Seven Dials

London

ISO50, f/11, 16mm, 6×60 sec exposures


I was out photographing the floods again today but I thought I’d ring the changes here with a shot from last Friday. Traffic light trails around Seven Dials in Covent Garden, London.

PS For those who were curious after my post yesterday, I told her it would be better if she learned to take pictures with the camera she had, showed her the HDR button on her iPhone and invited her to join my camera club!

New York, New York

USA

Central Park from the ‘Top of the Rock’


We have just returned from a visit to New York, city of thronging streets, shadowy tower-canyons and vertiginous perspectives.

USA

View downtown from the ‘Top of the Rock’


As my description above might indicate, there are as many challenges as opportunities for the photographer in this most exciting of cities. We were on holiday, sightseeing and catching up with friends, so photography was near the bottom of the to-do list. I snapped a lot, but had little opportunity to take more considered images. Nonetheless, I can hardly resist sharing a few of my photographs here.

USA

Balloons over Manhattan


Oh, and in case it isn’t clear, I loved New York. Yes, I know I am not really a city girl, but you’d have to have zero capacity for excitement not to thrill at this amazing, chaotic, adrenaline-fuelled place.

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Moongazing buildings


More from the ‘city that never sleeps’ to follow soon.

A detailed city

black and white cityscape

Vancouver waterfront

As a respite from the bug macros, I thought I’d pay a visit to one of my favourite North American cities, Vancouver.

black and white view of Vancouver

Striking shapes mingle with softer planting

I thoroughly enjoyed prowling round the most modern parts of this city, playing with angles and snapping details that caught my eye.

black and white view of Vancouver

The same place looking the other way

I often convert my shots of architecture to black and white to bring out the interesting shapes and patterns.

architectural detail

Diagonals meet verticals, and some palm trees

It can be fun to zoom in tight.

Architectural detail

Loads of contrast here

Or pull back for a wider view.

black and white Vancouver city

Contrasting new and old

Sorting out converging lines can be tricky with tall buildings but sometimes it’s fun not to bother…

architecture

Well, this building does actually lean anyway.

…or to go mad:

warped architectural detail Vancouver

One way to cope with those converging lines

Reflections are always a lot of fun.

city detail

Fairmont hotel reflected in office block.

I did allow some colour, sometimes a lot of colour:

Five panels of city reflections

If a triptych is three panels, what do you call five panels?

I hope you enjoyed my architectural safari. Vancouver really is a super city and there is, of course, much more to it than its modern architecture. More another time. I will leave you now with this thought: what’s not to like about a city that has a giant lego orca?

killer whale sculpture

You have to love Canadians.

Shooting the City

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On the whole, I find photography a solitary activity, and I am happy with that. I very rarely go out shooting in a group. When I do, I usually end up deleting the images I take; I just can’t seem to relax into it.

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But a couple of years ago I did enjoy a stroll around the City of London with fellow members of a Flickr group, T189 Oct-Dec 2008. All members of this group, which I administer, took the Open University’s short digital photography course in Oct-Dec 2008.

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Although activity in the group has gradually waned over the years, there is still a core of supportive and keen digital shooters and it was a pleasure to meet some of them in person on our City photo walk.

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And I didn’t delete every image.

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