Since September 2002, I’ve been studying for a City and Guilds Photography qualification (Level 2). Most of my time has been spent on the Black and White module “People in the Environment”, where I chose to focus on Street Entertainers. I’ve gone from never having set foot in a darkroom, to being able to create a reasonable print, from hating all the time that it takes, to becoming more tolerant of the whole process and maybe even enjoying it a little…

Last week I finally completed the A4 black and white prints and contact prints that are required, and sat down with the course tutor to choose 10 images from the 13 that I had printed. The tutor and another student both picked what they thought was my best image. It turned out to be the one shown below, the one that I thought was “OK, but nothing special”.

So how many photographs have you got in your collection that you initially thought were just OK, nothing special? It might be worth looking back and re-evaluating them every now and again, just to be on the safe side. You never know, that stunning image could be lurking in your files somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered.

Covent Garden #4

On yet another bitterly cold London day, I decided to go back to Covent Garden and take some colour shots of the street entertainers. All of the usual suspects were out in force; the Golden Man with the Bike, the Silver Fairy Woman and several others. They all basically stand still until the crowd gives them money, and then they perform a certain action. For example, the bike man rings his bell and changes position, while the Fairy Woman waves her wand and blows a kiss.

Unusually a couple of them broke off their routine and waved away my attempts at photographing them, so I was left with the Golden Man as the most willing subject. Here are the best 3 shots from the 36 Kodak EBX 100 frames that I took, all using my Tamron 75-300mm lens at a wide-open aperture…

Covent Garden Colour #1	Covent Garden Colour #2	Covent Garden Colour #3

You can imagine how surprised I was when I visited DCViews this morning, and discovered that one of my photographs is the Hotshot of the Day for Monday 3rd March!!

It seems that they use images from WebPhotoForum.Com, where I’ve posted about 20 photos so far. I’m going for a large coffee to calm myself down… :-)

On the morning of Saturday 22nd February, I ventured into central London to take some colour photographs for one of my City and Guilds Photography modules. “Colour and Pattern” was the subject, focusing on the urban environment. On a really, really cold day, I took 3 rolls of ISO 200 Jessops film (108 frames in total) in 3 hours, in the Waterloo station / Charing Cross / St Pauls areas.

It was refreshing to spend a few hours just taking photographs, without having to combine it with anything else. At one point I found myself taking macro shots of peeling wooden doors, skips and sand under the watchful gaze of the London Eye, receiving more than a few funny looks in the process…

As an aside, it’s taken nearly a week to have the films developed, sort through them, scan the selected frames and add them to this website. Not exactly a fast turn-around.

With 12 weeks left to go on my photography course, I’ve just about completed the Black and White module. I’ve still got 2 colour modules left to shoot, 2 essays to write, 3 workbooks to complete and 1 exam to sit. Please wish me the best of luck :-)

Here are a few selected highlights from the first roll of film:

London Patterns #1	London Patterns #2	London Patterns #3
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London Patterns #4	London Patterns #5	London Patterns #6
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London Patterns #7	London Patterns #8
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In August 2003 I was fortunate enough to go on a 3-week tour of Southern Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. I’ve only just started to sort through and pick out the best of the 1000+ images that I took. As the trip began in the noisy, dirty but at the same time intriguing city of Bangkok, here are 3 photos from Thailand’s capital.

Bangkok #1	Bangkok #2	Bangkok #3

I’ve just sat down and worked out how many photographs I’ve taken so far in 2003. My equation reads:

Canon EOS 300
3 x 36-exposure colour films
4 x 36-exposure black and white films

Olympus Mju II
1 x 24-exposure colour film

Minolta Dimage 5
Approx. 50 images

Total
326 images

The fact that I haven’t taken that many photographs in the last 6 weeks, combined with the fact that I’ve just worked this all out, means that I should probably get out and take more pictures! I’ve only gone out 6 times to specifically take photographs.

The next thing I’ll do is try and work out how many of those 326 images I actually like…

Here are a few photos of the recent snowfall in London, a rare event that caused widespread chaos in Southern England. You will never believe that less than 2 inches of fluffy snow caused some people to be trapped overnight in their cars. The Northern half of the country had a big laugh at our expense, calling us Southern Softies on the national News :-)

These images were taken through the back window of my home, using my Minolta Dimage 5 digital camera.

Snow 2003 #1	Snow 2003 #2	Snow 2003 #3

The second module in the City and Guilds Photography course that I’m attending is “Exploring Colour Photgraphy”. Again there is a choice of 2 themes and I’ve chosen Colour and Pattern, focusing on the Urban environment.

According to the prospectus, I’m supposed to “use carefully selected viewpoints as well as the appropriate focal length lenses in order to flatten the perspective effect, helping to draw the elements within the pattern closer together”. Judge for yourself whether I’m on the right tracks from the following images, which were taken on a freezing Sunday afternoon in central London (near St Paul’s Cathedral)...

London #1	London #2	London #3
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I’m currently studying for the City and Guilds Photography (6923) Year 1 qualification at my local college (West Herts). One of the modules in the course is “Introduction to Black and White Photography”, with a choice of 2 assignments. I’ve chosen “People in the Environment” and have narrowed this very broad topic down to “Street Entertainers”, primarily because I don’t live too far from Covent Garden in London.

I haven’t shot much black and white before, and I’d never set foot in a darkroom prior to this course, so let’s just say that the learning curve is pretty steep. Especially in the darkroom, where I’m wasting reams of photographic paper and trying my patience to the limit.

Anyway, I wanted to share the best of my initial efforts with you, so here are 3 images from my first 2 rolls of film…

Covent Garden #1	Covent Garden #2	Covent Garden #3

After a lot of faffing around with various JavaScripts, I’ve finally managed to post the first ever photos on PhotographyBLOG!

These images from Notting Hill Carnival 2002 are some of my favourites from the last 12 months. They were all taken hand-held on a Canon EOS 300 using Kodak EliteChrome EBX 100asa slide film, hence the saturated colours and the sense of movement in #1.

When you click on each thumbnail image a new window should automatically open to display a larger version. You should then be able to click anywhere in the window to close it. Please leave a comment and let me if it doesn’t work as expected, stating exactly which web browser you are using.

Notting Hill Carnival #1	Notting Hill Carnival #2	Notting Hill Carnival #3