Tuesday was pub quiz night, a serious thing. I have to say they aren’t really my strong point. but it was a good laugh anyway, on the way to the quiz though we had a bit of a long wait at Shoreditch over ground, so I spend the time having some fun with sow shutter speeds, its basically where you let everything go blurry but things that don’t move stay sharp.
Its good because if you have all the settings right you can catch the right amount of light to really bring out the photo. I think that street photos look good in Black and White, it adds this extra feeling to the photo and its hard to have a snap in colour and still have the same effect. Thats down to the fact that street photos always have the feel to them imperfection being perfect to capture the moment, which transfers to B&W photos so much easier. Deep Stuff.
Something I think is important to slow shutter speeds, is still capturing the fact that things are still moving in the photo, if the shutter is too slow you’ll lose that and if its that little bit too fast it will just look like a blurry photo, I had my shutter around 1/6 with F5 and ISO 400 .
So for now I’m just going to have all my street photos in B&W, but I suppose I might give colour street photos a try soon. but for now, heres my photos.
– I like the movement that blurry photos give you –– it helps to give a sense of things running around –– I like this one, amy once again being used as a model, if I was going to do it again I would have amy stand still and completely in focus –
Last night I was in that situation were I need to take three photos but all im doing is going to Sainsburys to buy a wok and some rice noddles. Lucky amy was doing the double demin look, apparently thats were you wear a denim top and jeans. So I asked her really nicely if she would let me take some portrait snaps.
I watch that documentary on the photographer Platoon the other day, and it got me all rev’d up to put some energy into portrait photography. if you haven’t seen it head over to Netflix and watch the series called Abstract its unbelievable. its basically about this guy called Platoon, who takes portrait photos of some of the worlds most influential people, including the legend Barack Obama and the Russian dude Putin but its more about his style of photographs, give it a watch I promise you wont be disappointed.
Any way, yea I took some cool photos of Amy last night on the way to Sainsbury’s, but if theres anyone else out there who wouldnt mind me practising my photo skillz on them, let me know. I want to get better at it!
heres my snaps from yesterday.
– Amy “hurry up and take the picture –– I dont know how the snap turned out this way, but I like it –– her face after my sunglasses just went flying across the park –
Sundays are all about chilling out and not stressing, so thats what happened. we just went round to my sisters and chilled out in the garden with the monster aka my niece. becuase it was a pretty hot day, a decision was made to get the crazy daisy, its basically this fake plant that you attached a hose pipe too and it shoots water out round the garden, kids run around it nomrally and get wet. Not my Niece, she decides its more fun to point it at people and get them wet… made for some cool photos though.
Apart from that it was mainly chilled, the niece then decided to have a go on my camera and take some photos of her foot. shes got skills.
Heres a few snaps from yesterday.
– she got us good –– the foot shot, waiting for the paddling pool to fill up –– we actually sat and watched flies eat our picnic –
The other day a company called SleekLens got in touch with me and asked if I would try out there PreSets for Light room and let them know what I think. Long story short it’s a quick way for you to edit photos on Lightroom, without having to adjust the exposure or contrast. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, is it a way for me to save time editing photos, will it help to improve my blog?
SleekLens asked me to try the Presets on Landscape photography, so the best thing for me to do was head over to Hampstead Heath early on Saturday morning and see what I could capture and see how good these Presets are.
Sleek Lens sent me the Through The Woods Presets, which are aimed at Landscape Photography. I wont go on any more, Ill let my photos do the talking.
