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SkyScapes

Wispy bits…

With the weather changing and finally blue skies are above, I can’t but help look up and admire the wispy streaks of clouds in the sky…

I love black and white photography as it can create new ideas/forms from what would be obvious if you saw the same images in colour – clouds in the sky!

But I can’t help but like the colour versions too!

I was thinking of doing more sky shots and look for abstract patterns etc.

I do have a fair amount of images that concentrate on the sky more than anything that comes from the ground and after working for several photo libraries, I know that they too have a huge collection of sky photographs so it may seem pointless… but everything has been done before but… not by me!

Feathery Tree Tops

Feathers or Mountains?

That’s what comes to my mind – the first image of an old tree in Camberwell Cemetery that has a rather mountainous shape and the following two images make me think of a trio of feathers.

Maybe I shouldn’t partake in any of those ink block tests!

Is it Summer yet?

Summer Snow!?

It snowed in London on the day that Summer is ‘supposed’ to start… ok, it rarely does start that actual day or week but snow is not the usual feature.

As I had to drop off and collect some work I did my usual walking home but took a different route. I finally walked around some south London parks that I’d not been to before.

I started off cutting through Camberwell Old Cemetery which has some very old graves which are apparently unstable… I stuck to the pathways just in case. I then went to Dulwich Park, which was packed with kids on half term, riding on hired bikes but behaving themselves rather well. Ice cream truck sat by the side of the park but still a little cold for me for ice cream!

Belair Park was next which features a rather lovely grand Beauberry House and is surrounded by sports grounds and golf clubs – the Dulwich Picture Gallery was close by but looked closed.

While listening to a dog getting all excited over some geese I realised that you can see the Elephant & Castle’s Strata Tower and the Shard from Belair Park – it should surprise me as I’ve see the Shard from High Barnet!

I was thinking that instead of my usual black and white gritty images I’d try something floral or summery – it proved to be a challenge.

But this one makes me think of Autumn!

I have more images to come but these are the most floral and different from my usual style.

Ansel Adams, Greenwich Maritime Museum, Thames21 and me!

Photo Walk at low-tide

The Greenwich Maritime Museum is showing the Ansel Adams Exhibition until the end of April 2013 – I visited back in November last year (see blog post here).

It’s slightly awkward getting to Greenwich from where I live but I seem to have visited the area rather a lot recently and I do get to ride (at the front) of the DLR Train.

I’ve been twice to travel on the Emirates Cable Car which is rather fun and then I went along to a photo walk with Thames21 – a charity that educates and help clean up the Thames.

Thames21 is one of the country’s leading waterway charities. We work with communities across Greater London to improve our rivers, canals, ponds and lakes for people and wildlife. (click to visit their webpage)

They run several groups and I attended one of their photo walks at low-tide – Woods Warf which is next to the Cutty Sark.

Here’s some of the images I took that day.

Shortlisted!

Out of 250+ entries I got shortlisted with 20 other photographers to show along side the Ansel Adams Exhibition at the Greenwich Maritime Museum.

This is my entry that got through:

Private view on Thursday 4th April 2013 for the shortlisted.

Ray Wise – 2nd place runner up collects his prize. (main pic) Ben Fenton gives a small speech before hand (Thames21 Organiser – 2nd pic)

My Entry at the top (main pic) Ben Fenton in the right bottom image (Thames21 Organiser)

Books – I love books!

The last time I was at the Museum I brought Adams book:

I have these three already -

and I couldn’t help myself by buying the Exhibition version at the Museum shop.

The shortlisted entries will be shown next to the Ansel Adams Exhibition until the end of this month and after this they will be at the Millers House Cafe in Bromley by Bow.

See all of the shortlisted entries on the Thames21 Flickr group if you can’t get there (with all the snow who knows but it’s worthy trying!).

Here’s the Thames21 blog post about the Competition winners - here

The Shard – looking down across London

I finally got to go up The Shard – “The View”… well it blows the London Eye out of the water… sorry!

The London Eye is overpriced – if it was lower then I would go up there more but I think I’ll just plan to go up the Shard instead.

£24.95 for advance booking of tickets online (tip: if your print off ticket has a barcode at the bottom you don’t need to use the giant ticket machine which is up the first stairs as first entering the building – which is underneath the Shard itself – don’t go in the main Shard entrance as that’s for the offices).

£29.95 for on the door tickets – kids tickets are a five pounds less than the adults.

Looking up out through the ‘Shards’

I looked up through the ‘Shards’ which are exposed to the elements – the top viewing platform is only ‘open’ at the corners and quite high up. Did get some hit with some snow whilst viewing the South London side! A few people noticed that I was taking photos upwards and did the same… you can’t but help look downwards to see the little London town toys moving around!

The lower viewing platform is enclosed and I did hear several people say they felt more secure than the London Eye in terms of being scared of heights. (why do I always know people who fear heights… it means I have to go up things on my own!)

Looking up even when I reached the top!

Lots of piping and cable ties in the Internal structure of the Shard’s spire and radiator floors.

