Light and colour in Docklands

Every January the Canary Wharf area of London’s Docklands puts on a light show, with illuminated installations dotted among the buildings. I’ve never been able to go before, but as Peter and I were in London to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral last Monday we decided we’d stay on to see the lights.

We started off at the new Elizabeth Line station at Canary Wharf where the access tunnel was covered in an ever-shifting display of colours.

One of the installations was a tunnel full of fine fibre optic cables hanging down from the roof. I used their movement in the breeze to create an abstract image with some intentional camera movement.

Striking a pose in a crimson tunnel

Photos taken 23 January 2023

In the footsteps of Peter Marlow

Some weeks ago I read about the work of the late photographer Peter Marlow, whose exhibition ‘The English Cathedral’ is now touring the UK. He visited 42 Cathedrals at dawn, making a photo facing east towards the altar, using a large format film camera. This was a sight I couldn’t miss, so my friend Peter and I visited St Paul’s Cathedral last week to see his photos and perhaps make our own photographic record of this dramatic building. The exhibition was wonderful, although it made us realise how few of our ancient Cathedrals have architecture which is truly symmetrical and properly aligned! Given the challenges of building a Cathedral today, never mind several centuries ago, that perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise but seeing these structures together, all photographed in the same way makes it more evident.

After we’d explore Peter Marlow’s photos we spent the afternoon exploring St Paul’s with our cameras, searching for interesting photographic compositions. Ironically, we didn’t actually take any photos looking east like Marlow did!

Sir Christopher Wren’s wonderful geometric staircase, as seen in the Harry Potter and Paddington films.

Photos taken 23 January 2023

Two for the price of one

A recent day off gave me the opportunity to do a little church hunting with my camera. I’d earmarked a little church in Caldecote which is maintained by the Friends of the Friendless Churches so I took the drove over towards the Hertfordshire town of Baldock. A little way short of where my satnav reckoned my destination was I found a church beside the narrow country lane so I parked up and headed indoors. It was only when I looked at the notices on the board inside the porch that I realised I was in the wrong church! This was St. Vincent’s when I was expecting St. Mary Magdalene.

The winter sun illuminating the building was so beautiful it seemed to waste it so I stayed a few minutes and took some photos here anyway. A bit of an unexpected bonus - two churches for the price of one!

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Once I’d finished I jumped in the car and continued the last half a mile to my intended destination. This turned out to be in the middle of a farm so I parked among the cars and tractors and picked my through the mud to the church’s north door.

The interior of St Mary Magdalene’s was rather more spartan than St. Vincent’s, but charming nonetheless. Rather impressively it had two organs - a surprise for a redundant church tucked away, so far from an obvious congregation!

The last rays of afternoon sun kissing the altar.

Photos taken 20 January 2023.

Still searching

In one of my earlier posts I shared the photos from a day in London when I dipped my toes back into some street photography. That was in preparation for a workshop with Brian Duckett where we learned to shoot in the style of American street photographer Saul Leiter - the images from which I have for you here.

We gathered at a cinema cafe in Shaftsbury Avenue for a briefing and some guidance on the style we’d be aiming for. before walking down to Jermyn Street. Brian set us a series of assignments to shoot and here we were looking to play with reflections - in windows, cars and wherever else we might find them. Frustratingly there were many white vans in the street, along with workmen in high-vis jackets, which spoilt many of the reflections but I still found a few photos.

After lunch we moved on to Bond Street where our new challenge was to use things around to use as frames or as out of focus foreground colour and texture.

From there we walked on to Savile Row, where we hoped we might encounter some well dressed characters about town. The plan was to look for interesting details, such as stylish hats, shoes and the like. Naturally, all the well dressed folk had vanished but I did find one dapper looking chap inside one of the expensive shops.

Normally it’s typical to use a wide angle lens for street photography but Saul Leiter tended to use a longer focal length - often around 85mm, and frequently with a large aperture. I’d spend the day so far using a 75mm effective focal length but for the rest of the day I swapped to 135mm. This gave me a greater reach as the light faded and I found it really helpful for our final assigment.

Brian asked us to use shop fronts to shoot through, using colour and steamy windows to create layers as we walked through Chinatown and Soho.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

By the end of the day I had a much better idea of the style we’d been searching for. My photos from the workshop have some of the qualities we’d been looking for, but I can see my search for Saul Leiter’s elusive style will continue.

Photos taken 16 January 2023.

Glancing back

Although we’re now firmly into 2023 I still haven’t share all my photos from 2022. This final set is a collection of pinhole images from a visit to West Wittering beach on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Having spent the morning in the dark confines of the yew trees at Kingley Vale it was great to be out on the open beach, with more light to play with. I’d come armed with my wellies so I could be fairly brave in how close I got to the waves, and I just avoided the water overtopping by boots.

A closer look at the structure of the groynes

This flag warns off would be swimmers but I don’t think there would have been too many that day!

Getting down low among the marram grass.

I’ve often wondered what these posts set into the beach are for - I’m no closer to finding the answer!

Click on any image to see them enlarged.

