Wooden Railing

Posted By Mark on Feb 1, 2012

For the February +Monthly PAD Challenge. While waiting for my colleague to buy a sandwich from a little café in Chichester I sought respite from the Arctic blasts sweeping the country right now and moved down into a spot of sheltered sunlight. To be honest it wasn't that much better there than where I had been but the psychological effect was enough to make me whip out my camera and take a shot of the wooden railing that separated the outdoor seating area (nobody was foolish enough to be using it) from the car park; wide-open aperture meant I'd be sure to get some reasonable bokeh from the sun bouncing off the cars and metal tables nearby. Google+: View post on...

Cushion Dream

Posted By Mark on Feb 1, 2012

Lighting Cigarettes

Posted By Mark on Jan 31, 2012

A little bit of a walk at lunchtime to get the blood circulating – which didn't work – and then I had to dig out gloves in order to hold my camera and keep my fingers from going numb – which also didn't work – but at least I discovered I can actually operate the various buttons and dials with them on, something I'd assumed I couldn't before. While we wait for the unending precinct maintenance to finish so that it will open up the area around where we like to hang around for shots, lunchtimes are spent more in chatting (or moaning about work, if you want to get technical) than photographing as the former provides more of interest right now; good shots are difficult to come by. However, on the walk back to the office I swung the camera up and fired as I saw these girls approaching – two trying to protect their cigarettes from the chilly breeze as they lit them, the third laughing either at their trials or some private joke – and was surprised to discover this evening that I actually got the quick shot in focus too. Google+: View post on...

Chichester Noir

Posted By Mark on Jan 30, 2012

It was bitterly cold today; fingers were very difficult to feel after a few minutes of the wind from the northwest blowing across them. The things a person with a camera will do just on the off-chance of getting a shot! This young man stood out with his noir-style hat. I'd love to be able to wear a hat too but I suffer from a debilitating affliction that doctors call "my, that's a large head you have there sir!" Let us never speak of the time I tried on a medieval helmet in Warwick Castle and caused my wife to fall over in hysterics at the sight of it perched on top of my bonce. #MonochromeMonday Google+: View post on...

Brutalist Style

Posted By Mark on Jan 28, 2012

For the new Google+ theme of #SAturdayStyle curated by +lynn langmade and +lane langmade who I have a sneaky suspicion may be related to one another. You can read more about the theme's rules here – https://plus.google.com/113973458554656282296/posts/JX6rbasjLsH – but in a nutshell it's a theme that exposes style of some description; art, fashion, design, architecture, etc. I've gone with architecture for the inaugural post in this theme. This is a reworking in my own particular style of a photo I took almost a year ago in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and features my second favourite style of architecture, brutalism (my favourite being art deco like just about anyone with taste). From the 1950s to the 1970s brutalist architecture embraced the wonderful ideal of casting concrete into moulds to create repetitive, geometric buildings or, if you prefer, works of art (which, admittedly, some people think are gruesome but there's no accounting for taste). Google+: View post on...

Bare Trees and Building

Posted By Mark on Jan 28, 2012

Couldn't quite get into shooting people yesterday so ended up going for a bit of a walk and trying to find some interesting things instead; sometimes, though, you just can't get a good shot no matter how hard you try. This was one of the few that I thought might have possibilities – the reflections in the glass and the high contrast on the trees thanks to the low, bright sun seemed quite striking at the time – but it turned out it had more potential in my head than anything I've been able to conjure up once I've taken a look at it properly. Oh well; just chalk that up to "one of those days". Google+: View post on...