Cambridge Chrstmas

I wasn't able to attend the rescheduled CCC outing on Sunday, to shoot the Christmas lights in Cambridge.  But I did make it in for a couple of hours today. I stayed fairly central, mainly around Kings Parade and the Market Square.

Keswick Jetties - Evening

After a day on the hills, a decent dinner and a glass of wine, I went back to the jetties for last light.  Not a spectacular sunset, but better than forecast.  I hung around for a while, hoping for post sunset colour.  Sadly, it wasn't to be, so I went back and finished the wine. 

Grosvenor Square Illuminated Flowers

Grosvenor Square in London is currently home to an installation of 27,000 illuminated white roses. The 'Ever After Garden' is intended as somewhere for Londoners to remember lost friends and family.  People can pay to dedicate a rose to a loved one, with the donations going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

 

Cambridge Evening Outing

Last Wednesday I joined a few other CCC members for an evening outing in Cambridge.  May continued to offer it's mixed bag of weather.  Mainly leaden skies, with some occasions breaks of good light, and only one brief shower.  The Wisteria on the wall of Sydney-Sussex was at its best, but sadly the light wasn't.  On the Backs, there was a mixture of dandelions and bluebells, that made for a different shot of Kings.  I also liked this view of one the King's lampposts, it had a rather Narnia-like quality.  We finished the night with Clive posing in fedora and trench-coat outside Trinity.

 

 

Photo 24 2016: From Dusk Till Dawn

Regular visitors to this blog will know that night photography is one of my 'things'.  So it should come as no surprise that the main reason I take part in Photo24 is the opportunity to shoot through the night, in the heart of the city, in the company of other 'togs.   Sadly, this year, much of our plans regarding the night shoots didn't survive contact with the weather. 

Vic and I chose to miss the scheduled sunset meet at Westminster Bridge, instead heading for Tower Bridge.  A large bank of cloud to the west ensured that the sunset was less than thrilling.  Although, it did catch an attractive afterglow for a while.  The looming cloud bank should really have tipped us off as to what was to come.  By 11pm we had reached the next meet-up point, at Liverpool Street station, for a late night walk through the City.  Probably half the people taking part in the event (maybe a 100 or so) had chosen to join in this walk and we all set off in a big long line.  We didn't get far.  No sooner had we reached the Gherkin than the rain hit with a vengeance.  Sixty or so 'togs made it to shelter under the eaves of the Gherkin and we spent the next hour there, whilst the rain came down in stair-rods.  All credit to the building security, who were very understanding about the whole thing.  Apologies to the customers of the bar inside, many of whom apparently delayed going home, to find out which celebrity had drawn such a big group of 'paparazzi'.  Eventually, the rain stopped and we completed a shortened version of the walk, reaching St Paul's in time to watch the building illumination be turned off for the night. 

From St Paul's Vic and I hopped a night bus back to the West-end.  We rested for a while in a McDonalds on the Strand; the night-time clientèle of which could best be described as 'colourful' and 'lively'.    Fully caffeinated, we moved on to the sunrise meet at Westminster Bridge.  Again that same troublesome cloud bank saw off the sunrise.  Photo24 has been running for 4 years and, I'm told, they haven't had a decent sunrise yet.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Skyride

Regular readers of this blog will know I can't resist photographing a funfair.  So, in the 'tween days of Christmas I found some time to go the North-pole fair in Cambridge.  Most of the rides didn't interest me, as I had shot them several times before.  But the big tall spinning thing; whose name I didn't determine, but, for the purposes of titling, I have called the Skyride; was new to me.  I wasn't there on a busy night, so, sadly, the ride only ran a couple of times during the best of the blue hour.  I played around with exposure length, from giving the riders some definition, to pure colour trails and ended up with a lot of shots to sort through from only a few rides.

 

London - A Walk Along The North Bank

Last Saturday, I headed into London for the day.  The weather forecast, windy with cloud breaking up throughout the afternoon, was promising for some good long exposure shots of the big buildings.  Sadly, thanks to a broken down train, my journey in took nearly 2 hours longer than it should have.  With a good portion of the day and most of the cloud gone, I abandoned plans to head into the City.  Instead I took a stroll along the north bank of the Thames from London Bridge to Waterloo.

It was low tide, and I managed to find a couple of spots on the shoreline for some 10-stop photos with the last of the decent cloud.  The backwashes of the many passing boats provided a challenge to getting really close to the water's edge.  After that, it was on to low-light shots. I couldn't resist including the 'Paul's Walk' sign in the shot of Sea Containers House and the Oxo Building.

 

 

Photo24: Through The Night

Some more images from Photo24.  Regular readers will know that night photography is a particular passion of mine.  So the idea of shooting through the shortest night of the year was one of my main reasons for taking part in the event.  The set meeting point for sunset was near Westminster Bridge at 8pm. 

On the bridge, an obvious first thing to try was blurred buses and taxis in the failing light.  Sadly, the weather was not kind.  It had rained quite hard earlier in the afternoon, and no sooner had we set up tripods and cameras than the showers returned, forcing a cover-up.  There followed an hour long battle with the on/off rain.  Eventually it cleared up enough for a hint of a sunset, and the wet roads did add a little something to some of the images.

It wasn't long before we had to head off for the next meet-up, 11.00pm at Liverpool Street Station for a late night walk through the City.  The initial rendezvous was a little confused (not helped by the fact that there was a completely separate 12 hour photo event also taking place), but eventually a group of us started a slow stroll though the heart of the City, ending at St Paul's.  I had bought the new version Canon 'nifty fifty' (the f1.8 STM) just prior to this trip, with the express purpose of having a lens I could use hand-held in low-light situations.  I didn't use it much, but it did help get a few shots.

The planned meet-up for dawn was back on Westminster Bridge.  However, I didn't see the point in doing that location twice, so I persuaded Vic that instead we should head for the 'More London' area near Tower Bridge.  Having failed to find an all night cafe that we were 'assured' was not too far from St Paul's (thanks Mr Cheung), we spent a couple of hours in a McDonalds, before heading over London Bridge and down past HMS Belfast to City Hall.  There, we met about 20 or so 'togs from the 12-hour event. 

This was clearly too many for the More London security, who felt the need to hassle us at 4am regarding the copyright status of their buildings.  God bless whoever it was that persuaded them we were merely shooting the sky (a singly dull flat featureless sky) on the shortest night.  At one point, there were so many cameras and tripods lined up facing Tower Bridge that the South Bank took on the appearance of an al fresco branch of Calumet.  Sadly, dawn didn't happen.  The flat grey sky just got lighter.  It was time to move on to another location.