On My Mind…
Readiness, that is the state you need to be in as a street photographer whenever you are out. You need always have your camera at hand and set, pre-focusing your lens in anticipation for that shot. That is why I always have my camera with me where ever I go, because in an instant the combination of subject, composition and light will present itself, and just as suddenly it will be gone.
As well as always having your camera at the ready, you eyes have to be open at all times, constantly looking around at the environment, looking, anticipating when something might happen. And don’t just focus on what you see on the surface, but look more closely. Whenever I see a window, a plane of glass, I don’t just look through it to see what is on the other side, but I also play close attention to what is reflecting off the glass, because this adds a completely different perspective to the photograph, and often times something far more interesting.
Streets of Sicily
Sicily is truly unlike any place I have traveled to, the closest I can think of to it is maybe the Philippines, but even that country has been strongly influenced by America as such, has a very modern vibe to it. Sicily goes at a speed all it’s own, as if the hyperactivity so pervasive in the “modern” world has ignored this little island off the coast of mainland Italy.
The most difficult thing for me was slowing down, was adapting to the pace of the streets of Palermo and Catania and all the towns in between. I walk slow by London standards, but even my pace seems to be lightspeed when I was in Sicily, where you’re more likely to stop and chat on the street with a friend than buzz to your next destination.
I wonder how long it will be before the tide of modernity fully engulfs this little island. I can only hope that it remains cocooned from the constant changes of the modern world.
My whole set can be found here, Streets of Sicily
Colours of spring
After a long winter, grey and dreary, spring comes almost as a surprise, and the once bare trees come alive, in an instant blossoming, before giving way to the green leaves and flowers of summer. It is this cycle that makes me appreciate living in a country where there are distinct seasons.
Camera shops and photography shops
They used to be one and the same, but no longer. There was a day you could go into a camera shop and be greeted by a whole host of photography related items, from cameras (obviously), lens, tripods, bags, films, filters, lights and all manner of things a photographer would need. But now, the times they are a changing, and if you actually want to get some photography related items that are not cameras or the like, then don’t waste your time in such places as Jessops or Jacobs, as they have ceased to be photography shops, and are more camera shops.
The virtues of looking down
It’s often overlooked when you out and about shooting the streets of any city. We spend some much time looking ahead, looking to the side, looking behind us, and, with new buildings creeping ever upwards, with look up further into the heavens. But we don’t often look down at the ground, at least I hardly do when I am out to take photographs, except every now and then in case there is some dog droppings. But there are is a treasure trove of things to take photographs of, like this reflection in the ground. So, I’ll be more conscious now of looking down when I’m out and about taking photographs.
Adventures in Polish #1
Ask me two years ago what I would be doing in August 2011, and I would probably have said something to the effect of working, playing computer, working, playing computer, working, skating, working, playing computer, or something along those lines. I might have even said I would be planning my annual trip to New York to visit my family, or bemoaning the state of my New York Mets, or looking forward to the new NFL season.
What most certainly would not have been said would be that I’d begin in earnest to learn to speak the Polish language. But that is where I find myself now, on the 4th of August 2011, taking my first steps, with book and audio CD in hand, into learning to new language.
The perils of reading on the bus
I think books and magazines, like cigarettes should come with a warning label on the covers of them.
Reading causes missing your stop!
Not for the first time this month, (more accurately the third time) I missed my stop going to work due to becoming engrossed in my book (currently Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Vol. III: The Waste Lands).
On a book about Mao
So this book won the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, and described as a “stunning original and hugely important” account of everyone’s favourite Chinese Commie, ol’ Chairman Mao and his Great Leap Forward that lead to the deaths of some 45 million odd Chinese according to the book. This is one book I will look to add to my wish list as it’s a part of history that I know about, but not in a great deal of detail as I would like.
It’s interesting reading the article in the Guardian about this book and the comments made which I feel slightly offended by, and I am only half Chinese. But I’m not offended because I am half-Chinese, I’m offended by the subtle prejudice and ignorance of the comments made.
The first photo I ever sold…
This photo was taken on November 26th 2004 with my Nikon D70 with 18-70mm lens. I remember taking this photo, I remember how cold it was that night, I remember that all but this photograph from that even were blurry due to my hands shaking and the slow shutter speeds. But in this instance, I was able, for 0.4 seconds, to stay absolutely still to take a photo of this courier on the phone leaning against the stark red wall of the newly built, and newly opened 6 More London Place.
Exactly how is that stylish or cool?
I don’t claim to be a trend setter, I don’t think myself to be a “dedicated follower of fashion” as the great Kinks song goes. But I can’t help but feel, when I look at people and the clothes and stuff they wear, and think to myself, how exactly can they look in the mirror and think they look cool?
There are a great many fashion trends that leaves me shaking my head and some that leave me feeling a little queasy inside (tight jeans on men, that’s just wrong, I mean, to me that is just a form of self harm).
