London Street Photography with Ready Steady Pro
This past Sunday 26th October I made my way into London to meet up with some wonderful photographers and members of the Ready Steady Pro community for a walk around England's capital with the cameras.
We hold regular walks in various locations and photowalks are a great way to get to know more photographers that are otherwise profile pictures and banter over the internet.
So, we met in Leadenhall Market and after a few introductions we set off on our route
This is the Lloyds Tower, just outside of Leadenhall Market. Very Swanky!
Sometimes you just get busted taking someone's photograph. Damn!
"In Rememberence" - The Tower of London - the ceramic poppy display as a tribute to those who laid down their lives for us.
Love Lock - A now common practise on the railings of bridges all over the world
So, if you're interested in joining a photowalk just head on over to Ready Steady Pro and join us! You can also subscribe to this blog for updates and announcements for new walks.
The next walk is Manchester on November 22nd!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
London Street Photography With The Guild Of Photographers
This is a post long, long overdue, but now during the Christmas and New Year Period I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to catch up with it all. I've had weddings to shoot & edit, we've got a baby on the way (now overdue at the time of writing this) and in between that I've had a house full with people staying for Christmas. So, suffice to say I've been a little quiet on the Social Media and blogging side of things. But, I'm back now and today I want to share with you some photographs I made back in October in London...
On Sunday 20th October I led a photo walk in London with some extremely talented and very fun photographers from the Guild of Photographers.
In what initially was just a small idea that was batted around - we ended up running a full photo walk in London for the day. It was a huge success. With 11 of us in attendance we set about photographing the sights, scenes and people of London.
So, today, right here in this post I want to share a few of my photographs from this trip with you. I'll talk a little about each one and how it came to be:
So this first photograph (above) was one of the very first photographs I made on the day. Some of the photographers that joined us on the walk were a little apprehensive about photographing strangers and weren't keen on asking for their permission. Well, if you don't ask you don't get. So to demonstrate that all you have to do is be confident and polite you'll find you're more than likely to get complete strangers agreeing to have their photographs taken. I found this chap to be really interesting and like most of my work from this day I felt a contrasty black and white was in order.
This particular character was sitting on a bicycle/taxi thing in Covent Garden (our arranged meeting place). He was reading a book as I approached him, waiting for his next fare I can only assume. When I asked "Excuse me, would you mind at all If I made your photograph?"
"Sure" he replied. So, I made two frames as he continued to read and then I asked him to look directly into the camera, and that's how this shot came to be. I thanked him for his time, wished him a pleasant day and moved on.
See, not so hard.
So, I walked aimlessly and didn't really give thought to where I was heading. As you do, I stumbled upon St. Paul's Cathedral and spotted this rather intense looking guy on the steps. I took a seat, waited for my opportunity to photograph him and then left. I was sure to make use of leading lines here. On this occasion I felt making his portrait and disturbing him wouldn't only annoy him (as he seemed to be enjoying what he was reading) but it would also be a moment lost. Reading a booking on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral.
As I mentioned back in the very first photograph the meeting place for our group on this Sunday was Covent Garden, just outside the Apple Store. It's public and obvious and everyone knows where it is! Before setting off and making our way for South Bank we stayed for a short while to photograph the always-excellent street performers.
Jugglers, actors, stuntmen and musicians all gather here to show off their talents and make a little money in the process. It's one of the beautiful things about London, there are people everywhere willing to entertain you. Strangely though most of them are amazingly talented and I'm sure should be doing far better to the point where they have record deals or are at least gracing our Radio Stations. They're certainly far more talented than the acts you see on the reality TV programs. (I digress). Alas, it's not always to be. It just means we get to listen and enjoy when we're out in London.
Acoustic musicians singing a mix of their own original work and re-works of popular current music are a mainstay of the performances you can usually find in Covent Garden. This young lady was singing her heart out to the crowd that had gathered around her. This was another instance where the group began to photograph her from 'behind the lines' as it were, standing with the other onlookers. I opted instead to get in close: I threw a few pounds into her Guitar case, she nodded in appreciation. I help up the camera as if to gesture "Is it okay for me to make your photograph?" and she nodded again and continued her performance. I made a fair few frames from a low angle, being sure not to get in the way for the other people who had gathered to enjoy her performance. I moved back after getting my shots and let the other members of the group do the same.
