Author Archives: murphyz
Rooftops
I am so looking forward to this weekend. I think this is the last pre-processed shot I have so really need to get some more done, and go out and take more shots.
It was a really sunny day when I took this, and I did so pretty much shooting into the sun which was then cropped out a little. I quite like the feel of the image though.
Roll on 5.30! Have a good weekend all.
Shard – vertorama
Today is the last day that I’m super busy at work so I’m very much looking forward to having a bit more time to relax and also get out there with my camera.
In the mean time I’m digging into my archives a little to put up today’s shot, which you should all know by now is the Shard. This one is taken during a sunrise sometime last year. Like my workload, I’m looking forward to this being finished 
Residential Times
Late one night, up quite high with the stragglers left on a photocrawl, I thought this scene looked very nice and peaceful and was a perfect height to look down on this neighbourhood.
Nothing more to say on it at this time; I have a few more hectic days at work and then I can relax…and I’m looking forward to trying to get out with my camera this weekend.
Hope everyone is well.
Submerged
During my whirlwind trip around Scotland last year with Steve we decided to stop off at an abandoned theme park one evening. It wasn’t how I imagined, being much smaller in scale than I had hoped for and not many rides to look at – but it was nice to walk around and take a few snaps all the same.
As you can see, this log flume hadn’t been used for some time and the basin had gathered quite a lot of rain water leaving the car submerged. I loved the still water and the reflections it created.
Somewhere To Call A Home
If my poor tracking of days is actually correct, then today is Monday and I have a final busy week at work before things calm down a little. Next weekend I’m looking forward to relaxing, getting out with my camera and, as influenced by the title of today’s post, looking for somewhere to live.
I need to leave my lovely little flat and my ten minute walk through the park to work and find elsewhere to call my home. I guess I need to establish what my priorities are, location, size, cost, living alone etc and then crack on with looking for somewhere. If any of my readers just happen to be owners of a London property with a skyline view and which isn’t being used, then now is the time to speak up
There may be another exciting piece of news incoming also, but more on that a little further down the line.
Rooftop Fans
Here we are on Friday once more, but to be honest the days are merging in to each other so it could be a Tuesday as far as I’m concerned. Work deadlines of 12th April are looming ever closer, and though that means the next 6 days will be pretty darn busy I’m looking forward to this time next week when I can relax a little.
Well, when I can’t start looking for a new place to live at least.
This was a trip up a new rooftop towards the end of last year. Entry was a little cheeky, with it being from the main road of a busy junction in a very popular part of London, but it was a good night as this was building two of three. You can see the mist coming in and that’s what put an end to play after our third stop which was of a reasonable height but with nothing we were really able to see.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Tree Lined
During my recent photowalk with Dylan, James, Jay and John we ended up at this point around Millbank. Everyone was happily walking along when I called out for them not to take a step further, as if I had just seen a landmine they were about to step on. Actually I had just seen this stretch of path out ahead of us and wanted to try and take a shot of it empty before it was ruined by joggers…or fellow photographers.
I added a lot of contrast to the dark areas of the shot during processing, and think it is interesting to look at the original in comparison to how the completed version came out:
Rock of Ages
Yesterday saw a final shot of San Francisco, and today sees a final shot of Sango Bay in Durness, which is in the north of Scotland.
I just loved this location. Steve and I had driven quite far during the day (well, he drove and I sat in the passenger seat checking out the beautiful scenery Scotland has to offer). We arrived at Durness in the early evening and decided to set up camp for the night as we were going to go up to Cape Wrath early the next morning and the boat left from near here.
I enjoy a little geocaching, and the one thing that I love about such a game is that no matter where you go, you can have a look at the geocaching app and find out places nearby that are interesting to visit. I have been to so many places in London that I never knew of due to geocaching, and when visiting the US it takes me to some nice local parks and points of interest. In this instance it led us to the nearby Smoo Cave which was great to see.
We then grabbed dinner, and finally headed down to the deserted beach with a bottle of wine to catch the blue hour which was really late at night by then due to how far north we were.
Awesome location and awesome light – be sure to check it out if you’re ever in that area.
United We Stand
This was the United Airlines plane that took me from San Francisco back to London last year.
I took a quick look through my San Francisco shots, limited though they were due to the fact I was there for work, in the hopes of finding one or two more from that location that I hadn’t processed.
Alas, I couldn’t find any other than this, so it seems my parting shot from that lovely city is indeed my parting shot of that lovely city.
This year I’m off to Washington D.C with work, however I made sure to add a few days on to the end of my trip so that I could head up to New York afterwards. NY is a city I’ve always wanted to visit but never quite got around to so I’m looking forward to that, and hope that the apartment I’ve rented in Brooklyn has the views of the Manhattan skyline that I think it does from the ads.
National Maritime Museum
Another image from the trip we made to Greenwich last weekend, this time looking straight down the hill at the National Maritime Museum and with Canary Wharf starting to come to life in the background.
You’ll notice the green line which runs across the shot; this is the laser that signifies the path of the Prime Meridian. I think the laser works well in some shots, but in this particular one it just cuts through the scene without any real compositional value – which is a pity.
I hope everyone had a nice weekend; can’t quite believe it’s April already!
Kings Criss Cross
We end the week where we started, back at the new concourse in King’s Cross station.
