Reflecting...

I may not be the fastest student in the OCA and I might take months between one assignment and the next but this does not stop me becoming more and more obsessed with photography. I seem to spend all day 'seeing' images wherever I look. Deep is the regret when there is no camera to hand...

Speaking of cameras I now have three: a Canon compact, a Fuji bridge and a Canon EOS 550D, I love working woth these things of beauty. Just the feel, shape and weight of each one is a real joy. Seeing the images on the display screen at the end of a session of shooting is always a pleasure.

As I prepare for the next assignment, 'Colour', I am vowing to read more and lose myself a little in some of the books I have acquired over the last few months. And so this whole new creative experience will deepen and broaden day by day, image by image...

Every best wish to all you photographers out there...

Rob

22.3.12

Exercise: Multiple points.

I liked the idea of a natural background - after all, dining room tables are not just for eating off! And as soon as I turned on the desk lamp, it was clear there is much to learn about lighting... Small steps, small steps!

And there it is... The constellation Orion in stones. But I recall the exercise said that we should move the objects around between each shot - I guess I was focused on creating a particular design...

Project: Lines

Here are some photographs for the 'Lines' project. As asked by the manual, I have begun with vertical and moved into horizontal - and will read no more until this section is compledted! And it's like the old adage about buying a car: select one and you see that make and model everywhere! Verical / horizontal lines are no different...!

 

Exercise: Diagonals.

Diagonal roof view...



St Albans Abbey







St Albans - French Row



St Albans Abbey





The tower - St Albans Abbey



Diagonals on the night pavement



Milton Keynes shopping centre architecture.







Gatwick Airport at dawn.







 St Pancras station 1


 




St pancras station 2







St Pancras station 3









St Pancras station 4

Exercise: Curves

The Nave - St Albans Abbey


The Rose Window - St Albans Abbey

This another shot taken from within St Albans cathedral. I always struggle withe fact that someone else has done the 'work': in this case creating the curves in this vast rose window. But I like this colour against the dark background.

Christmas curves

Curved archway



Milton Keynes shopping centre.




An enjoyable curve - in my late father's favourite bar The Farriers Arms, St Albans

Natural History Museum - main entrance.

Project: Using lines in composition.

This is St Albans. The implied line isn't so clear, but it's a beginning. It would have been better with no car and just a sinle figure.

St Albans at night. The idea was to capture the suggested line heading down the street.

It was on a trip to London that I began experimenting with shooting pictures of people and groups by pretending not to be taking pictures...!

The 'line' here is up the escalator and on to who knows where...

The line' is down the tube tunnel but what really fascinates me is the expression on the ma's face: what is he thinking? And then the woman - what is she reading and listening to...?

This was taken in my daughter's car on the way back from London. The 'line' runs through the car in front and on into the night. I have always loved driving at night, especially on some kind of exciting journey. It stems from when I was a child and we drove through the night to the coast.

A More Famous Landmark

This is a more famous 'landmark' of Milton keynes: the Point cinema, which was opened in the 1980's. It has a very distinctive red steel exterior structure. It was only superceded by the building of the Snowdome, which can be seen for miles around.

When looking for triangles it was simple enough to gaze out of a kitchen window and there they all were! I guess housing estates and the built environment are just replete with them.

This was another shot taken when in Cambridge. I don't know what this building is, but it was uninspiring...

Project: Shapes.

Exercise: real and implied triangles

Whilst stopped at a garage I was confronted with this dramatic skyscape. I grabbed my bridge camera and selected the black and white feature. Apart from the drama and the good fortune to have both a camera and the chance to take a photograph, I believe the angled rays of the sun imply a clear triangle.

This was the view through the window of a room in a college in the School of Old  English, Norse and Celtic, in Cambridge University. I was here for a day's conference and thought: there are implied triangles out there!

Here we are in Milton Keynes, right at the far end of the Central Shopping district of the town. This is the curch of Christ the Cornerstone. Yes, the main shape is a curved dome, but the shape described is also triangular.