The streets around the O2

It was a busy weekend when I last visited the big smoke; London.

we spent a little time at the O2 arena like all tourists, though I used this time to walk around and grab shots of the other tourists and the high rise buildings surrounding the word famous structure.

Come to think of it, I didn't take any photos of the dome, why bother, if you want to see a photo.....google it.

Around the outside of the arena is a partition wall that I guess building work is being conducted behind. Lucky for me this temporary wall is used as a giant bill board containing images of almost full sized humans.

This makes street photography easy.

This guy was hardly dressed properly for the game.

I think this teen realised too late that she had tickets for the wrong show as the crowd partied around her.

Skate or die.

Being a small town boy, tall buildings fascinate me. The perfect warm weather supplied the good time feeling for this image.

Remember to look up.

Down at the waters edge I waited for at least 15 minutes for a couple to walk along together in front of this sign.

Now colour popping is not my 'thing' at all, this could well be my only colour popped image ever and may be the last!

Easy shot, everyone in London loves to run where the big crowds are, ego boost!

Keep shooting!

Walking up a mountain

Or was it a hill?

Either way on holiday recently in Spain; the Murcia region to be more exact, we stayed on a golf resort that was surrounded by either hills or mountains.

For a week my brother and I said we'd walk up to the top of the closest.

Its one of the greatest things ive ever done.

We stood at the top and shouted 'hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' and the like and heard it echo around for miles, that was awesome. Laura and Carrie, still at the Villa said they could hear us but they couldn't see us.

The walk up took approx. an hour and a half from the surrounding land to the summit. From the word go it was interesting as we passed caves, small disused quarries and old buildings.

Yay...urbex!

 

Real decay in this place, the sun and heat isn't kind.

The old wooden door and bed was a nice touch though.

As we reached the bottom of the 'moutain' there was no paths so we had to choose our own way up, the fun really began; grazed skin from the odd miss placed step and prickly bush....real man stuff, in my running clothes; the modern day mountain climber.

 

 

Towards the top there were times when hands and feet were used to traverse the slope, I admit, I felt pretty cool 'climbing'.

The view from the top was spectacular, we could see for miles, despite the haze from the heat of mid day. As we sat at the top eating fruit and drinking water, their was a cliff edge behind us with a big enough drop to kill!

The way down was more difficult as the ground was unstable and the temperature had risen again.

Throughout the climb, from a photographers perspective, as always, I was glad to have my Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with me and XF18mm F2 lens. Reliable image quality and light compared to my 5D. Having just the one lens and the 'small camera' with me allowed me to enjoy the experience without being weighed down and pre-occupied with changing lenses all the time.

The camera was used as an accessory and not as the purpose. A lot of the time I only go places for the photography, this time I went for my eyes, soul and memories.

Whether it was just a big hill or a mountain, its one to be remembered.

Street Photography; Walking where the light is

I said it before that I love going to London. In fact I love big cities with their big buildings.

I was intentionally wanting to shoot street photography, by the time we got back to our hotel near Aldgate underground station the sun had started its descent in the sky; this really stretched out the shadows of the buildings. As the sun passed in between, paths of light were formed. This is the look I was going for!

So I found interesting shapes combining light and shadow in the urban landscape only a short walk from the hotel and waited for people to walk into or out of the shot.

Its all a waiting game.

 

 

 

In between locations and waiting for passers by I looked up and thought this would make a good photo. I cant decide whether I think it is or not.

Gedney Railway station; waiting for a train since 1959

Gedney railway station was a station in Gedney, Lincolnshire. It was a station on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network. It opened on 1 July 1862 and closed on 2 March 1959.

Good ol' Wikipedia helped me with that info, hardly an essay but useful and to the point.

I've driven past this building many many many times over the years and a couple of years ago I visited it and took a couple of snaps of the outside. As the weather was mild on Saturday, I thought it was finally time to go in.

The building as I found out last time is a wreck, though I suppose any building that's been left for 56 years probably will be. Especially those that have been used a rubbish tip.

The place is not safe to walk around and I really should know better; the ceiling is caving in and in some places it's already fallen down, the floor has holes in it so you HAVE to look where your walking, the stair case is rotten and moves when you take a step.....the list goes on. The building really hasn't got much time left before it really does collapse.

The best thing about the site, is the platform that's still there, however the brambles have taken over so there's not too much to see. There's also still the station name board but again its hidden behind 6 foot tall thistles that are guaranteed to give you a bad time.

As far as the camera goes, I used my Fujifilm X-Pro 1 and I still continue to love the thing. It has its downfalls, in particular the way Adobe Lightroom renders it raw files, they're so smudgy and no real sharpness or details. Oh well.

I used an old Canon FD 50mm lens that I mounted via an adapter. Shooting with an old manual lens is difficult when shooting in a dark environment as its tricky to get the focus spot on when using a wide aperture to let the light in. I also used the 18mm f/2 which I purchased with the X-Pro 1.

Taken with the Canon FD 50mm;

I love the softness of this image.

You always find a chair when urbexing.

Taken with the Fujifilm 18mm f/2




I thought this was pretty cool. These people left a discrete little reminder of their presence. I wonder who they are?