Birmingham Christmas Market

December the 1st, Christmas posts are now officially allowed! Wahoo!

I visited the Christmas Market the other week, armed with my camera to get a few snaps of the festivities. The lights looked so pretty and warming, it's a shame the weather was so cold! 

Here are a selection of my favourites...

Ostrich burger anyone?

Looking down from the top of the new library in the city centre gave this picturesque view of the market.

With a slight height bonus I managed to grab this oldy-worldy view over the craft market towards Victoria Square.

This shot was taken from the new library, standing on the roof where the wheel starts to peep over the balcony.

The market is well worth a visit, particularly in the evenings as the sun sets and Christmas lights come on, it's a very pretty sight to get you in the festive spirits.

Smethwick Canal

So I paid Smethwick Galton Bridge a visit and took some snaps down by the canal. From the train it looked like the area would have a fair chunk of industry surrounding so I was a little disappointed when I first arrived to find there wasn't any. However thankfully the weather was good so I managed to grab a few pretty shots instead.

This image is my favourite by far, I love the depth of field and resulted contrast. 

Hester's Way: Take Two

This year I am revisiting Hester's Way and looking at developing my project in order to involve the the community further. I made my first visit yesterday to Springbank Community Centre and once I had introduced myself and explained my project I went back out to photograph the surrounding environment.

This shot is a continuation from last years work.

On my next visit I will be taking model release forms so that I can start to capture the people that use the centre and its resources.

Birmingham

Don't expect to see anything spectacular on this post. It's a developmental post this one..

I visited Birmingham not so long ago to do the first shoot in my project on the city. I couldn't have picked a worse day to go, the weather was atrocious making it hard to get any shots.

With a wide angle lens, standing a little nearer to the bridge and I think this could be a bolder shot. With the two transportation routes in use at the same time, perhaps with a freight rather than passenger train as well.

The colours in this are fabulous as is the texture. The white balance is a little off and the shot could be improved with that. I would like to try this one again.

Crop and straighten this at the drainpipe and throw a flash at the fence and I imagine the shot could be entirely different. I intend to visit again and try this technique.

I will be visiting again in the coming few days, as well as a second part of the canal. Hopefully down by Smethick Galton Bridge. And Fingers Crossed the weather won't be so bad.

The Fair is in Town

The fair has arrived in Cheltenham, all set up at the racecourse. With lots of bright lights and fast moving rides how could I not go along with my camera? I decided to shoot using long shutter speeds and some of the outcomes I got are pretty crazy.

The above two images were created by using the zoom on the lens during the exposure

For this one shot I took the camera off the tripod and circled as the ride went.

I loved shooting the light trails, what do you think?

Pigeons!

It's good to be back in Cheltenham again. Lectures started today, but I'm not talking about lectures now. Instead I'm going to show an image I took today on my break between lectures when I went in to town.

Pigeons really scare me but today I plucked up the courage to photograph some.
In the town centre by Starbucks is a little water feature and today the pigeons were using it to bathe in. I climbed up a little way and took a few snaps of the birds at bathtime and this is what I got.

Completely unedited, this was my outcome.

I'm pleased with my shot although I did disturb some of the birds that were flapping about in the puddle of water in the centre of the bowl.

Istanbul Mosques

You remember my trip to Istanbul? Well it's hardly surprising that I'm still working my way through the edits with the amount of photos taken. Tonight we have a selection of mosques that are in the city - all of these photos are take on the European side of the waters.

This mosque, the Blue Mosque, had a fabulous wall of decorative tiles. This image is a photo of one of the old washing wells.

This mosque hung the Turkish flag across the street, joining to the building over the road.

The detail over this doorway was very pretty, yet doesn't come across overly well on the image. I do though, like the shape of the shadows created.

All mosques have towers like this one, usually at least two. Men used to climb up, stand on the balconies and sing from them at the time of a call for prayer. Nowadays microphones/megaphones are used.

This photograph looks through an internal courtyard of a mosque, just as prayers are starting.

This mosque I found most fascinating, originally built as a mosque, it then became a Christian Church before being abandoned. It has now been restored back to a mosque.

I have a video on my phone of an evening prayer call, when I figure out how to upload from my phone I will. 

Taksim Square, Istanbul

During my visit to Istanbul I paid a short visit to Taksim Square. Short because I was a little wary of not knowing my way around very well and being on a group trip. However I did manage to grab a few shots whilst I was there.

My visit was during the day whilst the occupancy of the area was peaceful and everyone was having a good time, no rioting.

The square was filled with political messages from all over the world with solidarity from many countries. This shot only shows one side of it and doesn't do much justice as to how full it was.

Heavy machinery wasn't feared as equipment was painted on and some burnt out. 

Left over from the riot the night before, this gas mask was just casually hung on some railings.

Protesters sat sunning themselves and singing songs in the centre of the square.

Graffiti messages were sprayed all over the floor, being walked over by public and protesters.

Viewing the square from the outskirts.

I found the Square a really fascinating place and would have loved to have been a bit braver or to be on my own holiday over there so I could have spent some more time there. 

CVTEC Summer Run

So, on Wednesday evening, Cheshire Vintage Tractor and Engine Club met up for a nice drive round the Cheshire countryside, this time starting and ending in Byley. The run was organises by Phil Moston, and a collection held by Lowes farm was at the end offering all enthusiasts a chance to have a look round. A nice slice of cake was provided before the journey home.

This time though, I have decided to try out a different look with my images of the event. I've used a filter and a vignette. Some of the images I believe work better than others, but this was only an experiment. 

This first image is by far my favourite of the evening, the light is so pretty in it.

My view for most of the evening.

Hello.

Wave!

Smile.

Happy drivers...

All lined up pre-collection viewing.

I didn't take any images at the collection. And the first image on this post is one I am likely to continue playing with as although I like this edit, I think other options could also work really well. 

The Grand Bazaar

Have you seen the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul? Well it's one of those places that is never the same no matter how many times you go. Each day I found something different or discovered a new section to it without meaning to.

Above is my favourite image from the Grand Bazaar - a staff member carrying goods around the market place.

A young adult delivers food to shops in the Bazaar.

Finally a shop owner, sat keeping watch over his goods early morning.

I will be putting more of my images on Flickr and Tumblr so head over there to see more of my work being posted over the weekend.