PointingNorth
Blog
23/03/2013
Nightlight
It sounded a like a good idea at the time: an evening walk with the photography group along London's South Bank in early spring to try out some night-time photography techniques. What we hadn't planned for was zero temperatures, icy rain and a cross-wind that seemed determined to blow everyone off the Golden Jubilee Bridge.
Nonetheless, we persevered and made the walk from the Victoria Embankment on the north of the river, across the Thames, and along past the architectural landmarks of the South Bank: Festival Hall, British Film Institute (or National Film Theatre if you prefer) to Waterloo Bridge.
Night does not lend itself well to photography, demanding creative use of light sources and camera functions to capture the images you want. Good for me as it forced me to really use more of my camera's manual settings. I usually shoot Av or Tv anyway, but at night it's noticeable how much more you have to think, and how much less you can get away with!
The buildings and terraces along the riverfront a beautifully lit, so there was plenty of opportunity to capture some nice close-ups as well as panoramic shots of the London skyline.
Given the weather conditions some shots were too difficult to capture; but here's where some creative thinking can come in. The wet ground made for some lovely shots with light reflected in the puddles - sometimes it really pays to look down! And playing around with camera movements made for some nice abstract panorama's cut with light trails.
The best of the bunch are now up in a new gallery page. I'm not 100% happy with all of them, but I've now got a whole bunch of ideas for some night-time shots when the weather is a little better!
Go to South Bank Night Photowalk Gallery
10/03/2013
Trawling The Archives
My Photograph of the Month for March is part of a set of pictures I took on a trip to Iceland in February 2011. I got to thinking about this picture after a discussion with a friend recently, and wanted to use it as my photograph for March.
It was only then I realised that the Iceland set - and some other sets of pictures from a couple of years ago - are missing from Pointing North. So as well as keeping on top of new pictures that need editing and posting here, I need to trawl my archives and get some older sets on here too. Best get on with it then!
02/02/2013
Winter Forest
Out walking recently in South East London, I caught a great winter sunset in the forest just outside of Eltham. Happy with a couple of the pictures so far, so have posted them in a new gallery here. If I manage to process a few more, they'll appear in the Eltham Forest Gallery.
02/02/2013
PointingNorth Again
After a bit of a hiatus at the end of last year, I'm resolved to get PointingNorth back up to date and get more work posted here, more regularly. The site has had a bit of a makeover already, and there will be some new posts, and more importantly, new photographs on the way very soon!