Category: Personal
3 of my favourite photos from the Council Tax protest. That’s the end of this series, unless you want to take a look at the full album by clicking the link below.
3 of my favourite photos from the Council Tax protest. That’s the end of this series, unless you want to take a look at the full album by clicking the link below. View more Council Tax Protest photos
Does what it says on the tin - a series of portraits that I think benefit from having no direct eye-contact. All taken with the long end of a 70-200mm Canon zoom.
Does what it says on the tin - a series of portraits that I think benefit from having no direct eye-contact. All taken with the long end of a 70-200mm Canon zoom. View more Council Tax Protest photos
The sun has finally showed it’s face here on the so-called “friendly island” of Tenerife and I’ve spent most of today on the streets of Santa Cruz, capturing the local landmarks, snapping old doorways and scaring the local prostitutes (ask me another time). Yesterday the rain held off long enough for the Carnaval to take place, and tomorrow I’ll be visiting the historic town of La Laguna. I?ll be updating the site again soon, so until then, adios.
The sun has finally showed it’s face here on the so-called “friendly island” of Tenerife and I’ve spent most of today on the streets of Santa Cruz, capturing the local landmarks, snapping old doorways and scaring the local prostitutes (ask me another time). Yesterday the rain held off long enough…
From an amateur photographer’s point of view, the Council Tax protest was a great event to attend. It was a relatively small and certainly non-violent affair, so you could wander freely without any threat to your personal safety. There were also no out-of-bounds areas; usually you need some kind of press pass to get to the best vantage points, but at this protest I was able to rub shoulders with the newspaper guys with their digital SLRs and laptops, who were busy sending their photos back to base almost as soon as they had taken them. I was even able to wander around between the guest speakers and the onlooking crowd, allowing great close-up candids, especially when they started boo-ing the long winded and tedious Scottish speaker :-) Best of all, everyone was more than happy to have their photograph taken - some people had travelled a long way and seemed determined to enjoy the occasion.
From an amateur photographer’s point of view, the Council Tax protest was a great event to attend. It was a relatively small and certainly non-violent affair, so you could wander freely without any threat to your personal safety. There were also no out-of-bounds areas; usually you need some kind of…
For the benefit of everyone who doesn’t live in the UK, Council Tax is a form of personal taxation based on the value of the property that you live in (rented or owned), which is split into different bands. Personally I pay just under ?900 per year to Barnet council, which helps them pay for things like roads and public services. Last year saw massive rises of up to 20% in some parts of the country. Consequently pensioners were the hardest hit, as their pensions certainly didn’t go up by the same sort of percentages. In January a Council Tax Protest took place in Central London, starting as always in Trafalgar Square, and attended by several thousand angry pensioners.
For the benefit of everyone who doesn’t live in the UK, Council Tax is a form of personal taxation based on the value of the property that you live in (rented or owned), which is split into different bands. Personally I pay just under ?900 per year to Barnet council…
What would have been the centre-point of the garden in Summer, this sunflower was tied drooping to a post in Winter, dried out but still relatively intact. Weak mid-morning sunlight and the crisp cold air helped it to regain some of its former glory.
What would have been the centre-point of the garden in Summer, this sunflower was tied drooping to a post in Winter, dried out but still relatively intact. Weak mid-morning sunlight and the crisp cold air helped it to regain some of its former glory. View more Winter photos
Well, I should be in the air as you read this, delays at Heathrow permitting. Just to remind you of what the UK is (sometimes) like at this time of year, here are a few more shots of deepest winter, courtesy of Jack Frost, the Canon EOS 10D and my macro lens.
Well, I should be in the air as you read this, delays at Heathrow permitting. Just to remind you of what the UK is (sometimes) like at this time of year, here are a few more shots of deepest winter, courtesy of Jack Frost, the Canon EOS 10D and my…
Now that PMA and the flood of new camera announcements have finished, it’s a good opportunity to get back to the main point of it all - taking photographs. Here are a series of winter seedhead shots, taken in the same garden as these photos and these ones.