View from floor 72 of The Shard

If you can take a polariser filter to help get rid of reflections in the glass and if the sun is out then that will also add more glare.

Looking up through the ‘Shards’ that are exposed to the elements

Another Photographer looking up – it is a beautiful structure!

View from floor 72 of The Shard

Tiny Town! well actually it’s huge – Paris feels tiny compared – I will have to go up the Eiffel Tower again next time I visit my Brother and baby Niece.

Everyone is a Photographer!

Everyone stands in this same position – camera, compact, DSLR so expect lots of images to come from the top of the Shard – it will be all over flickr too (including mine )

I definitely recommend the Emirates Cable Car and The Shard – I’ve just realised I didn’t blog about the time I went on the Cable Car – will do that soon.

I have lots more images but I have a long queue of work to do – freelance, friends engagement, Scotland and the rest from today… I HAVE TOO MANY IMAGES!

PS: don’t buy the official guide book from The Shard’s shops as not only do you pay £2 more than the selling price (£9.95 in the shop but under the sticker it says £7.95) but Amazon also sell it for half the price!! Cheeky as just paid for the actual ticket but bump up the price in the shop?! oh well… I do know better than this usually!

They do sell the little Fox plush toy though – a fox lived in the Shard for two weeks.

Visit to Edinburgh, Scotland

I finally got to visit Edinburgh for a few days – I now have a strained knee from all the walking!

I’m not used to hills and slopes as London is fairly flat.. .plus if you go somewhere rural and at night then remember to take a torch… sounds obvious but I managed to forget and didn’t realise my iPhone has a torch function until I’d got back to a road! oops.

I will be posting more work soon… I have freelance work, portraits of a couple and all the images from Scotland to work on – and I visit the Shard on the 14th February (Valentines day… gargh… didn’t realise that when I booked it!) so I will be glued to my Mac for the rest of the week… night and day (probably a good thing compared to all the walking I did).

Excess being burned off in Fife meant that a night light gets left on in Edinburgh and surrounding areas… gives a nice effect

Night Flare.

The Mossmorran NGL (natural gas liquids) fractionation plant is part of the North Sea Brent oil and gas field system located on the outskirts of Cowdenbeath, Fife. (info from Wikipedia)

Forth Bridge, Scotland

Textures & limitations…

Interested in free stuff for photoshop…?

I’ve come across this site a few times and I do think it’s a treasure trove of fab free gifts!

He also creates his own Photographic Art and premium plugins/textures etc as well as give away a huge selection of free stuff.

I’ve only tried using textures briefly and would like to try some more soon.

Plus I do think it can help bring a digital illustration alive – I’ve seen some artist/illustrators use linen like textures and it really does give it life.

Nomu Illustration with linen texture

Nomu – shown above sells her work via her website and Etsy – click the image to go to her website. And this one to see her Etsy shop.

My little dilemma!

I do have another blog (well actually several!) but I do find it confusing keeping the subjects separate - it’s the rules apparently!!

I’m constantly told that I have to keep my photography work (and freelance work) on one website/blog and anything else has to go somewhere else. It means I don’t blog much at all – not that I’m use to blogging anyway.

Unfortunately, there are some people that think if you have an interest in a subject then you can only have that one subject… another would mean confusion and a diluted sense of ‘passion’… but I like all types of imagery… this includes textures (fabric/textiles), three dimensional objects and illustrations!

‘Clara’s Animated World’ blog

RunnyCustard: Clara Production Gallery &emdash;

Clara the moody teen stop motion puppet

Clara’s is a stop motion character that makes her own stop motion characters (I’ve only made a teaser and chapter one so far and I’d rather re-make chapter one as it could be a lot better). The self hosted website consist of a web page which shows a gallery of production/making off images), 2 stop motion shorts, link to two blogs (Clara has one too… well suppose to), about page and blog… she includes clay, modelling, (the head/hands) textiles/sewing (clothing), knitting, camera work (stop motion!) , film (adding real images & stop motion stills together), sound (voices/effects), editing (final cut/after effects), storyboarding (storytelling/directing/illustrating), html coding (the website). I really liked playing around with all the different mediums – I did a mini resin class too which was fun. The blog (which started as self hosted but after getting a virus went back to the ‘free’ wordpress version) hasn’t had anything added for ages as the project is flippin difficult – I have however dismantled her ‘friend’, a creature that helps fuel her imagination… it now has a body but that’s all so far.

‘RunnyCustard’s Fluffy Bits’

I’m going off the name so I might change it at some point but it was suppose to be about textiles/crafting/illustrating which has gone by the wayside as I need to earn money to live off… I like so many different mediums it’s difficult to just pick one – how can I possible pick just one out of a world that has many!!?!?!?! why does it have to be just one?

Paint comes in a variety of mediums, so do pencils/pens/paper… in textiles there are fibres, needle felting (wet or dry), 3D, sculpture which uses clay, paper, pulp, fimo etc… the list is endless and even photography can be transferred to textiles, woods, different paper textures, film comes in an amazing variety even today with the so called ‘death throws to digital!!

