over the railway Bridge that spans the Rhine. As the train passes over the large steel bridge into the station you get glimpses of the cathedral and the markets. As soon as you leave the station, you walk into a square and the camera has to be taken out. The cathedral takes your breath away with its grand structure.
There were Christmas markets around the Cathedral. These were very pretty selling many different gifts from stars to wooden puppets. The markets were lively with music, laughter and singing. They are nestled in pockets around the narrow streets of the city.
Having has a brief look in the cathedral where mass was taking place, I headed out over the steel railway bridge looking for the classic view of the city. A feature of the bridge is all the padlocks that have been added to the fencing between the railway tracks and the pedestrian footpath. It is a twinkling mass of brass and quite something to see. Eventually I arrived at the promontory on the far bank where there is a large statue of Keiser Wilhelm I. It is here where I set up my camera to take the “classic” view of the cathedral as you look back over the Rhine. I used my Sony DSC-RX100M5 on manual to take the picture. I rested the base of my camera on my handkerchief as there was a low stone wall to use as support.
The settings were as follows
The slow shutter speed allowed for the intercity train moving over the bridge to blur and line up with the other leading lines of the bridge. The water from the Rhine began to have a slight silky appearance to it. The contrasting colours came out well with the silver of the cathedral and the gold of the steel bridge. I was pleased how it turned out.
The conference took place at the University of Cologne and after two days of an intensive workshop, we had a few hours spare before travelling back to Dusseldorf airport. First off it was the cathedral and the inside architecture is a sight to see. The long imposing nave leads to the Relics of the Three Kings. It is difficult with the camera to do justice to all the wonderful stained glass windows and other structures that are present in the cathedral. I will have to return again.
Also I wanted to see the three skyscrapers on the Rhine called the River City Cranes. They looked spectacular from pictures on the web. They were half a mile south from the train station but well worth the walk. On the way I passed another Christmas market as well with all the people activity going on. Getting close and personal to the large structures allowed for some great architectural views of them. They reminded me of a Star Wars troop carrier with the anterior leg supporting an outstretched flat structure. There were many opportunities for pictures and the wide angled view from the iPhone allowed for some rather good distorted views. I walked out onto the nearby bridge to get a better view of the structures. They were fascinating.
Then it was back along the riverfront to take pictures of the picturesque houses with various local people taking in the end of the day. The houses were set back from the river and the cathedral spires over looked them. They were a popular place for locals to stroll along the river or sit back and people watch others.
Overall verdict, an interesting city to photograph and one to which I will return.
Every year the end of the degree ceremonies is marked by a celebratory dinner in the Great Hall. This picture taken with my iPhone gives a glimpse into the grandness of the night. It is a showcase for the University and many local dignitaries are invited to the event. The Great Hall looks magnificent as the Chancellor, Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea CBE, the India-born founder of Cobra Beer, delivers the welcoming address. The iPhone has captured the colours of the night well. The picture made explore on Flickr and received 10k+ views and was rated the 82nd photograph of the day.
The May Bank Holiday was not going to be like last year. The temperature was predicted to go down to around 2 degrees centigrade. I had in my mind that I wanted to photograph Chesterton Windmill on the Saturday evening. Was I mad? Looking at the weather forecast there was a good chance of a mix of sun and clouds. These were the ingredients for a possible sunset. Therefore I had an early supper and packed all the kit. I included hot drinks as well. Lots of clothing layers and also a pair of gloves. Goodness is this May!!!
You see the windmill from the road and already your excitement levels rise as it is very prominent and command lovely views. There are never that man people there in the evening so I parked the car and I could not wait to get the camera out and start taking pictures. My problem is that I get too excited about getting that picture. I looked to bracket some of my pictures for later HDR treatment and some of them came out very well.
At the windmill, I also looked for different pictures of the structure. This can be difficult for me as I tend to always see the larger details. However the golden light opened some interesting pictures.
Then after a couple of hours the sun has gone and there is just a warm glow over the area. The hot coffee back at the car was lovely and then it was back home to look at the pictures. I will also be back to take some more pictures in the future. Hopefully I will not leave it too long this time.
