As you can probably tell I’ve given the format of the blog a bit of a re-jig this week, at the expense of actually going out and taking photos. After my over the top posting of images from 4 different shoots last week I’ve left nothing new in reserve for this week so will have to return to last week’s well in pursuit of inspiration. I decided that I’d go with a theme this week for my images, the theme of backlighting. As a rule you’re not generally supposed to shoot into the sun in photography, but seeing as I’m a maverick who plays by his own rules (one of them being to break the conventions of society) I decided to give it a crack. If you’re doing people shots into the sun you generally need a flash to light your subjects features, but if you’re going for a more abstract silhouette feel then this isn’t necessary. Right, enough of the shit talking, time for some photos.
This first shot was taken in Green Park with my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens, a very nice bit of kit indeed. I was getting loads of weird looks from people that day who apparently didn’t like me pointing my giant lens at them so I basically had to go completely behind this guy to avoid his steely glare. I had another magic photo lined up, a guy was smoking a cigarette on a bench and I contrasted the white smoke against the back of a dark tree, but he was well and truly on to me, looking round every 20 seconds or so with a surly scowl, so I never got the shot. Maybe his wife didn’t know he smoked? Or perhaps he was a criminal like most people who smoke. Anyway, this was the one I got, I waited a while for some suitable people to walk past to balance up the image.
Photo number 2 was also taken in Green Park, although this was a little further down, actually, maybe it was St James Park, I never really know which is which around there. I had to move round to such an angle that the fountain was in front of some dark foliage, the obvious shot from straight on rendered the fountain almost invisible as the white water was lost in the white sun sky background. Again I waited for some walking people to give it another point of interest. I like the way the reflection off the water shoot out between the two characters, not really planned that way but a cool effect.
Last but not least this one was taken on my photoshoot with the glamourous houseguests of last week. I’d been down on the Southbank before and seen these guys selling hot nuts and deeply regretted not getting a shot of the steam coming off the cooker. This time round I gave my friend Kate some money to buy some nuts off him while I took the shot. I wasn’t especially happy with how it turned out so I got her to go back and pretend to buy them again so I could shoot off a few more till I was happy. Not entirely sure the nut guy know what was going on, his English wasn’t great, but he’s a man and as such will do just about anything a pretty girl asks him to.