I know having too many choices is difficult sometimes (don’t get me started on the cereal section of a supermarket – yeesh!) but most people who work for themselves are suppose to just pick one thing which they then brand themselves on.

gargh!

I like exploring and feel that I’m being restricted to just one and I think that’s why I don’t create as much as I want too.

I’ve even started thinking about a new one…

“Sola Powa”

I want to create more for my baby niece (my mini muse?) rather than just the moody photography stuff – and her portraits that I take. I’ve made her several toys so far – one turned into a big project in my mind but never got further than the illustration and mini teddy (shown below – the cute one not the scary one at the back), which I’m currently battling Illustrator with (I’ve not used it in ages and it’s frustrating as I automatically think of how I would do things in Photoshop!) and a small plush toy that I originally wanted as a stop motion puppet who goes to Sola’s house and asks if it can move in with her… she says yes and everyone is happy. (I never said I was original). But I don’t want it as a ‘baby’ blog and baby toys type site… again, I don’t want to be restricted down to one thing.

Teddy for Sola (iphone pic) I don’t just want to make one type of style or medium… cute/scary, cool, bright etc

Batik “Golden Sun Flower” cushion – created from an old illustration I made years ago.

Batik “cool blue” cushion – created from an old illustration I made years ago.

Maybe I should just create one big blog and pretend to source in all these items of ~~madness~~ arty/craftiness that is curated together…

I think that would confuse me even more!

ps: this was written in a fit of insomnia but posted at a later date/day!

A walk in the other direction…

I tend to walk the same route along the Thames and I thought I’d better try the other side (rather than just the South and to the West rather than East… ie: South Bank towards the Design Museum – Westminster to Wandsworth Bridge, North Side).

There is a point where you really can’t buy a coffee along that route and I didn’t realise this until I was desperate for the loo & coffee (typical) so I was relieved (literally) when I found a Sainsburys with toilets right next to Wandsworth Bridge… yay! (I’m sure this will be useful info for anyone who decides to walk that same route )

I would have kept going past Wandsworth Bridge except for that reason… weird but I guess I was slightly irritable so crossed over the bridge and walked back along the Thames until I got home – 13.5 miles – I didn’t mean to walk that far but seeing parts of the Thames that I haven’t been near for many many years, proved to be interesting.

The thing with London is that you find derelict homes/estates and roads/streets etc and if you turn around or look over the road you’ll find some very expensive shiny apartments sprouting up everywhere.

I do wonder who has the better deal – the view out of the apartments (except the River facing windows) will only see a crumbling council estate outside their windows whereas the council tenants get a shiny expensive building? Guess the former can jump in an expensive car and drive somewhere else.

Chelsea is close by with it’s own harbour which has the Design Center which I will have to visit again soon.

(image below shows the Council/Housing Estate named “The World’s End” in the distance behind the barge – just a few yards away you will come across the huge apartments shown in the above photograph)

Here’s a link to a handout given on tours of the Estate : page one and page two which was attended by the “Brutalism and Booze Blog” group – the Estate has a ‘walkway’ in the sky which links all the buildings!

The Squirrel infestation in the Houses of Parliament…

Runners dressed as squirrels have been jogging past London landmarks to publicise the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. They were off to St James Park after this. (click image to view a few more pics via my flickr photostream)

you do get to see weird stuff in London – I saw a giant chicken (advertising a chicken restaurant chain) the other day… it looked very dejected and couldn’t eat his sandwich!

Londoners expression never changes when they come along such sights but that’s the way we are!

Soggy and Cold

Today’s walk was a lazy one in that I just did my usual route – the London Eye was closed and the staff were having a snowball fight – I would have gone up as I would like to see London covered in Snow.

London Eye through Snowy trees

Big Ben on a wintery day

I’m not a paparazzi photographer!

Just walking along the South Bank as usual and wondered what a group of people where ogling at… well Donny Osmond, Linda Robinson and Carol Vorderman had been filming at ITV for Loose Women.

I managed to grab a couple of pics but not great photographs though. Paparazzi eat your heart out lol.

Vauxhall Helicopter crash into St George’s Tower

I live about a mile and half away from Vauxhall and walk past there a lot – I’ve taken images of this building and surrounding areas so I’m shocked that it wasn’t even worse for the time and place!

I heard about it around 10am but didn’t walk up there until after 2pm … I don’t like to get in the way – most of the roads were still closed but the station and buses were operating.

I’ve lived in London for years but I’ve always managed not to see anything terrible – for which I am very thankful for!!

Helicopter crashes into Crane fixed to St George’s Tower in Vauxhall, London.

click to see gallery of images which can be downloaded for editorial use.

RunnyCustard Freelance Retoucher & Photographer

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Wispy bits…

Related Reading:

Feathers or Mountains?

Related Reading:

Summer Snow!?

Related Reading:

Photo Walk at low-tide

Shortlisted!

Books – I love books!

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

Interested in free stuff for photoshop…?

My little dilemma!

‘Clara’s Animated World’ blog

‘RunnyCustard’s Fluffy Bits’

“Sola Powa”

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

Related Reading:

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