bikes and things

At last some proper snow here in London. The last attempt was fairly pathetic to be honest. Nice being inside the flat wrapping presents etc and seeing the ensuing chaos evolving outside. Wonder if my train to Bath will still be running tomorrow?

Yesterday I went out to West London to do a shoot for a firm of Engineers I work with a fair bit at the office. They’ve been working on a large house that is having a sizeable basement being dug underneath it – about nine metres down or around two and a half storeys. They’ve essentially supported the whole house on columns (piles which have become columns) as they’ve excavated. Seriously impressive stuff and quite a feat to see in the flesh (or metal and concrete rather). I love a good bit if engineering and this really satisfies. Incredible what we can do and seriously impressive stuff.

After this I headed back into town to get a few shots of The Shard and see whether I had enough shift on the lens to be able to capture the top of it. I’ve been seeing quite a few shots of it on Flickr recently and thought I should really go and get some myself. Turns out I did have enough reach on the lens and I spent a few hours waiting on London Bridge freezing my arse off to get the following shot. Well worth it I think for that final one and just go the timing of the clouds right to get the moon in too. Also tried out using a Universal White Balance setting to get more dynamic range out of the D700. Seemed to work pretty well although the previews on the back of the camera come out all green, kind of cross processed.

Like seeing your life flashing before your eyes. Link to http://pummelvision.com/ (where you can create your own) Via @vaughan

A quick portrait of Dad taken last weekend.

I went to a family dinner with my Mum last night and met some distant second cousins twice removed or something (we couldn’t actually work out the relationship fully). Anyway one of them was a Harrier pilot in the RAF. Amazing talking to him about the aircraft and also the three tours of Afghanistan he’s completed with the aircraft. Seems like it’s completely nuts to be getting rid of them.

I remember going to airshows as a kid seeing them and was always super impressed with them, that and the tornado. I also remember reading all about them in my Grandad’s RAF books as well as seeing all the previous prototypes before they nailed it with the Harrier. A really truly special piece of engineering indeed.

My second in a new series of posts along the lines of things, people or others that inspire me. This time it focuses on a photographer I found on Flickr a while ago called Sander Meisner. I can’t remember how I found his work but I’m constantly fascinated by it. He has a very distinctive style and seems to find strange beauty in the most banal of places, something that has inspired me recently. It’s very strong in terms of form and graphics which I love. Many are night and all are in the same square format – I think he’s shooting medium format.

Anyway, a few shots to enjoy. I almost feel like adding his whole Flickr stream as a favourite.

Whilst browsing Flickr late last night, being nosey, going from contact to contact, looking at who was friends with who and exploring favourites, I found a set of photos by Alex Bamford. He has a set of night photos taken just under moonlight which are pretty impressive. It Takes a big level of commitment to go out late at night and get these. Most are 30mins plus exposure times which again is pretty impressive. A few of my favourites below. Some also have a series of glow sticks going through the images which are good fun too.

Or rather trying to do night shots without getting mugged with £4k’s worth of photo kit on you or freeze to death in the cold. Still, I think it was worth it.

After collecting Liz from Paddington on Friday we headed straight down to the National Portrait Gallery after quickly getting her to pose for a few pics in Trafalgar Square. I’ve been meaning to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize this year. Last years was really good and Emma and I even emailed one of the photographers to see how much a print was, turned out it was a little over our budget but never mind. I love portraits and quite how much you can read into someone or the situation they’re in. I find them fascinating and could look at some of them for ages. As usual it was a mixture of headshots, full length, posed, and natural etc, but as usual the standard was very high. Apparently there’s a bit of a joke that the prize is always won by a ginger and this year was no exception. Although it’s a very worthy winner I prefer some of the other shots. One of my favourites was the shot of Charlie Watts, drummer with the Rolling Stones. My other favourite was Merel which seemed to convey such serenity that it felt as though a photographer wasn’t involved at all. The tones and quality of the image are incredible.

It’s incredible to see full size prints like this with such clarity and sharpness as well as the awesome detail in the images. The other favourite part of the exhibition is that it’s only £2 to get in which is a bargain and that they produce a beautiful exhibition catalogue which is only £12 so a good value trip all round really.

Looking forward to the 2011 exhibition.

Charlie Watts, © Michael Donald 2009

Merel, © Clare Shilland

Day off work today to catch up with my sister who is in London for the weekend. The great thing about having a visitor is that you have to make the effort to do all those things you’ve never quite got round to doing, like that gallery, or that place for lunch, or that cafe etc.

Should be good!

And here she is having a great time in Trafalgar Square.