The canal through Knowle is one of my favourite places to visit. If it looks as if the light will be good then I look for the opportunity to visit. There are always boats on the canal and the sun sets nicely on the top of Knowle locks. There are some water reeds at the top lock and for a few minutes as the sun sets, the light catches them nicely. I used my Canon 100-400mm lens to save me having to cross over the lock with all my camera equipment. Once that picture was done then I settled back to catch the sunset over the water. I always enjoy the picture taking here and also used my Big Stopper to see if that would give a nice effect.
I have started to take my wide angle lens out with me when wandering around Birmingham. I usually do this on a Wednesday morning as I have a clinic in the City Centre. I plan different routes around the city but today I went for a route from Snow Hill to Brindley Place. Along the way I took several pictures and at around 7.30am arrived at the NIA. The Iron bridge over the canal is a photogenic leading line and I started experimenting. It was then that a noticed that a colourful sunrise was starting to happen. I overcame the lack of tripod by using the canal wall. The manual settings of the camera were as follows shutter speed 1/13, aperture f/20 and ISO 400. I use live view to check the scene. I also ensured that I focused part way into the picture to find the hyperfocal length thus ensuring all would be in focus. I took a few more pictures and then went to one of my favourite coffee houses Tom’s dinner in the Mailbox. Browsing through the pictures and this one caught my eye. Processing is a mixture of Lightroom – up the exposure, drop the highlights, touch the shadows and a heavy vignette. I use a LUT (Lookup Table) add on to bring out the cinematic effect. Then into Photoshop where I use an unsharp mask followed by adjustment of the levels as the final adjustments. The picture looks good and I have also included some of the other pictures that were taken on my walk.
September is always full of surprises and this year it has been no exception. But we now reach the last days of the month and autumn is around the corner. I am training for the Great Birmingham Run half marathon and I use the canal towpaths for my training runs. The bridge on Kixley Lane is a picturesque place and I noticed that the trees has started to turn colour. I decided to go back in the evening when there was enough light shinning on the trees. I packed all my lenses and I had a window of 30 to 40 minutes. I got some good pictures. The people on the long boat passing through asked if there was a photographic competition as they had noticed many people taking photos. I asked if I could show their picture on my photographic site and the man said jokingly yes I could if I cleaned his boat!!!!
It is always good when my diary has the free space for an Igersbirmingham instameet and I was lucky as this one coincided with Birmingham Heritage week. The venue was Aston Hall a place that I had not visited since my daughters were young. I expected changes to the layout of the Hall rooms but also, I was excited to visit the Long Gallery which is one of the major attractions of this grand house that is steeped in history. I will not elaborate much further on the history of the Hall as it can all be found on the Birmingham Museums web site
http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/aston
This visit was organised by Igersbirmingham who once again excelled at ensuring we had a worthwhile time with our cameras. We arrived an hour before the official opening and this allowed us the time to browse around the rooms and take photographs of the interesting places. I brought along my fisheye lens as I was hoping that this would provide a different view of the Long Gallery. I also worked with my Canon 5D and the 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. I do get very excited about taking part in photographic events such as this one and it takes a while for me to settle down and concentrate on achieving good pictures. There are many different views and the Long Gallery view with the fisheye came out how I imagined it which was fortunate. However, I am always surprised on how others view my pictures and the Igersbirmingham team selected the picture of the chimneys on the roof for their blog on the meeting
http://www.igersbirmingham.co.uk/aston-hall-instameet
Many thanks to the Igers team of Beth, Fraser and Martin for their work and enthusiasm in running these Instameets
I love the colours of a good artistic graffiti painted on a wall or derelict building. I am not a fan of “tagging” such as scrawling letters or child like drawings scribbled around bridges and walls. Digbeth in Birmingham is regenerating and the focus is the old Bird’s Custard Factory. The streets in and around Digbeth are full of clever street art. Here are a few examples of them. They have been taken with my Canon, Sony compact or even iPhone. There is a fish eye lens used in a few of them. The artists I particularly like are Annatomix and Golden Boy but there are countless others on the scene. I have included a few here that I took on my early morning walks around Digbeth.
