Week 14: Bike Wheels in Marlborough, Wiltshire

There are days when I feel the need to just take a different view of life, to try and see it differently. This image is a result of one such need. Taken while walking through the delightful town of Marlborough in Wiltshire and inspired by a DPC challenge which I did not enter, the wheels are from a row of bikes lined up outside a bicycle shop (where else? I hear you ask). Anyhow, when I saw the row of bikes I immediately thought black and white kind of monochrome thing to capture the essence of the patterns of the wheels to take them into a more abstract space.

The post processing was fun, using PS2 curves to force the colours to either end of the histogram, and then I used the Black and White Styler plug-in to process the image as a light monochrome rendition on soft paper. Cropping, some usm and then sizing the picture with a border completed the job. Not a shot that typically does well on DPC but one I enjoyed thinking about, taking and processing.

Weeks 12 & 13: London & Basildon House

This one was captured at about 19:15 on Kensington High Street, London, while on my way to a dinner appointment. I was actually looking at a church spire across the road, thinking about capturing the weirdness of when I heard the ambulance and saw it forcing its way towards where I was standing. Putting the camera on my arm while holding on to a lamppost I waited and then hit the shutter once. This is the result, which I think I would entitle something like "Emergency! Get out of the bloody way!" I just hope the pedestrians look around before stepping out...


This is a very different image, captured while walking in the grounds of Basildon House, a National Trust property near Pangbourne in Berkshire. My wife is a volunteer room warden there and often works in the shop. On this particular day I took her to work in the shop and decided to walk the grounds to get some fresh air. Sadly, the aggressive wind, the dull sky and an equally dull photographer ensured I did not get any decent shots, until I saw a sad magnolia tree, part in bloom and part inert.

This shot really reminded that while Spring is a time for renewal and rejuvenation, there is also an element of death and decay as the flowers that attract the pollinators decay while the newly-pollinated seed gets ready to disperse in the circle of life and death at the heart of our experience. Post-processed in to selectively colour the decaying petals.

Week 11: Paddington Station, London

Details: Nikon D80 with Tokina 18-200 lens; ISO 800; 1/8 s, f/5.6 with -1.33 EV compensation (highlight control :-)

This was the week that I was really suffering from a lack of inspiration. Then I was asked to meet some clients for dinner in London and I figured that maybe there was a chance of making something from nothing. So I set myself a 30 minute challenge at Paddington station to try and capture some of the vitality that exists in a train station when the commuters are on their way home.

I was on one of the passenger bridges at the exit end of the station, looking towards the main passenger entrance, when I noticed this train starting to leave. Hand-held shot, balanced on the infrastructure of the bridge, and then post processed to open the shot out a bit.

Week 10: A Touch of Spring

My wife and I went for a walk in the nearby "Linear Park". A beautiful day with sunshine and a general air of Spring. While walking I happened to spy these daffodils and decided that they are a great proclaimer of the rebirth of the land.

The sad thing is that a major land developer is trying to install a whole new community not too far from Linear Park, which is likely to have an adverse effect on the park and its wildlife. Their first attempt to get planning application for the development approved was defeated but, with the drive for profit seeming so high, they are planning another application. Looks like there is more to come.

Weeks 8 & 9: India

I spent the last two weeks on a business trip to India and the experience was almost life changing. The sights and sounds of India – combined with the contradictions that make India what it is – threaten to overwhelm your senses and sensibility but instead seem to envelop you in some kind of exotic wrap.

I spent the first week in Noida, just outside of Delhi and got to spend Saturday itself in Delhi. This picture is from the Red Fort and attempts to contrast the old while looking through to the new. I tried to capture the spirit of Old Delhi, perhaps with a western sensibility. There is a definite “something” about Old Delhi that is at once timeless and “off the day”.

As I was there for two weeks I have also included a second picture, this time from Mumbai, the second city I visited. I did not manage to get out and about very much in Mumbai as I was attending and speaking at a conference. However, I did manage to get this shot of one of the many impromptu “shanty towns” that seem to appear almost anywhere. This one was on the beach that lay about 100 meters from the hotel where I staying, paying $300 per night while the folk who lived in this shanty town probably do not earn that in a month.

As to the traffic... well, that is another story, as told here.

Week 7: Gasworks By The Thames & Kennet

Details: Nikon D80, Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, focal length 52mm, 1/80 second -1/3 EV @ f/7.1, ISO 100

Walking along the Thames at the start of the week as part of an attempt to get more exercise and reduce stress I came to the point where the Kennet becomes its own river. Situated at this point is the Reading Holder Station, where there are several gasometers and a lot of supporting pipework and plant. What struck me about the site was the real mixture of the old and the new, the plant being a strange mixture of Victorian-style heavy engineering and more modern constructs.

The site is exposed and what caught my eye was the amount of rusting superstructure on the site. This shot tries to capture that sense of metal decay in the midst of what is still a working environment, a feeling of the forgotten and the overlooked.

Week 6: Snow, Swans and the Thames

Details: Nikon D80, Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, focal length 52mm, 1/120 second @ f/14, ISO 200

The first snow of the year fell on February 8 and I slipped out at lunch time to see what photo opportunities existed down on the Thames, where I was last week with the canoes. As it happened there were a couple of other photographers with the same idea and I would guess we all took many of the same pictures. I wonder what the collective noun for photographers is?

The swans were making use of the grass revealed by folk making snow men and these three obligingly lined up for me. It was the first time I had shot in snow with the Nikon so I added a circular polarising filter to my zoom lens to see if the glare and highlights could be better controlled - and I think it did help. Anyhow, this picture was subject to limited post processing in Bibble Pro, a really good RAW processing tool that I am beginning to get to use properly.