play time ...

The one advantage to have some down time is that i'm getting to play around with old work, images that whilst i love composition wise i'm not totally happy with the edit. In the past year i have grown tremendously (& yes yes i do believe modest is such an over rated quality) & my style i feel is really coming into it's own. I'm finding much more of myself in my work & i love it. So i'm going back over old work, experimenting, trying new things & walking away happier because of it. Do you ever do that, revisit your old work? Anyway i wanted to share a few of those with you from my trip to Provence in July of 2010. & hopefully soon you'll see some of these available for sale on etsy or possible my society 6 shop which i really must tell you all about later this week ... don't let me forget! 

throwing the rules out the window ...

So it's driving me nuts but i can't remember where i found this idea ... it was either a blog post or a magazine article (so if you can figure out where i found it let me know) ... anyways the blog/article was about a photographer who started shooting abstract after a car journey or because of a car journey or well something to do with a car journey. The idea being that all the "rules" of a "good photograph" become irrelevant & they really do. & since we were going away for the weekend i decided to have a little fun on the way home. For the first time in my life i shot at f22 simple because i was wanting long shutter speeds, & who cares about camera shake it's simple part of the process. I also discovered that our car windows are incredible dirty but anyways. 

So here are the results ... & i really love them! I love the way they feel like a painting, the blending of tones & the smooth flow some of them have to it. I love the yellow & blue of the truck, & how a urban landscape appears in the midst of the trees like a double exposure. There is so much unexpected in this process & so much fun!

around the world with fPOE ... this week it's New Jersey, USA

After a couple of weeks in Canada ... Ottawa, London, & Ottawa again & Sydney in between, we're finally heading back to the big ol' US of A, & the east coast, or more specifically New Jersey & the work of Preeti Desai & her stunning shop Preetalina. When i headed over to Preeti's shop the first thing that hit me was the colour, everything is so vivid. I mean we're talking every spectrum of the rainbow here, glorious technicolor at it's best. & on this cold bleak December morning as i write this it couldn't be any more of a refreshing change. The next thing that hits me about Pretti's work is how gorgeous it is because gorgeous really is the word. It's that kind of pretty you see in a movie, the light has that magical quality & i expect to see two long lost lovers appear as if from nowhere. 

From the landscape to the macro Preeti is another of those artists who seems to understand the way nature works. She sees the small & simple beauty's in it, the subtle characteristics that we wouldn't notice. & she understands it in a way that gives us this Hollywood picture perfect place. Like a sprinkling of fairy dust or the chalk drawing in Mary Poppins you can just jump into it sometimes feels too good to be true. But here we are staring into her beautiful photographs & we know she saw this, it's her view of the world. & here again there is a little of the dream like quality, a haze that covers it all adding to the romance & the ethereal feel of her work whilst those bright bold tones show us nature in all it's brilliant glory. I honestly can't imagine a winter in this place!

But it isn't just nature in the obvious sense she understands there's the abstract ...

the skyward ...

& my absolute favourite of them all (he's adorable) ...

As with every week all the images you see in this post are available to buy on etsy. & you can also view more of Preetalina on flickr, her website & her blog. 

... & walls & buildings ...

When you walk through a village or a town or a city in France the thing i always notice is the colour of the buildings. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find sky scrapers, & concrete & ugly but i don't look hard enough & i just see those wonderful pale coloured homes, or red & orange & other sun inspired mediterranean houses. Apartments with little balconies or banks with mint coloured shutters. I love the colours of the buildings & every time i see them i wonder if i could build a home like that where ever it is we end up. I love the contrasting colours & the fact that they all look like they've seen a whole host of history. I like the tile roofs, or laundry strung between the buildings. Winding alleyways & the colour everywhere. There's nothing grey & dreary about France it's just, in my eyes, totally perfect! 

leave part four: Cambridge in glorious technicolor

So first ... the disclaimer ... yes there are a couple or 20 photos in this post but well i couldn't choose ... sorry ... but they're all worth it (well i think so anyways)!

So Cambridge is my home town ... i grew up here, i went to school here, i worked in various bars & restaurants here & yes i got incredible drunk in this town. It has many many incredible memories for me & a few that are best left behind but sometimes, occasionally i even miss the place. So a couple of hours left to my own devices exploring the town i know so well was all kinds of fun.

I'd woken up before Kevin, put my backpack on & run into town (not that far from our hotel) pretty early to do a little wandering with the camera knowing that it could be a while until i return. I started at the top of Regent Street, & whilst in general Cambridge remains the same there were small changes. The chinese above had closed & new shops lined the various streets.

Most people know Cambridge because of the University, the forth oldest university in the world, with earliest records suggesting it was formed in 1209 & arch nemesis to Oxford. The university itself is made up of 31 colleges, & it's these colleges that students, academics & fellows are attached to making it literally the centre of your whole world whilst here. There are so intricacies that make up Cambridge University, I could be here a while so i will move continue with my journey, the first college you are seeing is Downing, built in 1800.

From Regent Street i walked down on St Andres Street, & here you see the first of a couple of good old fashion telephone boxes. These are one of the most recognizable symbols of England & so you know i had to get this shot.

From St Andrews Street i turned left onto Downing Street. This whole street is littered with colleges & museums, lots of wonderful architecture & some incredible details ...

& a few slightly more modern buildings thrown in for good measure, when they ran out of space in the original structures!