So, in true British style, it rained on this day. It rained a lot! The heavens opened and by gosh it got wet, fast. Just before the downpour though we had some fun at Somerset House whilst en-route to South Bank (thanks Liz for being tour guide / navigator). I asked my fellow Guild members to stand in various places in between the fountains using the rule of odds. Poor Marta there on the right is hidden behind a fountain, but the concept was good, in my mind at least :)
Shortly after this shot it started to rain too much for us to stay outside for much longer. We made our way inside to wait for the shower to pass. In the UK the rain can really start and then top quite suddenly. Other times it can be relentless and rain non-stop all day. Fortunately for us the rain lasted only a short while. So we headed inside to chat about our experience of the day so far and to see how people felt about approaching strangers, now that we'd been doing it all morning.
This is a portrait of my fellow Guild Member Jakub Voza. Jackub was a really interesting guy and I'm so pleased he made it on this day to join us. I found Jakub very creative and very quirky and good fun to shoot with. As the rain came we retreated inside to Somerset House where we settled for a good 30 - 45 minutes with a hot drink (for some; a glass of wine) whilst things dried up. The rain just didn't stop, but neither did the conversation or the banter. We all enjoyed each other's companies and chewed the fat, so to speak.
At some point the rain had to stop, right? Well, it did eventually. We seized the moment and made our way back outside to a refreshed and invigorated London. The air was clean and there was now a different feel and texture to everything as leaves were battered down from the trees and puddles formed everywhere, giving us the chance to play a few games with the reflections. Everything had a silvery metallic look to it now that the rain had been. (again, perhaps this is just the way I saw things?!)
After a short time of playing with reflections and doing a few more group shots outside Somerset House we continued with the original plan and made our way to South Bank. Always an interesting place to be. As we started walking I held back and got this shot of the gang walking off.
So, just over the bridge from Somerset House was our destination: London's South Bank. A riverside setting lined with places to eat, a quirky old book shop under the bridge, more performers and even a Skate Park! If you're in London - South Bank is a great little place to check out. It's on the same side of the river as the London Eye, just a minutes walk away.
In this shot (above), i grabbed this lovely couple as they walked by and convinced them to model for the group. They were more than willing.
Seeing as this one is in Black and White also - what you can't see is the amazingly vibrance and redness of the wood behind this lovely couple. We took a walk over the river and spotted this large, red wooden structure. I think we all had the same thing in mind when we wanted to use it as a backdrop. I gathered up a few South Bank Pedestrian's and guided them towards this back drop for the other photographers to use as models, but I had to save this couple for myself! I asked them to squeeze in nice and close, keep each other warm and forget about the odd set of people with massive camera's behind me. The laugh I was expecting came right out and after a few short moments settled into these lovely natural smiles. What a great couple!
Save South Bank! After moving on from our fun using the big red background we were again on the search for willing passers by to pose and model for us. As we walked by the skate park in South Bank I was summoned over by this gentleman who insisted I signed the petition he and his colleague had going to Save Southbank! "What's happening to Southbank" I asked. "What does it need saving from?"
"They're going to knock down this skate park and small recreational area down to build more shops and retail units in addition to all the shops they already have along this part of the river" he explained
"Your Portrait in exchange for my signature" I offered...
Then this picture was made. Such a great smiler. I only took 1 or 2, but knew that I'd nailed it. What a willing model.
Shortly after this a few of the other photographers from the group asked him for his photograph. I said "Go on, go for it. I'll get you some signatures!". So, as promised I set about getting people walking by to come over and sign the signatures. By the time Andrea from our group had finished making his portrait (Andrea asked him to move over to one side and pose next to the Skate Park) I had gathered a small queue of about 6 or 7 people and had them ready to sign the petition.
Everyone's a winner. I get a photograph and I help his cause for him. Call it an exchange of services!
We'd spent so much time in South Bank, and thanks to the earlier rain we were running behind a little bit. We had a table reserved at an Italian place about 10 minutes walk from where we were. So, as we all slowly started to make our way towards the restaurant we walked back along South Bank. That's when I spotted these guys...
This couple were very, very into one another. I was actually the other side of them, shooting a musician (see next photograph) with the sunset behind her. Keen to keep up with the group I started to speed walk and realised this couple were having a very passionate and public engagement and show of affection. I was at this point on the 70-200mm (your perfect Street Photography Lens...not!) so was able to crop in and frame the loving couple. I had to take this shot a few times in a bid to remove the passers by from the scene.