Now that PMA and the flood of new camera announcements have finished, it’s a good opportunity to get back to the main point of it all - taking photographs. Here are a series of winter seedhead shots, taken in the same garden as these photos and these ones. View more…
I “rediscovered” these shots of Camden, North London, which were originally taken on a cold and sunny winter’s day towards the end of 2003. I only live a few tube stops away from Camden, but rarely go there due to the huge amount of tourists that throng the streets at the weekend. It’s a popular destination for teenagers looking for cheap alternative fashion, something like the last photo shows.
I “rediscovered” these shots of Camden, North London, which were originally taken on a cold and sunny winter’s day towards the end of 2003. I only live a few tube stops away from Camden, but rarely go there due to the huge amount of tourists that throng the streets at…
A couple of weeks ago I visited a part of London that I’d never been to before, round and about Battersea Power Station. This is an iconic London structure that is now disused, but is happily being preserved as an integral part of the redevelopment of the surrounding area. I got there at mid-afternoon to find the sun shining brightly behind the building, so I decided to underexpose and turn the power station into a silhouette. I wasn’t convinced at the time that I’d achieved any noteworthy photos, but looking back at them tonight I’m more than happy.
A couple of weeks ago I visited a part of London that I’d never been to before, round and about Battersea Power Station. This is an iconic London structure that is now disused, but is happily being preserved as an integral part of the redevelopment of the surrounding area. I…
The snow has now completely disappeared from most of the UK - instead we now have gale-force winds and driving rain. That’s the beauty of living on such a comparitively small island. Just before it all melted away, I managed a quick lunchtime walk around the industrial estate where I work - these are the best of the handful of photos that I took.
The snow has now completely disappeared from most of the UK - instead we now have gale-force winds and driving rain. That’s the beauty of living on such a comparitively small island. Just before it all melted away, I managed a quick lunchtime walk around the industrial estate where…
These photos are my 3 entries in the first round of the 2004 Practical Photography Competition. I nearly didn’t bother entering, as the closing date is 2nd February, I was tired last night and I would have preferred to play a round of Tiger Woods 2004 golf on the PS2 (not that I’m addicted to it or anything).
Fortunately I made myself dig out some photos to fit the theme of “Patterns in the Landscape”. These images were all originally shot in colour, the first 2 on the Canon EOS 10D and the last one on negative film. I thought I would try converting them to black and white to help concentrate on the pattern, and I think all 3 shots have definitely benefited from the conversion. The first two in particular have printed out well on the Epson Stylus Photo 2100 printer on Ilford Smooth Pearl paper - the 3rd one looks a little soft and I probably shouldn’t have entered it.
I don’t think there’s a winner here, but entering the compeititon has had the happy side-effect of showing all 3 photos in a better, black and white light. I’ll definitely be trying out this conversion on some more shots to see if they are improved too.
For all those who are interested, I used a Photoshop action called “Johny’s B&W Package V2.0” to do the conversion from colour to black and white, available as a free download here:
http://www.jakerlund.net/index.php
These photos are my 3 entries in the first round of the 2004 Practical Photography Competition. I nearly didn’t bother entering, as the closing date is 2nd February, I was tired last night and I would have preferred to play a round of Tiger Woods 2004 golf on the PS…
I managed to sneak down to Parliament Hill for 20 minutes or so earlier today, just before the sun started to set. There’s a great view over the city of London, spoilt only by the permanent haze that sits above the skyline. By this time the snow was starting to melt, but there were still plenty of kids with their parents in tow, sledging and generally having the time of their lives.
I managed to sneak down to Parliament Hill for 20 minutes or so earlier today, just before the sun started to set. There’s a great view over the city of London, spoilt only by the permanent haze that sits above the skyline. By this time the snow was starting to…
I looked up from writing the Ricoh G4 review, prompted by lightning and thunder, and saw this outside. Snow in North London - whatever next?!
(the wonky colour balance is a combination of taking the shots in JPEG mode instead of RAW, leaving Photoshop to its own devices via Auto-Levels, and me being too lazy to fix it…).
