Rugby

I walk past this shop in Covent Garden every day to get to work (although as you can tell by the christmas trees) this was taken before I started working here. Its probably a shop that I will never step in, unless I win the lottery or marry someone really really rich (I am fine with either of those by the way).

It is of course the Ralf Lauren shop in Covent Garden, placed right next door to the Apple store there. I used Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro to process this image for a change. I never used to like using it due to the fact that it was very very slow on my old computer but it works great on my Mac. It gives a very different effect to Photomatix so I will have to keep on using it of I want to know the settings. Perhaps one day.

Thin wheel

I have promised myself that at some point this week I will go out in and around London again for a photo walk. My reserves are running low in the pre-processed photo department so I need to either choose some of my rejects to process (this can actually uncover some hidden gems) or go out and take some new ones. I will be busy with a new job from next week so don’t know how much time I will actually have, but I will take every chance I can to keep on posting.

This is a photo from Hyde Park during the christmas period. A huge christmas fair and market names Winter Wonderland is set up. There is a huge big wheel (okay not as big as the London Eye but still pretty massive) temporarily erected. It is the largest freestanding wheel in the world, I think. This is a side on view of said wheel.

Countdown

Well I still have a backlog of Christmas images to post so I hope you don’t mind but here is another. Ok it has another theme aswell. Now it is 2012 London is going on a massive high for the olympics, especially recently where tickets went up for sale for different events. Naturally none got what they wanted and no I didn’t get any but I will be in London this summer and perhaps will stalk the Olympic village for photos. 

With the christmas tree in Trafalgar square was (and still is) the countdown clock to the olympics. You can work out when this photo was taken by looking at the countdown or you could cheat and look at the name of the photos, but thats no fun.

Rudolf the giant green reindeer, has a very shiny nose.

Merry Christmas and all that jazz. I hope all of you had a great christmas day bout for some of you the festivities are only beginning. If your family is anything like mine you will now be preparing to the mass family get together. That means all cousins, young children and distant family relatives will be sitting on chairs of all different heights around a dinner table.

For those of you who are all christmased (yes I made up that word) out now of the time for shopping in the sales; although for those of us in London will perhaps not have that joy as the Tube strike is now on making like hell for Londoners.

This giant reindeer lives in Covent Garden for christmas. People always gather around it as a meeting point this time of year. 

Anyway, what ever you do today I hope you enjoy it!

The temple in Malta

On friday I posted a photo from Segesta in Malta. That was of the remains of an amphitheatre and this is the temple on the same site. 

I am hoping to get out and about in London soon to get some good christmas pictures. The place is covered in christmas lights and I haven’t had the time to get out in ages  as I have been so busy.

Have a good weekend.

A Bar in Key West

The first late night we had it Key West we didn’t know what to do. Two of us wanted to just walk around taking night shots of many things and some of us wanted to go to a few bars. We compromised and went to a bar quickly first where I took this photo.

I didn’t like the feel of the place. I don’t know why but we moved on quickly. We had a great night in the end. The highlight… running back to the ship at 1am hoping that we weren’t late for the all aboard. The ship doesn’t wait for stall. Luckily we made it.

Palm Trees in Paradise

Another photo from the Disney Island, Castaway Cay. Many of you have seen lots on images from the bahamas that I have posted that I took on my travels. This is from a place called Pelican Point looking back onto the Disney Magic ship.

It was taken while I was walking up the beach front taking photos of guests as they enjoy themselves on the island. I always carried a separate memory card so I could quickly swap for personal use. I had to be quick on changing to shooting to RAW aswell and not forget to change back which actually happened once.

July 7th Memorial in Hyde Park

A permanent memorial to honour the victims of the 7 July 2005 London Bombings is in place in London’s Hyde park. There are 52 stainless steel pillars, one for each person killed in the attack. It was created by a design team including architects Carmody Groarke and engineering team Arup.

It is one of my favorite things to photo as it has many angles to discover. It was the site for one of my very first HDRs that you can see here.

Reflection By St Pauls

Sorry for the late photo post today but my computer suddenly decided that it was related to a Blackberry and didn’t like the internet. Anyway now its back and I am able to post this photo of St pauls for you.

You might reconise this scene from this post before but what you didn’t see there were these mirrored orbs. Walking up to them Murphyz and I both pushed up against them, testing the weight. We were both surprised that they moved very easily. I don’t know what they were made of but we later discovered a few dents in them where people had leant up against them expecting the same as us.

I couldn’t wait to take a photo with the reflection behind me. You can see my camera set up in the reflection. I did have one with me sitting there aswell but the scene behind is definately better without me.

St Paul’s and ME! I went on a photowalk last week with a fellow photographer Murphyz and one of his photographer work mates. We started off in Leicester square but inspiration was hard to find in the busy streets. We headed to the usual photographers haven of the Thames and are juices started flowing.

It wasn’t a good sunset at all so we really got going when darkness fell. We walked along the Thames pathway and over the Millennium Bridge. We found a little place to take photos of St Paul’s Cathedral and while the others were busying themselves I decided to do a montage of me in front of the cathedral.

I have never done one of these and my life would of been so much easier with a DSLR remote like Murphyz has for his montages. I set my interval timer and would run into position, most of the time ending with a blurry first frame. I persisted and created this image.

Mickey’s Rusty Hand

A sign on Disney’s Castaway Cay. Their private island in the Bahamas. Mickey is doing the Disney point as usual. For anyone that doesn’t know the Disney point is where you use your index and middle finger to point in a direction. It was drilled into us working there, so much so that I still do it now. I don’t think that i will ever loose that part of Disney.

The (new) Lonely Lavender tree.

Another photo that I recently redone. The original was one of my favorite ever photos that I had processed but I couldn’t wait to re-process the image. I could never get rid of the halo around the tree but this time I think I just about done it. I love the purples of the lavender also.

I walked forever around the narrow streets and come across some great things. I wish I had more time to explore to find more things like this.

After being in the Caribbean for 3 months we started the journey over to Europe. The Transatlantic crossing was for 14 days, starting at Port Canaveral, Florida. After the customary stop at the Disney Island, Castaway Cay, we didnt see land for 6 days at sea. The first place we went to after was Madeira. We docked in the capital, Funchal which was the main tourist district.