As I mentioned above most of my shots from today were black and white. I also mentioned a performer with an amazingly dramatic and colourful skyline. This was her. The option was to go for Flash (in the bag in the pouch) or shoot and embrace the silhouette or risk grabbing the flash and missing the quickly fading light. In hindsight I wouldn't change a thing about this one. The silhouette makes this so much more fun. It could be anyone and anywhere.
So, that's it for today. Those are my 10 favourite shots from the Guild of Photographers London Street Photo Walk, arranged and organised by yours truly. We will of course be doing this again, it goes without saying. It was great fun. Not only making the photographs, but just being around other creatives and other photographers; seeing how differently people shoot the same scene and subject.
I hope you've enjoyed these photographs?
If you have any questions or comments, or are interested i attending a future photo walk please drop a comment below, or email me: michael@rammellphotography.com.
Abbotsbury Swannery
Over the weekend (31st August – Sept 1st), My wife and I took our daughter and made for the South coast here in the UK. Namely, to West Bay in Bridport (in Dorset). West Bay was the first place in the UK that my wife and I went on holiday together around 4 years ago, we fell in love with it from the moment we got there and go back quite often each year. One day we plan to move there and make a home.
Seeing as the trip was a bit random and last minute, we hadn't really made plans to do anything when we were there. We just thought we’d wander around on the beach, enjoy the local tea rooms and take it all in. But, when we woke up on the Sunday morning my wife had the idea of going to Abbotsbury Swannery – a local swan sanctuary. Needless to say I was very much up for this. As you may know I've photographed swans plenty of times before and I was very keen to photograph them in a purpose-built sanctuary!
So, today I would like to share with you a few photographs I made on the day and talk about the challenges of shooting brilliant white subjects in harsh, bright sun light.
After you enter the swannery you have to walk a few hundred yards to get to the sanctuary. It’s a little odd as the shop and the car park are actually quite far away from the sanctuary itself. Once there you follow the signs and can walk various routes around the sanctuary. We made a bee-line straight for the area where all the swans were rather than choosing to go on one of the smaller walks around the sanctuary. I knew that the sanctuary had some 400 swans, but it’s not until you see them that you realise exactly how many 400 is.
As you can see here in this photograph, one of the first of the day, this swan seems perfectly relaxed and at ease, both with the hundreds of other swans around him and my presence there with the camera.
We were separated by a short, wooden fence. I’m sure the swans could walk beyond the fence if they wanted too – it’s more of a rail really that is just a little lower than waist height. I think they are there more or less to keep the visitors to the swannery away from the area where the swans bath in the sun, like this guy was here.
Speaking of sun – it was a scorching hot day. It was about 25 Degress celcius with no cloud cover at all. By this time it was around 11:15, so the sun was pretty high and very bright. Whilst this made the day enjoyable as it was mild, it made photographing perfectly white swans a little more of a challenge.
The first thing I noticed after a little chimping (constantly checking the LCD on the back) that my camera’s sensor had successfully done what it was programmed to do: turn everything to 18% grey. This was because the scene was mostly white, with the sun glistening off the bright water in the background. When I metered the scene (here I spot metered) the camera saw the white and instantly thought that it needed to darken things down a little. This grey and dull result was not what I wanted at all.
So, some exposure compensation was needed. I started by adding +1 stop, but I found even this wasn’t enough and that the whites still weren’t as white as they should have been, so, up to +2 stops of exposure compensation i went.
That gave the result you see here. Whites are white. I did have to use the shadow brush in LightRoom just a little to bring out some of the detail in the Swan’s black beak, but otherwise this is pretty much as-shot.
The next shot I made, and one that I’m really pleased with, is an extreme close up of another sleeping Swan. This time I’ve cropped it a little differently. I’ve placed the eye in the third and used the flowing lines of the swans’ neck as a leading line. This time the emphasis is on the great detail you can see in the swans feathers.
Shot at f/4 – the depth of field is still fairly shallow as the swan was only just about 1 metre away from me (1.5 at most) giving me a depth of field of about 14cm. Whilst this may seem like plenty, the swans are larger than you may think. In hindsight I should have stopped down to about f/11 to give me more like 40cm of depth of field to allow for more of the swan in focus.
