Tonight, I went to a “Portrait Photography on the Mac” talk at the Apple Store in London’s Covent Garden.  It’s always good to listen to other photographers and how they do things and you never know when you might learn something new.   The talk was centered around “tethered shooting” i.e. linking the camera to the computer via a cable (in this case to a Mac Book Pro) and watching the images appear almost instantaneously on a display (as in the photo above).

The beauty of many of the talks at the Apple Store is that not only are they free, but they are informal and often very informative.

I took the chance to make a few images of the talk of course.  They can be found here.

London does not usually receive much snow, but this year is so far the coldest February for years and snow has remained for longer than expected.   A couple of inches fell again the other day providing another blanket of white.  There was a chance to visit a favourite location of mine at Chorleywood Estate.  In spring time,  there are bluebells and in summer it can look idyllic,  but how would everything look dusted in white?  What I found, was an peaceful and serene location, looking pretty in the cold conditions.  The usually fast flowing River Chess wore an icy edging but with the sun out, it made things look much more attractive.

Images of the snow can be seen here.

The snowfall that arrived the previous night following the visit to Whitstable was indeed heavy (for the UK, that is).  Six inches fell overnight and so, on a cold Sunday morning, the only thing to do was to wrap up and explore the local surroundings to photograph snow scenes.

Getting up early definitely helped there is a pleasure in walking almost knee deep in pristine, freshly fallen snow.   Eventually, of course, people come out to play in the snow and there were even some who were taking part in their usual morning run!

Snowy images can be seen here.

The prospect of a seaside visit is appealing at any time of year.  Really, it is.  Whitstable is a seaside town a couple of hours’ train ride out of London in the county of Kent.   Famous for its oysters and seafood, a pleasant surprise was to discover “The Street”, a claybank, covered in pebbles which extends out perpendicular to the beach and into the sea.  The temperatures were very low but when the sun was out it was not too bad.   The amusing thing was that during the day snow had been forecast, but we were blessed with blue skies.  Only when we arrived back in London in a blizzard did we realise just what we had been missing.

Images can be found here.

As Chinese New Year was celebrated worldwide, London of course was not shy of being included in the festivities.   The “Year of the Dragon” also coincides with London hosting the 2012 Olympics and there was clearly an opportunity for the local organisers to link the two events together in speeches and promotions.

The event began with a parade.  Getting there early was key and, so too, was having a good vantage point from which to photograph.  Luckily, I had chosen a relatively quiet area and it was easy to take photos from the road itself.  Leading the parade was a dynamic dragon dance, followed by a double decker bus carrying dignatories.  Then came groups of local community groups as well as dancers and martial artists.  All of these made for interesting images.

After the parade came the short walk to Trafalgar Square to watch the speeches and opening of the events there.  Each year more and more people visit Trafalgar Square on that day and the crowds were huge.

Images of the morning’s events can be found here.

The London Art fair takes place annually at the Business Design Centre in Islington.  There are works of art, paintings, sculptures and a few a photographs on sale.  Prices range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds.  Artists range from people you’ve never heard of to true heavyweights like Joan Miro and Picasso.  It was definitely worth spending time browsing and, of course, there was the chance to take a few photographs.

I have just come back from a long Christmas vacation in Chicago.  Surprisingly, it was not as cold as I had expected.  Indeed, the local news reported unseasonably high temperatures during most of my stay and  I was certainly not complaining at all.

There was a chance to explore new neighbourhoods that I have not seen before.   I’m currently editing those images and will post them shortly.

One of my aims was to add to images to my Portrait of Strangers project.  How would local Chicagoans take to being asked to pose for photographs?  Would they be as accommodating as Londoners?   The answer was a resounding “yes” and I am pleased to be able to add images 36 to 52 to the gallery, starting with an image of a “Girl near the Marilyn Monroe statue” and ending with the “Man outside ESPN”.  Each image had its own interesting story.  Take a look and find out more.

After spending an interesting time looking at the Taylor Wessing exhibition* in London’s National Portrait Gallery, I was inspired to add to my Portraits of Strangers project.

[* exhibition verdict - better than last year and, as always, there were good ones, great ones and ones that left you scratching your head as to why they were chosen].

Since it was already dark, there was no option but to shoot with off-camera flash and I remembered that I had a homemade lighting diffuser in my bag that would help to soften the light .  With the aid of a friend who assisted in holding the flash for me off-camera, I was able to produce images 4, 5 and 6 to add to my gallery today.

Luckily for me, I had a Gorillapod Focus in my bag.  It is a small, collapsible, portable tripod that is ideal for impromptu night shoots.   I was able to find a location in the middle of the road on a traffic island, and positioned the Gorillapod and camera atop a solid traffic bollard to make this image .   Exposure was f16 at 15 seconds.  The light trails are from passing traffic and the bright light above the store is in fact the moon, not a security light.