Pembroke College is the 3rd oldest Cambridge college, founded on Christmas Eve in 1347 (is it weird that i'm a little surprised to discover they celebrated Christmas back then). It's one of the largest & home to the first Chapel Designed by Christopher Wren. I told you Cambridge was a pretty impressive place.

& here you have your first siting of the bicycles Cambridge is also known for. Growing up here you learn to be wary of them, particuarly when driving as they are under the opinion that traffic laws don't apply to them. But i digress, they are for sure a part of the city, everywhere you go you will see them, & with the pedestrian areas & narrow roads really it makes a lot of sense.

Many many moons ago (saves me mentioning my age) when i was just starting out along my photography path i photographed this very door (i have the negatives somewhere) with my very first real camera an Olympus OM-1N. I love that thing, i swear it could stop a bullet & came equipped with a 50mm 1.4 lens. & that's where i discovered my love of depth of field.

Ok so i say discovered ... what i really mean is i had little understanding of apertures & shutter speed & all i knew was that by setting the lens to the 1.4 thingy it gave me the most amount of light. But still i found part of my style even if it was by default!

So we continue down Downing Street, heading away from the shops ...

Past rows of student housing, owned by the various colleges & home to thousands of undergraduates & graduates over the years ...

Until i turned on Trumpington Street ...

Which led onto Kings Parade. Kings Parade is one of the most historic streets in Cambridge, & central to the colleges, not to mention home to Kings College possible the grandest & most famous of all the colleges.

& here we have another symbol of all things British ... the Pillar Box! These boxes can be seen (in various forms) though out the British Isles & various Commenwealth countries, since their introduction in 1852 (yes i providing you with a whole lot of useless information & dates that will no doubt turn up in a pub quiz one day).

The King's College of Our Lady & St. Nicholas in Cambridge (i never knew it had a full name), known as Kings was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. Below is King's College Chapel, known for it's gothic architecture. The Chapel features the world's largest fan vault, stained glass windows, and the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by Rubens. Every Christmas Eve the choir, made up of choral scholars & choristers sing the Nine Lessons & Carols which is broadcast on the BBC, for a me a reminder of childhood Christmases.

& the gatehouse at Kings built in the neo-Gothic style (the things i discover as i wrote this blog).

So moving away from Kings & the colleges i take you to Gardenia's (i'd actually made a brief stop in W.H.Smith & naturally walked away with a couple of books ...) so here i end up wandering along Rose Crescent. Many a drunken night was ended here, buying burgers & chip butty's (basically chips in pitta bread with a whole lot of vinegar, ketchup & mayo ... perfect drunk food).

& here is the river Cam ... ok so i had to walk down a couple more streets to get here but here i am. The River Cam, i wouldn't recommend going swimming there but in the middle of summer, you can happily spend an afternoon lazying in the sun with a group of friends & a couple too many beers. Cambridge in the summer time is a special place. & across the river is Magdalene College, the last remaining male only college, founded in 1428 & not becoming mixed until 1988. Random fact ... C.S. Lewis went to this college.

& this brings us to punting on the River Cam ... These famous boats weren't introduced to Cambridge until around 1902 but because incredible popular due to their size & the narrow width of the Cam as it winds through the centre of Cambridge. Popular with tourists, you can travel through the various colleges, along the backs & even do a pub crawl. It can make for a fun if not wet time.

& the bridge is the Silver Street Bridge, practically space age by Cambridge standards having been built in 1958.

So from here i headed back into the town centre ...

Down Bridge Street ...

Along Sydney Street ...

& finally ending back in the market square. These 4 telphone boxes have stood side by side for as long as i can remember so i feel like it's a perfect way of ending my time in Cambridge but not without a few random facts about them. The red telephone box, a public telephone kiosk was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, & is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingom, Malta, Gibraltar & Bermuda. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot.

sometimes you get it just right ...

Sometimes the "client" can be completely uncooperative ... & sometimes the photo isn't exactly what the parents wanted ... but in your eyes the planets alined, the gods were on your side & you got it just right!

my weekend ... part deux (that's two in french if you didn't catch part one)

So it's time for part deux ... on Thursday as predicted! Oh & it also happens to be day two (we'll skip over the night part of day one) & so after a highly expensive hotel breakfast we headed over the bridge to "ye old town" of Salzburg. Which is all kinds of pretty. Lots of little cobbled streets & funny shops not to mention some amazing architecture. On the downside it has that whole tourist thing going on which destroys some of the illusion that you create in your mind when visiting a city such as Salzburg.

Don't get me wrong the city is stunning but as with everywhere full of crowds you never get to appreciate it quite the way you would should you be getting the opportunity to explore it yourself.

We visited the museum of modern art (it came highly recommended ... we found it over priced & a waste of time except for the gorgeous view from the top) ... the castle ... & wandered around the city. & yes as you can see there were photos & some wonderful architecture & detail you don't find in newer cities.

Lunch was had at a typical Austrian/German style tavern ...

& followed by more of that wandering i talked about before. oh & i should probably bring up the whole Mozart thing since he is Salzburg's most famous export ...

So that pretty much sums up our dead ... no one died ... i got to visit a new country & the alps were definitely something else, if nothing they are worth a couple of hours of your time.

& here's where i say "stay tuned" for part three ... that is the drive home! now i know you're all kinds of excited & trying so hard to contain your excitement!