I looked up from writing the Ricoh G4 review, prompted by lightning and thunder, and saw this outside. Snow in North London - whatever next?! (the wonky colour balance is a combination of taking the shots in JPEG mode instead of RAW, leaving Photoshop to its own devices via Auto-Levels…
After 2 weeks and 2 days, my PC is finally up and running again, just in time for PMA in February :-) It turned out to be a faulty motherboard - buying a replacement on eBay for £18 and swapping it for the old one has fixed the problem (which you may recall was a complete system shutdown, 10-30 seconds after booting-up). During that 2 week period I’ve managed to answer emails and keep the site updated, but I haven’t been able to do any reviews etc. So expect to see some new stuff in early February. 2 weeks without a PC was not a great experience and something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy…not that I have any enemies, at least to the best of my knowledge, but you get the idea :-)
After 2 weeks and 2 days, my PC is finally up and running again, just in time for PMA in February :-) It turned out to be a faulty motherboard - buying a replacement on eBay for £18 and swapping it for the old one has fixed the problem (which…
Well, the New Year has got off to a great start (not!) as my PC is experiencing more problems. After last week’s failure to boot up Windows, which was rectified by copying the system files from a floppy disk via DOS, my PC now seems to have some kind of mechanical failure. It starts to boot up into Windows, but then there’s a high-pitched noise, the hard drive stops spinning and the system shuts itself down. It has loaded Windows successfully a couple of times, but not for long. I’m guessing that the hard drive has some sort of physical damage and needs replacing, but as always there’s some data that I need to retrieve.
I’m writing this on a really, really old laptop, which is no fun at all I can tell you. If you’ve emailed me in the last couple of days, please bear with me as I try to get everything working again…
Well, the New Year has got off to a great start (not!) as my PC is experiencing more problems. After last week’s failure to boot up Windows, which was rectified by copying the system files from a floppy disk via DOS, my PC now seems to have some kind of…
Some more shots from the winter garden shoot…
Some more shots from the winter garden shoot… View more Winter photos
In an effort to stem the flow of Consumer Electronics Show news, here are 3 photos taken at the end of 2003 in my girlfriend’s parent’s backgarden. Proof that you don’t need to venture far to find something to photograph, especially when you’re armed with a macro lens.
In an effort to stem the flow of Consumer Electronics Show news, here are 3 photos taken at the end of 2003 in my girlfriend’s parent’s backgarden. Proof that you don’t need to venture far to find something to photograph, especially when you’re armed with a macro lens. View more…
I had a bit of a scare this morning when my PC failed to boot up, for no apparent reason, with the error message “Boot Failure - Insert Boot Diskette in Drive A”. I did have a boot disk for my operating system (Windows Me) but inserting it just took me to the A:> prompt in DOS. After a bit of digging around on Google, I found the command “Sys C:” which copies the system files from the floppy onto the hard drive. Bingo! My PC now successfully boots to Windows, so I guess the system files must have become corrupted (though I have no idea how).
I was panicking for a couple of hours, as all of the photos that I took in December were on the hard-drive and not backed-up. I usually wait until the end of every month and copy that month’s photos onto 2 CDs, but I’m going to have to rethink that strategy and maybe backup after every shoot.
To everyone who has emailed me since December 24th, I will reply to you tonight. I’ve just been on holiday for the past week, that’s all :-)
I had a bit of a scare this morning when my PC failed to boot up, for no apparent reason, with the error message “Boot Failure - Insert Boot Diskette in Drive A”. I did have a boot disk for my operating system (Windows Me) but inserting it just took…
The projections onto the National Film Theatre are at first sight pretty unimpressive, as only a small square on top of the building is lit up. But the use of a wide-angle lens to include the projection within its wider environment makes for an interesting photograph, and quite different from the other buildings that have taken part in Brightening Up London. This particular projection is a photo of Alexander McQueen, the British designer.
The projections onto the National Film Theatre are at first sight pretty unimpressive, as only a small square on top of the building is lit up. But the use of a wide-angle lens to include the projection within its wider environment makes for an interesting photograph, and quite different from…