Monday 23 January 2017

Meanwhile, back in London.

Americans, for all the anti-British rhetoric about 'colonial times', largely view Britain and, particularly, London, as cool? For a country of largely temperate climate, this past week has not been just cool but freakin ass freezin cold. Off I headed, walking almost immediately past a bus stop with a woman and her 2 sub 5 yr. olds all brandishing placards. Curious start to the day (didn't realise that was the universe giving me a 'heads up' at this point). Not content with walking around London's streets funnelling the icy breeze, off I went to 'Little Venice'. Where the wind was stronger, whipping across the open stretches of water. Despite wearing 5 layers, the contortions of this photographer in search of the 'perfect composition' apparently made it easy for the wind to search out bare skin. Suffice to say, I need to find clothing longer in the body because I will not become a fair weather or indoor photographer. NOT HAPPENING!
On the plus side, the research I'd done to select this location proved accurate and the briefest of recces following the SWPP convention around the corner the previous week had confirmed it as a likely subject. The glorious blue sky and sunshine beckoned and the architecture, although somewhat polluted by the human factor, looked majestic.
 Many of my architectural images are graphic and I love them in black and white, but in such weather conditions I was out for colour impact at every turn. London did not let me down. Not for subjects anyway, more on that later.
SEE, graphic. Colour pop. As usual this is just a crop from the finished image which will soon appear on the limited edition gallery on my website. If you've not had a look yet, please get on over there, drop a like, share etc, you know the routine.
 As I've said before, don't be limited by your research, walk that extra few metres/half mile, or whatever if you sense there might be something worthy of a closer look. I did just that on this visit and it allowed me to get a slim side view of a building with a significant percentage of the light coming from below (a large clear area of train tracks). Nearly four hours later, as a result of stopping frequently to take pictures I wasn't getting the warming benefit of walking so I was cold, realll coldddd, but that nagging little voice had ensured I'd explored the target buildings and a few others for interesting compositions whilst I was there and not just thrown in the towel or headed for a coffee shop. So that was enough, the sun was already low, took a few more images of the targeted subjects as I left Little Venice now the light had swung round and repacked the backpack for the walk over to Regent Street. Edgeware Road was at a near standstill and beyond. The annoying drone of the police helicopter and occasional woman with a placard suggested there was a demo somewhere near but arriving at the bus stop I was greeted by the familiar long queue of people awaiting a bus, this after having walked past complete gridlock at Marble Arch and Oxford Street lead me to the conclusion it was time to walk, at least in the direction of home in case the buses were getting turned early to avoid the demo route. Half an hour later I'd walked through the demo twice, not seen any sign of my bus running in either direction but I had reached the river again, by a crazy route, and took advantage of the opportunity to get a picture of The London Eye for stock before continuing my walk towards Waterloo, the most obvious point at which to turn buses around. Typically for my bus excursions of late I once again had a bus pass me as I walked between stops and yet again I was forced to run for it with all the camera gear on my back. Finally I was able to sit down and have some of the coffee I'd been carrying around with me all day. Definitely could feel the affect of not having eaten for the past 6 hrs but satisfied with the images and keen to get to work on the retouching, the nagging question remained, 'How do I get the art images out there?', in front of art people, marketed, dare I say it, SOLD! Well I'm still working on that one, but they're on my website, some are on SaatchiArt website and very soon my Patreon will go live and I'll reveal on there and here my plans, both short and long term. until then here are another couple of images from the day.
Remember, go check the gallery.

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