One & Other In Photos_Day 001 of 100 - 06.07.09

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For 100 days I will be documenting this historical and monumental event. This is art that many people can relate to, interract with, and actually appreciate and understand. And for those reasons, in today's world, one may argue that it's not even art at all. If it's not art, it's better than art: it's us. Perhaps better pictured as a breathing monument to humanity and a modern homage to the public cultural ethos that Trafalgar Square has stood for over 160 years. 001_Day-09.07.06_Mo_0

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Animated .gif_Trafalgar Square Skaters_09.08.09

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Shot near midnight at Trafalgar Square, London. Lit solely by The National Gallery. My usual kit: Canon 50D body, Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens @ 70mm, ISO 3200, 1/70 @f4. I used manual focus, pre-focused on a cone, and took about 10 shots at 6 frames per second. Then used Adobe Lightroom 2.0 to batch process the ageing sepia look, and finally exported series of images to Photoshop CS4 and created the animated gifs you should see now. It's a nice.  Trafalgar Square Night Blader Skate-10

British Museum

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A popular English joke is that the British Museum is famed for having very little to do with Britain, and more to do with colonisation of the British Empire. As a photographer, I find the ambient light in the great hall fantastic. Photos on Canon 50D, Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens, ISO 1600, average 350th @ f4.

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Photoshop Picture Framing Fun!

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I found some old photo prints in my collection while rummaging for magazine clippings to work on my next photoshoot. With exception of the eye, the rest were taken with my old film camera Canon 300. The eye was taken on an old Polaroid 2mp camera. I got the images onto Photoshop and animated them a little.
I made the effect by first giving each rectangular image a light grey border. Then I used Warp (go to Edit - Transform - Warp) to bend the photos. Then the shadow was made, I used a copy of the photo then coloured that in grey with dark shades. Then I blurred the shadow, watermarked the image, and saved a jpeg. Easy to learn for idle thumbs. Might post a video tutorial later. Enjoy. :)

The Lion and His Bride

Workman Chillaxing

Groom Groom

Wedding Reception

My Little Eye

Pretty and Intelligent, Corny but True

Cheeky Girl

Some Days May We Ever See?

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A mere 10 miles lies between me and the 45th President of the United States of America at the G20 convention. Usually separated by oceans, today that divide is in minutes. From a high vantage point in London I watch a pair of helicopters hovering over Bank like hawks and ask myself 'is this as good as it gets?' Hope. Expectation. Positive Action. In response to the death-by-police-brutality of innocent passerby Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protest today, the police need to have a better image and sort themselves out, because the worse their image becomes the more likely people will be to compare and liken them to criminals. And once protectors become criminals, who do the good people turn to?

Classic Friday Night Leicester Square

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And so some night Christians decide to chat to a semi drunk clubber who's decided to stop off enroute to Burger King for a short slur session. Vivid yellow mansize plaquards emblazoned with the same John scripture have come to typify this bustling spot outside the Empire cinema, Leicester Square. Just like in the movies, where there's good, evil follows. Behind the manic street preachers lay steps leading down towards the very pits of hell. The horrendous nature of the public toilets test your true state of desparation to answer nature's call. A cleaner option would be a restaurant or even a pseudo-restaurant like Burger King, believe it or not!

And, for any sane human beings lingering home after a late day... AT ALL COSTS, AVOID TAKING AN N20 OR 29/N29 NIGHT BUS. You have been warned, for the boundless grief in  seeing Londoner's at their most degenerate spew-shouting-stink-swearing-spit-stealing-insobriety-states is enough to vapourise holy water and make monks yell!

Advertising in Sticky Situations - How To Grab Attention

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Visual Minder-Bender or What?

When it comes to advertisements on a poster or billboard, bigger isn't necessarily better as most of them are rehashed, lame or trash. But this one, this one for a new UK TV programme, is just ingenious. Okay, so the programe's a rehash, but but that's besides the point. Dare I say, I even got confused with the 3D perspective of it, and momentarily thought the men were stuck on figures. Perhaps the most marvellous marketing magic is that the advert's actually torn and tattered at the bottom. Just look at that.

And the true magic's all in the attention to detail as even the grey wall colour behind Richie's only exposed hand matches the real wall colour behind the poster. Boy it looks like those two comedians are going to fall off the page! Sweet. All the more perilous for hanging over London Underground tracks.

I know, the original Minder was not a comedy show and these guys aren't comedians... that is unless Shane Richie said he was an actor. :0)

Chinese New Year_Central London_2009

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2009 Chinese New Year_Central London What a hectic Chinese New Year! The way London's China Town was packed so frantically, I'm definately gonna be celebrating somewhere else next year. With only one hour to enjoy the celebrations, emerging from Leicester Square station I almost immediately heard the distinctive banging drums of the famous Dragon dance. But Woah! If you actually wanted to SEE that Dragon dance you had to be like some kind of obsessed fish; swimming through the rough crowds surrounding the performance like piranha among lunch.

The dragon is the highest sign of prosperity in Chinese culture, and the Dragon dances from shopfront to shopfront, being fed vegetables and exchanging good fortune.

So I stepped away from China Town onto Shaftsebury Avenue, searching for other wonders. Like a quaint old tourist lady clutching helium balloons in the street, a young Chinese boy reciting a 5 minute long prose in Mandarine on stage, and then it started snowing! Global cooling!! And with that it was time for me to go.