I am now the proud owner of a Nikon F3! Here’s a selection of some stuff I shot in January, starting with the New Year’s Parade in London.
Superia 200:
Brilliantly out of focus:
And again:
Focusing manually is surprisingly hard for me. For some bizarre reason, with film I compose then focus instead of the other way around. Pretty stupid really. A lot of the roll was out of focus.
The difference between using film and digital is so apparent. The above scan hasn’t been adjusted at all. Compare that to this unedited digital shot, and you can see just how big the variation in colour and quality is:
Onto some Jessops 400 film (first time I have used this – not bad). I went back to my favourite London tunnel.
Random shots at the London Aquarium:
Rarrr.
Random digital shot:
Real art?
Gaza/Israel protests continue to take place every few days. It was too dark to capture much as I passed through another one in Trafalgar Square.
50mm f1.8 is great for portraits, and so much better full frame compared to 50mm on my digital (350D) I should really use it more for portraiture.
Another month, another blog. I’m using WordPress Version 2.6 for the first time (although 2.7 is out already?!), and I’m not too impressed! Instead of each picture taking less than 10 seconds to add here (that includes changing the dimensions and hyperlinking to a bigger version), it now takes around 30 seconds (I timed it because I’m sad like that) as this process now involves three separate windows, and a lot of scrolling. Argh! What is with all these silly WordPress updates! Fix up, WordPress.
Taken around my beloved Brick Lane.
Redchurch Street in East London is home to some really small, quirky art galleries. This one literally had no one inside, and some uninspiring, but no doubt expensive, paintings:
This one was called Brown Noise, and contained some ‘interesting’ pieces to do with the 7/7 London bombings:
I have to say, this was a bit of a bizarre but nevertheless amusing gallery. The fact that it was manned by a rather tipsy guy who tried to drunkenly explain what everything meant, made it all the more interesting.
He told us that the gallery next door was better, before he went back to the pub:
That was the only picture I took, but judging by some of the other pieces there, I think you have to be seriously stoned to appreciate it.
I love everything about this picture:
Grownups playing penny up outside one of my favourite record shops:
Full view:
I agree.
There was some random installation in Trafalgar Square which projected images of people onto the shadows on the ground.
On the way home I took this:
Basically, there’s a dog grooming shop on my high street which is really old and never has any customers. It seems to be occupied by an old lady and her dozen or so poodles. I’ve tried to take a picture of her before but she seems strangely unavailable and doesn’t open the door.. :/
Back to some art. Exciting stuff! Two weekends ago I went to an installation in Southwark by Roger Hiorns called Seizure. It was ending on the day I went and there was a queue stretching all around the derelict estate that it was held in.
It seemed intriguing but hanging around in sub-zero temperatures for an hour really isn’t a lot of fun! Still, I figured it was worth waiting for, even though the faces of those leaving should have been a sign to forget it. Anyway, after waiting for wellington boots (yes, you had to wear these to enter the building – which made me more curious), we were finally in!
Contrary to what these pictures might lead you to believe, it really wasn’t worth the hour’s wait.
It consisted of two small rooms covered in these blue crystals so the whole thing took about 5 minutes to see.
I think if they’d just opened up the whole estate (which is going to be demolished anyway), that would have been more interesting!
The highlight of this whole thing was at the end when a random guy helped me pull of the wellingtons which I couldn’t get off myself while everyone else looked on and laughed. Fun times.
You do have to wonder why there’d be a random pair of jeans on a bench..
The Tate Modern was up the road – a lovely escape from the cold!
I’m not sure what any of it means. No doubt there is some deep and meaningful explanation of all this.
I’d love for there to be a day when nobody buys a thing.
I still have some India pictures left to post – maybe next time. In the meantime, I think I’ll start using my Nikon EM again – I miss film.
On another note, scenes like these seem to becoming more and more common. I’m not sure why, when the photojournalists involved appear to be completely harmless!
I should really use it more for portraiture.