Photos taken 24 December 2022

Feline supervision

My stroll through London on Thursday took me past Southwark Cathedral and it would have been rude of me not to pop and say hello to Hodge, the Cathedral cat. Named after Samuel Johnson’s cat, Hodge has now been in residence for over two years and he’s thoroughly settled in.

Last time we met he was lounging around in the nave, but today Hodge was supervising in the Cathedral shop, although quite how anyone was supposed to use the computer was a mystery as he was sitting on the keyboard!

After a quick stroll around the Cathedral I discovered Hodge sitting outside the vestry door, hoping to be let in. We had a brief chat (you can see him meowing in this photo!) and I knocked on the door to see if anyone was home. Sadly there was no reply, but the steward at the Cathedral entrance assured me it wouldn’t be long before he was let in!

Photos taken 12 January 2023

In search of Saul Leiter

Street photography used to be something I did regularly, capturing the life and gestures of those around me in the city. Of course the streets became much quieter during the Covid pandemic so I focused on other genres of photography. I wanted to get back onto the streets with my camera so when I saw a workshop devoted to Saul' Leiter’s style of street photography I jumped at the chance.

Rather than going in cold I decided to use my day off yesterday to get some practice in and see if I could begin to see the world like Saul Leiter. His photos often use colour and texture so I spent the day in London looking for these things. He often shot through things, such as windows, to create depth so I tried my hand at this too, using the architecture of Borough Market to frame this image.

Leiter’s photos don’t always include people so I didn’t shy away from photographing other subjects when they caught my eye.

More windows on London life…

After a walk along the river I ended up at Tate Modern, which I find is always a rich hunting ground for people watching. This very dapper chap caught my eye and, even though he’s engrossed in his phone, I couldn’t resist taking a quick photo.

I love the way the light catches this chap as he’s engrossed in one of the art installations.

Reflected colour

Just as I was about to leave the gallery the heavens opened and this scene was visible above one of the stairwells. Such scenes appear in several of Leiter’s photos and he once said he found a photo of a rainy window more interesting than a portrait of a famous person.

Eventually the rain eased off and I braved the gusty winds across the Millennium Bridge.

As I walked near St Paul’s Cathedral I tried capturing the colour and movement around me with slower shutter speeds.

Movement and reflections around these eye catching bollards.

A passing bus. I’m probably stretching things a little too far here, but you don’t know unless you try!

Using intentional camera movement on one of London’s most iconic designs.

The stroll along Cheapside brought me more opportunities to play with colour and reflections.

And finally, this is one of my favourites from today. I saw the George Clooney advert and wondered if it might create an interesting element in a photo, then this gentleman came along and looked up quizzically at the perfect moment!

It’s debatable whether I’ve captured any of Saul Leiter’s style here, but I had a fun day playing and it helped me get my nerve back for taking photos around strangers on the street. No doubt I’ll learn a lot more at Monday’s workshop and I’ll be sure to share the results here.

Photos taken 12th January 2023

The rainy streets of Bishop's Stortford

It was workshop night at the camera club again last night and one of the practical activities on offer was a short photowalk around the town. A small group of us braved the rain (which quickly changed from a light drizzle to a downpour!) to go and forage for photos.

Most of my photos were pretty underwhelming, but I found a couple which appealed to me. I’m attending a workshop next week focused around the style of street photographer Saul Leiter, so I decided to ty and get into the zone ahead of time, using things I found around me to shoot through, creating a sense of depth. The bicycle shot makes me think of a scene from a gritty old movie - although I’m not sure whether to expect a hero or a villain to appear from the shadows!

Photos taken 10 January 2023.

Photos as slow as nature

Following on from the digital photos from my Christmas Eve visit to Kingley Vale I can now share the pinhole images I took that day. Pinhole photography is a slow process at the best of times, but in the low dark spaces beneath the ancient yew trees some of my photos seemed to take almost as long as the trees did to grow!

I had a feeling the creeping forms of these trees might be a great subject for the otherworldly look of pinhole photography and I think my gut instinct was right. I’d be interested to see the same trees with some low, raking winter sun, but the overcast conditions were almost certainly easier to manage from a photographic point of view.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

The ground was pretty bare beneath the trees but this fern caught my eye as an ideal subject for some close up photography.

My favourite tree is definitely this one, whose branches stretch endlessly outwards.Even my super-wide angle pinhole camera couldn’t encompass its full reach!

Photos taken 24 December 2022

Meet the neighbours

Over the summer we looked after Sookie and Cwtch, the two cats who live next door to us, for a few days and I finally made a break through in making friends with Sookie. Previously she’d been very wary, but she soon warmed to me when she realised I was her only source of food for the week! Over the last few days we’ve been feeding them again and naturally I took a few photos!

Initially Sookie was undecided as to whether she still liked me, but once she remembered what good cheek rubs I give she was my best friend again! That didn’t stop her hiding beneath the bed on occasions, but at least we weren’t back to square one…

In complete contrast, Cwtch was always happy to come and say hello and she patiently posed for me after she’d had some grub.

Photos taken 1 January 2023