– before the Preset is Applied –– using the TtW|2-Exposure- Darken Shadows-1 – I’m pretty happy with the colours of this photo, but my favourite part of this photo is the shape of that tree, it looks like a proper tree. if you get what I mean and the colour helps to define that –– before a filter is applied –– using the TtW|1 – Base – High Dynamic Range – my main focus was shooting in photo with a high aperture, to help bring out the cloud in the back ground, then because im shooting RAW, i will be able to bring the the tree up i n Lightroom, and was basically me testing to see if the Presets could do that and I can tell you that they can –– Before a Preset is applied –– using the preset – TtW|1-Base – Monochrome Fantasy – I wanted to see how good the black and white presets were and what better thing to test this preset on than a white focal point, with dark shades in the background. Im happy with this, but I think black and white presets are a difficult thing, because B&W always looks good to me , but when I shoot stuff like this I want to bring out the grass in the middle of the photo a bit more, make it more defined, I think it looks a bit blurry and could be a bit more sharp, maybe I was using the wrong preset, if you know a better sleeklens preset, holla at your boy! –– Before a Preset is applied –– Preset used: TtW|0_All In ONe – Warm Shadows – this was a bit of a wild card photo, I wanted to snap something that had a busy foreground and also movement in the back of the shot. I wanted a  Preset that used the clarity tool on the leaves to help define them a bit more, while at the same time not distorting the people in the back, I want it to be quite a shallow depth of field and not do anything to crazy, just highlight a few colour, I would say this has done this pretty well –
I’m pretty happy with the outcome of these photos and think these presets are going to be a really handy tool for when I’m doing these posts. Will I use it everyday? No. probably not, I enjoy editing photos and the process that I go through to get these posts online, but when its 1 in the morning, I’ve been working all day, and just want to get to sleep, these presets are going to be a life saver.
They could also be a valuable tool in learning how Lightroom works, choose a preset you like and then work backwards from there, how did the preset use the clarity or White balance to get your desired effect? To finish off and not to sound like some rambling on blog, look into these presets and figure out how or when you would use them, I think they are something every photographer should have in their inventory, but not a necessity.
Overall I would say Sleeklens is an 8/10 and definitely has a professional feel to them, Heres a link to their website go check it out and see if they are any good for you, if you have any more questions about this, let me know and ill be happy to answer any questions, or if you think i’m completely wrong let me know too.
Check out these links to SleekLens and also some of the stuff they get up to, its a great idea and is a game changer for when you need photos edited quickly and without losing that professional feel.
if you dont know of this place then you need to know. Londons Brough Market is food porn central, it literally has this massive selection of food from all over the world. I was walking around london yesterday getting some errands done and taking pictures of London on a Friday, and just ended up in Brough market, its the perfect place to take photos, everyone has this massive excited look on their face and just wants to try everything thing they see.
Brough market for this reason has always been on of those places I’ve wanted to photograph but for some reason never have, well yesterday I just ended up there and im glad I did, if you just go there and walk around maybe try a bit some tasters or just look at all the foods, youll realise that most Tesco’s and Sainbury’s are terrible for food choices.
When you type in London Brough Market on google, the first thing that comes up is the attacks there a few months ago, if you scroll past that ( I dont mean it out of disrepesct, I just mean theres way more to Brough Market, than the actions of a few confused boys) and just type in facts, you’ll realise that this place dates back to 1014 and was created by the Danes as a medievel market to stop off at and buy some stuff before heading into London. Its also the place with annoyed the authorities because it was just this little market which under cut all the City of London’s own traders.
So what did the city do, in 1444 it brought the Market off the people and chartered it as part of the city of London, which then lead to a 3 day riot. but its all good because in 1550 Edward the VI, sorted this problem out by officially selling southwark and the Brough Market to the city for £1000.
I could go on here to tell you about another thousand years of history, but if you’ve read this much already and still not interested then you probably don’t want to know.
so anyway here some foodie pictures I took yesterday.
– that looks like proper food –– shes not sure on the cheese –– for some reason I just like this –
Theres is bar in spitalfeild market called Beadles, it this small wine bar, with a massive collection  from all over the world ive been there a few time and every time I go, I try a proper wine, none of that house wine that you get in a pub. I still have no idea about wine, but this place is making me want to learn more.
I had a famoso, which is an Italian  grape which is from the region of Romagna, it basically disappeared for years before being brought back to life by some new producers, who believed it was time for the grape to make comeback. apparently the grape gives a pale strew colour, which didn’t adapt well to the market until recently and is becoming more and more of an essential for the wine connoisseur. so if you see it, buy it and give the stuff a try or head to Beadles Wine bar in Spitalfeilds and drink it there.
incase any of you are wondering, I literally typed the name of the wine on google and this was all the information I could copy and understand, so thought I would share it with you.