Again, no cropping here and it’s pretty much as-shot albeit a little shadow. recovery in the black area and a slight push on the whites.
With this photograph, and the first one too, you can probably tell by looking at the shadows that the swans were between be and the sun. This made shooting in the harsh light even harder. If you do the same be sure to have your lens hood on to stop flare and also to stop the sun from washing out the image and creating an almost bleach-like look.
Just behind me, where I was photographing these two sleeping swans, were a few pens where some cygnets were being kept with their mothers. They were born some time in May this year so at this time they were between 4 – 5 months old. To me they were like over-grown children; despite being fairly large in size and looking quite well developed, they were definately a little more skittish and almost immature in comparison to the wonderfully white swans. They moved around far more, they moved far more quickly, they just seemed to have far more energy and to be less content to just relax and enjoy the sun like their larger, white elders were doing.
I came across this little guy next. I spotted him as he was continuously dunking his head under the water, looking for scraps I imagine. The reason he caught by eye though was because the sun was hitting the small water droplets that had formed on his head. I think it looks really cool:
Again, this is another shot where you can really make out the detail on the swans head, with the small water droplets sitting there being hit by the direct sun. This little swan was actually quite hard to capture as he just kept moving around and going back under water. It took a few attempts to get this photograph. The key was to train my camera on him as he came up from underneath the water and make a few frames before he went back under again. This method wasn’t the exact science I wanted it to be, but it did mean that when he came back up and he was looking towards me the water that had beaded up and was quickly dripping off of him was still there. Having waterproof feathers means that they remain dry, as you can see in this next photograph.
This little swan was over in the the recovery pen. I’m not sure quite what was wrong with him, but the information board said that the swans in this pen had injured themselves in some way. Looking at the pen the swans inside were all younger cygnets. Like I said above – they're all far more energetic and certainly a little more lively – I imagine this to be a contributing factor to them being more injury prone than the fully grown adults.
As I was saying: the swans all have a waterproof, oily-like membrane on their feathers that makes them waterproof. Whereas a dog or an animal with a coat would sort of soak up, or hold onto the water, water tends to roll off of swans instead. The same can be said for many birds that dwell in water, such as ducks. I guess that’s where the saying “Water off a ducks back” comes from.
When the Cygnets are dry though they tend to ‘fluff up’, just like this. When they look like this, for me, it’s a reminder that they are still only young. Like a little fluffy chick. Very cute
My wife and I are planning two more trips back to West Bay and Bridport this year before our son is born in December, but I also have one eye on a a trip in next May when the cygnets all hatch. If you think a 5 month old, grey fluffy cygnet is cute, wait until you see the newborns after a few hours. Adorable!
The last photograph I want to talk about today (there are more in the gallery below) is this one of this swan with what appears to be highlights in it’s hair. Like the David Bowie of the swan world:
There are a few things that I like about this particular shot, if i do say so myself: I managed to actually photograph the orange beak of the swan this time as it nestles into it;s own feathers, as it they were a large plush pillow. I also took off the 1.4 extender at this point and decided to shoot at f/2.8 to get an extremely narrow DOF and a dreamy look. Although i will admit I would have achieved a better shot at f/4 of f/5.8 to get all of the head in focus right down to about halfway on the beak, I love that the eye is perfectly in focus and that because they eye is a deep and brilliant black, it’s reflecting everything it see’s. I also quite like the way that the ‘hair’ on top of this swans head goes from out of focus gradually back into focus where it’s tack sharp.
For me, that’s all I wanted to talk about today: The exposure compensation was the key to getting these swans to remain vibrant and white and because I could get so close I feel I was able to get some lovely detail shots that I’m really pleased with. One last thing I’d say about my own work is that for the past 6 or so months now, more than ever, I’ve been getting the composition right in camera, which is something I’m really pleased about. Shooting on a crop sensor camera (18Mp Canon 7d) really does mean I’d rather not crop in post if I can help it – I want to keep all of the details in and not lose any of that information.
So, for now here are a few more shots from Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. A place I’ll certainly be going back to time and time again each time we’re in West Bay.
Please do leave a comment below and ask any questions you like about my settings, exposure compensation, gear or even the swannery. I’d gladly answer.
Enjoy your weekend. Good luck if you’re out shooting.