Christmas Still?

Is it too late to still post christmas photos? I’m gonna say that its never too late. Does Covent Garden still have their decorations up? I guess they have until the 6th January until their bad luck sets in. 

Its so easy to take good christmas photos in London. Everything looks so christmassy (if thats even a work). These giant ball balls reflect the light so well and turn into huge disco balls. All you need is some club music and the night is sorted.

The Ultimate Sweet Shop

There is a a very popular show on Leicester Square that I have never been in. It looks incredible from the outside and is full of M & M’s. This was taken recently so a christmas blanket has been thrown over the place adding to the bright colours from the decorations. It is always packed with people and it is on my wish list to go in at some pint and spend a fortune. I don’t know how many  M & M products there can be. To be honest its hard o think of things that can fill up the place but they seem to of managed.

Madeira Harbor

I was working a lot in Madeira so didn’t get much of a chance to go explore most of it. I went to the centre of town and then walked back through the harbor back to the ship. 

People always say to me that you have been to some great places. Yes I have but I have not seen them. I got to spend around 3 hours at a time exploring the places we went to which is not enough time to “see” places. I want to go back to some of the places to see the true side of them. One day I will.

Deck 9 on the Magic

I had such a great time working on the Disney Magic Cruise Ship. It is an amazing place to work at as you can imagine. Disney does do all things that you thought impossible.

I think HDR is the only way to do the ship justice. It captures all the colour and texture of the surroundings which is made more intense at night.

Signals on the Magic

The family pool, as you can imagine, was the most popular pool and was always full of guests. Even late at night there would be someone around enjoying some of the activities around. This was taken in the early hours of the morning just after I had finished work for the day.

The bar/restaurant on this part of the ship was called Signals, hence the name of the photo. I ate here a few times after a late finish and the food was really good. Anything was good compared to the crew food though.

The two covered pools in the foreground are jacuzzis that were always occupied mainly by teens who were socialising with new friends. Adults usually found sanctuary in the adult pool where it was alot more peaceful.

Over the Thames

This photo was taken a for steps from yesterdays photo. It shows a view of St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance, all the way to the Gherkin near the centre of image.

The OXO and more…again.

I first visited this spot to take photos in 2009 when I first started taking HDR photos. I took a photo from nearly exactly the same spot. I can see that from looking at that photo here, that I have improved alot. The old photo had the dreaded halo on buildings and was a very overdone HDR.

Now I think that I have a much better, and perhaps more subtle, effect.

Ice cold Thames

An August night shouldn’t be this cold! No the Thames is not made from ice here, its just that the long exposure and ice cold blue tones, make you think it is. 

This is a frame from a timelapse that I am still working on, I now have around 20 different clips that I am happy with. All I need now is some music and some good video editing software. Where is a Mac when you need one?

Space Mountain

I was obsessed with the Cinderella castle. Perhaps a bit too much one might say. I must of taken around 200 shots with the castle in view so I will try to always bring something different. 

Space mountain was a brilliant ride. I had heard so much about it and was worth the 30 min queue. It also makes for some great textures for the foreground.

HELLO!!!

Ok so after all my travels I am finally back home and it feels so good. After saying hello to a few friends I got straight down to sorting out all of my photos into lightroom, finding out that I had to buy a new 3tb hard drive in the process. 

I have taken so many images that i didn’t know how to even start processing them or in what order. I decided to do it in some order and take you though what I done, place by place.

I am starting off with the hotel I stayed in, in Miami. I went there for training for the cruise ships. I stayed at the Hilton Homewood and was lucky enough to meet some good friends there. You can see most of them sitting around the pool as we done most nights.

While exploring Notting Hill I came across a canal. I quickly learned that it was a part of London Called Little Italy. I had never been there before.

There was a cor-ten steel sculpture inhabiting an amphitheatre where people sit and mostly eat their lunch. I love how you can see the reflection of the sky in the building.

f.22, Shutter Speed 30 sec. I love how the london eye is mirrored in its reflection.

Another one from my night adventure. f.22, shutter speed 30 sec. Making this HDR makes the pathway capture light from the surrounding area while the shutter speed allows for movement in the wheel.

I had never tried night photography before so went up to London’s south bank to give it a go. This was taken at F.3.5 and shutter speed 1/3 sec. I tried making it HDR but quickly found out that the ISO was way too high and got too much noise. I used a Tone Mapping software instead and this was the result.