The Snapping Bishop

Oooh those little photons …  

Low winter sunlight, its a gift from the gods isn’t it. If I could chose what weather to have any time I wished it would be low evening sunlight, forget your sunsets and sunrises, defiantly rule out mid summer days, then there’s dappled cloud with sun rays; Oh okay, thats’s pretty cool too; if only I could choose just one that I had the occasional rights to unlock, it would be low winter sunlight.

The Thames Barrier, London, UK.

Used to close of the river from high tidal dangers over one hundred times since it was fully constructed by 1982.

Photographic Title: Prime Location. A High Dynamic Range Photograph.

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Two abstracts from the same hour.

Another shot of the infamous D silo at The Millenium Mills. Previous Blog Entry.

Do you believe in romance …

No not me unfortunately, but the two people in the shot below where certainly indulging there affections in an blatant yet innocent show of blind love on the sandy banks of the Thames. They had little idea that standing on the rivers embankments high above them, that I and several other fellow minded photographer colleagues had also spotted the scene unfolding below.

Instantly my eyes to the cameras viewfinder, continuous streams of slicing shutters can be heard, as I suddenly fight for position amongst my friends. Everyone’s giggling slightly at the easy and lovely shots we where all grabbing from this position, still as yet unnoticed until the couple hugged and kissed in celebration of the declaration for the first time, then our mood got the better of us and we all let out an awe and an ha which blew our cover and triggered the rest of the now gathered audience to join in the celebration of love with smiles and greetings, spreading the sort of knowing look you give to new parents in acknowledgement of our shared human existence.

It made no difference to our couple though, those two where in a different place, you know where I mean don’t you? And If you don’t …then do.

As these shots are quite recent, personal and contain peoples identifiable faces, so I’ll not put up the set.

Instead two more from that half hour wander during lunchtime, the second one contains some of those lucky photographers mentioned above.

The crossing of lines, and the finish.

Off Cheshire Street, near Brick Lane Market in East London you’ll find a pedestrian walk way crossing over a huge spread of rail lines that travel into Liverpool Street station.

On these steps leading down from that narrow bridge, you’ll enter a cobbled railway arch and on through to a back ally, you’ll soon realize you’ve found the right place when your nose and eyes suddenly recoil in disgust at the sights and smells left after last nights drunken masses have had their way; strewn upon the steps of this little know short cut, remnants of their activities lay spread eagle everywhere, some will wash away with the next rain others will remain as examples of human lust for considerably longer.

A Graffiti ridden stair … Much nicer now its captured in two photographs.

Rotherhithe is one of those elusive tranquil spots of London for me. Its sits slap bang in the middle of the city yet easily manages to separate itself from the rapid pace of the thriving metropolis that surrounds it. A natural barrier made by an almost closed ‘u’ shaped curve of the Thames, on the south side, combined with no bridges and only a small segment of the borough open to London main arteries, inevitably means all traffic going into the area soon returns one out of it again only a few hundred yards from where it first entered. This fact hasn’t gone unnoticed by the daily driving population either, leaving the residents of the area free to live their lives without having to endure the continuous barrage of London’s hectic traffic.

Southwark Park (Google Map Link) stands at the forefront of this loop of calmer roads, occupying a whole sweep of land all down the dry west side. Like many Victorian parks it quite wonderfully laid out, full of mature trees, small lakes, sweet vistas and other miscellaneous gems of interest such as the barely standing church in the shot below which had been quickly converted to a art gallery, or a well maintained bowling green sprinkled with fresh autumn leaves.

These are my favorite five out of the few that I shot last Thursday afternoon during a quick wander with friends.

Canary Wharf, London, UK Sept/Oct.

Mist, colour, good light and wonderful skies, or any combination thereof is the usual blessing one receives when the urge to hunt something down just before dawn hits you. It’s usually a side effect of staying over at someones or sleeping heavily that previous afternoon that causes the effect for me. I find myself walking early, suddenly semi-awake but feeling well rested; I sit momentarily dazed and ponder the warmth of the bed against the cold night air outside. My mind explores the possibilities of a dawn shot, that beautiful early light, oh yes I do want some of that, where shall I go, what would I try for? The warmth next to me calls again, it would be very easy to return. But then no, I’d miss my moment, think of that light! “It will all be gone in a few hours,” I shout inside. I amuse myself, “The destiny of chance calls me” and so I rise from the bed, my excitement instantly starts to mount and I remind myself, grinning in my simple  accomplishment,  that I did after all, know it was going to feel like this.

A few recent Canary Wharf views collated from some of those sets over the last month.

Google Map Link.

 Yet another sunset meet arranged with fellow minded photographers through my favorite forum www.talkphotography.co.uk , mainly an excuse to catch up, have a giggle and a drink or two. We do eventually wander off in search of that elusive shot; these few were to be found on the southern end of the bay, close to our favorite public house and an odd assortment of war bunkers, firing ranges and fishing boats.

I’m kinda over done on boats this year after my little love affair with Dungeness the last year or so, so not inspired by these boats particularly I wandered off to try and spot something different.

Note: I had rather a filthy sensor that day after a rather hasty and poor clean, so if you see horizontal, or vertical rain, please excuse me; I did put loads of effort into removing it afterwords during processing, but its not rain, its the cruddy smear of a badly cleaned sensor. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry, oh yes indeed… eek.

The last is an overly processed Art Piece … ‘Countdown to the apocalypse’  hehe.

Many Thanks to Nigel at www.npwimagery.co.uk/ for inviting me and making the meet arrangements.