Workspace Friday

Posted By Mark on Jun 1, 2012

+Darren Rye wants to nose at everyone's workspaces so here's mine. Since it's not really practical to process RAW photos from my 5D Mark II while at work this is shot instead using my Nokia Lumia 800 using the Pro Camera app that comes as part of Fhotoroom and then processed with the Thumba app to compensate for the greyness of the day by pretending it's all bright and summery. #WorkspaceFriday   Google+: View post on...

Early Stage Zombism

Posted By Mark on Jun 1, 2012

Close Contact

Posted By Mark on May 30, 2012

People do some crazy things when they're in love – mime epic love poetry, wrestle crocodiles, rob a stagecoach, kidnap Karl Urban, reinvent smallpox, build a moon laser (*) – but surely very little beats hugging tightly the one who's driving your hormones crazy in this heat and humidity. Clammy weirdos. (*) Why yes, yes they were all things I've done. Google+: View post on...

Striped And Spotted

Posted By Mark on May 29, 2012

She was the former. I was the latter. Google+: View post on...

Street Photography Is So Sad

Posted By Mark on May 26, 2012

I had a run-in with a woman yesterday; not the woman who's the centre of attention here and apparently crying (she wasn't really crying; I had my Soul Filter on the lens and was able to pick out her inner feelings about the heat and humidity quite well) but the woman behind and to the right with the pushchair. Let's set the scene: lunchtimes usually involve a colleague and me making a mad dash to get out of the office for an hour. I have a camera, he has his lunch. We then – more often than not – meet up with another street photographer and we spend that lunch break chatting about work, people, technology, photography, and anything else that comes to mind while the two of us armed with cameras keep an eye out for interesting bodies or events to unfold. It's the sort of thing that makes working for a living tolerable. So, yesterday… "Are you taking pictures of people?" asked the woman (five-to-six months pregnant) with the double pushchair. The three of us stopped our conversation and glanced around at her. Dan – the other photographer – and I nodded and smiled. I gestured at the precinct. "People, events, life… yes," I said. She turned up her nose. "That is so sad," she said. Raised eyebrows from us and we turned away and ignored her, continuing our conversation. A friend of hers arrived then and I spotted her saying something to her friend with a look of disgust on her face and then the pair of them glancing at our group. I sighed. Her husband/boyfriend then also turned up and the same thing happened. It shouldn't have got to me. I shouldn't have cared what some small-minded, possibly hormonally-imbalanced, rude cow thinks about what we do for fun. But it did get to me. Looking through the photos I took yesterday I spotted her in the background of a number of shots, always looking directly at the camera. I'd like to think that she was upset that she wasn't the centre of attention for any pictures we took. I'd also like to think that I'll eventually let this slide and not worry about it anymore. Unfortunately, I don't think either of those things is true. For #StreetSaturday by +Siddharth Pandit, and for #StreetPics by +Arnold Goodway. Google+: View post on...

Parasol

Posted By Mark on May 26, 2012

I don't think I'd ever seen a person walking around with a parasol before yesterday (I usually only ever see their miniature varieties propping up the appearances of cocktails) and yet it's been the perfect parasol weather recently. Well done to this lady! And more parasols please! Everyone should have a parasol. Look how stylish a parasol is! Goshdarnit, but I've got a hankering for a parasol right about now! For #StreetPics curated by +Arnold Goodway Google+: View post on...