All these photos were taken on the Iphone SE
– I should of taken a photo when we first got the drinks, sorry I forgot –– no sure what wines these are, but they look good –– famoso wine is on the right, look at that “pale straw” colour –
Yesterday was all about the rain, it literally chucked it down for the whole day. it was like a monsoon an english monsoon, but still a monsoon. The highest rain fall was in recorded in Kenley with 44.8mm of rain thats 1.78 inches!! when you compare that to places like Thailand where they get an average of 170mm of rain, things anit so bad, but I still go completely soaked on the way home.
One thing I love about the rain in London is seeing how different people deal with it, some put plastic bags on there heads and run around, some use a new paper and others just dont care. its the people that don’t care about the weather who make me smile, they anit letting the weather beat them, from the ones wearing a t shirt in the rain, to the guy who’s reading the newspaper while getting soaked (see my photo below), its all about beating the weather and sticking two fingers up to those pesky rain clouds. i think those are my favourite kind of londoners.
– perfect place to catch up with the evening standard –– something pretty cool about london in the rain –– getting home quickly –
So yesterday I didn’t take any photos, literally not one. I spent the day sorting out all the photos Ive taken over the past 128 days, the plan is to create a portfolio of all my best shots, so you don’t just see them for a day and then thats it. My portfolio is now up and running and has loads of my favourite photos on it. the whole thing is actually pretty hard, ive never made anything like a portfolio before, so Ive been checking out some of my favourite photographers and see how they have done it and getting some inspiration. Ive got a few ideas, so just need to work on it. check it out and let me know what you think, you should be able to see a new tab at the top of the page called “my work”.
So for this post, here are three of my favourite photos thats Ive posted these past 128 days!
Today is also 13th anniversary of  Donald Duck receiving the 2,257th Hollywood star! congratulations to the best Donald I know!
– SHOREDITCH HIGHSTREET –– from a few weeks ago, Victoria Park –– the m25, when it was actually summer, not just a rainy august –
The Hexham Heads. In 1972, two boys were helping their parents Garden, in the town of Hexham, when one of the boys came across a weird shaped rock, in the shape of a scull, excited by what he found, him and his brother carried on dig and searching till they found the second head. the two heads no bigger than 6cm. Anyone who came in to contact with these weird heads, would have a “out of this world”  phenomena. Items would be thrown across the room of the boys house, once they moved the heads inside.
An expert on Celtic artifacts, Dr. Anne Ross, Â reported that she woke up one morning to find a half human half animal creature standing in her bed room, she followed this creature out of her bedroom and down stairs towards the kitchen, before she lost track of it, a few days later her daughter said she saw a werewolf jumped of the staircase and then disappeared.
A man named Desmond Craigie, reported after they became famous that he had created the heads for his daughter to play with in 1952, but lost them in the garden. He worked for a local company that produced concrete, and an expert from Newcastle university backed up the claim by coming to the conclusion that these heads where moulded and not carved.
What an anti-climax, but quite a cool local story.
anyway heres a few of my snaps I took yesterday. They have no relevance to that story, I just like it.
– love a bit of the country side –– I wonder if the hexham heads were found near here –-good bye hexham –
today was meant to be a straight forward travel day, spent the day on my sofa then catch a train this evening up north. a few diversions later and im standing a new castle train station waiting for a taxi to finish my journey off. this isnt a complaint its a big observation, it happens, I just wish it didnt happen on my straight forward travel day.
Im trying to keep this as something thats based around photos, but on days like today, where im a bit hungover and just sitting on a train, its just about trying to take the best possible photos from an adverage day, which is kind of fun because you end up trying to frame up everything you see and make something not so interesting, interesting.
anyway its late on sunday, i’m nackered so heres a few photos for today. in other stuff the hotel im staying in for the next few hours is really nice, if you’re ever in Hexham, then stay at the Beaumont hotel. They will actually show you to your room! not sure what breakfast will be like but just gimme coffee and its all good.
– New castle has some crazy sunsets –– for some reason I like this photo –– GERAY –
joshfspear.com 