There aren’t too many unique angles to shoot this concourse from to be honest, so if you see any further images of this structure you’re very likely to start getting bored by the repetition of it. I’ve already seen a few other photographers post shots similar to this one here over the course of this week.
It’s another Friday at last, and what a long week it’s been. I’m working over the weekend but hope to get some shots, or at least some processing done, on the Sunday. Have a good weekend all
Towards the Light
Another shot from a now familiar location, the Greenwich foot tunnel. It was nice to go down here on Sunday night, not only because it was pretty quiet at that time which allowed us to take time in setting up a few shots, but also because it offered a bit of warmth from the chilly wind outside.
For this image I put the camera onto a 10 second countdown and stood with my flashlight shining at it to get the starburst light effect.
Processing was minimal, I just turned to Black and White and followed this with a liittle slight touch of colour, but not much.
No Money Back, No Guarantee
This was a fun shot to do. The building in the image is the HM Revenue and Customs on the north side of Waterloo bridge.
A few of us had just watched a firework show form the top of KRT (for those familiar with my work you will have seen lots of images from that location, which is shown in this image at the top right. It’s the silhouette behind the bit of red, which is the OXO tower) and after being escorted out of there, our last successful trip up to date, it was a little early to head home. Thus, we found ourselves here before moving on to a third location.
The stream of passing cars below were a great bit of added interest, and the fisheye essential to be able to get all of the required features fully composed.
Thanks to everyone for their comments, retweets and so on over the past few weeks. Life is a little hectic just now with long hours at work, needing to find a new flat and so on – as a result my online interaction is minimal. I hope to be back into the flow after April 12th.
Sunset Smog
After a stupidly long week at work I managed to head out for a few hours on a very cold Sunday hoping for a nice sunset. Conor, John, Peter (our guest from overseas) and I headed to Greenwich and stood by the Royal Observatory to try and catch a few nice shots. The wind picked up making it pretty darn chilly, and though the sky looked like it may offer some interesting light, nothing much came of it.
I left thinking I may have taken the best shot of the evening on my iPhone (below), however upon checking the images out at home I found a couple that were salvageable, this one in particular I liked.
It was particularly ‘misty’ that evening, though we felt it was due to the London smog rather than some natural element. The most noticeable buildings from left to right are The Shard, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Gherkin.
Here’s an iPhone shot of the scene to add a little context.
Concourse
This is an extract of the new concourse that has opened at King’s Cross station. Designed by John McAslan and Partners this 500m area is going to be the first impression that many people get of London when they arrive via train, and I must say I rather like it.
Before now they were faced with an exit onto a seedy street which is frequented by hookers late at night, and the only part of the station that really gathered any interest was a haphazard sign for Platform 9 3/4. Now, however, they are faced with a Foster-esque piece of architecture that fits in well with this city.
Not that they need my seal of approval of course, but they have it anyway.
Australia House
On Sunday I rose my bed in a hungover state to get down to Australia House by stupid o’ clock. There was nothing special on, but I wanted to try and take a daylight shot of it without any traffic, and a Sunday seemed perfect. I grabbed a few shots from each side and made use of the middle of the road due to a lack of traffic, but within the hour I was back in bed again where I remained for most of the day.
The interior of building was used for Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter.
Citi of London
It’s nice to be able to take a shot from high up in this area, but a pity that I’m not square on against these lovely buildings as the angles makes me dislike this image a little more than I should. I’ve sat on it a while and my opinion isn’t changing, but thought I would offer it out to the blog anyway to get other views on it – plus being I’m pretty snowed under at work so haven’t had any processing time lately.
In that light, apologies for the lack of communication in your own photoblogs and on twitter etc; I hope to find a little time this weekend to catch up.
On a shoestring
These shoes caught my eye as I walked around the Battersea area earlier this year, and I’m sure as photographers they would have immediately caught your eye also. It’s pretty odd that they are all here tied up, and can only imagine they have been left on the riverline when the tide goes out, unclaimed, and someone then ties them up here so that they don’t then drift off down the Thames.
Not sure if there are any matching pairs and I didn’t look at them too closely, but even if there were I doubt they would be in a good enough state that you would wish to wear them.
Battersea
Battersea Power Station as taken from the BT Tower sometime last year.
A few photographers including Conor, Jay and John took a trip up there in the name of some charity we have likely forgotten the name of because, yes, it does need awareness and funds, but really we just wanted to get a nice vantage point over London.
That doesn’t mean that I dismissed the champagne reception, of course, as it’s perfectly possible to both hold a champagne glass and take photographs. At least, it is when the glasses can be refilled for free and you don’t mind smelling a little bit of alcohol of the rest of the day after spillage.
The glass up there is horrid. Double paned and dirty to boot, so taking decent shots was actually pretty difficult at times; I still came out with a few usable ones though.
Olympic City
London is fortunate enough to be hosting the Olympic Games this year. There are several negative sides to this, namely the increase in people and the effect it may have on our infrastructure, and also the fact that the area where I live is going to be the Media Hub for the games and will see 5,000 press people coming in to stay; this inevitably means I’ll be facing long queues at Waitrose.
Otherwise, I’m looking forward to the atmosphere and cash it will bring to this wonderful city.
A few weeks ago I took a walk up to the site of the Olympics to see how they were getting on, and here’s a shot from pretty much as close to it that you can get with regular public access. The large structure on the right, which looks like leftover metal from a roller coaster, is ‘Orbit’ by Anish Kapoor which will act as a monument and a viewing platform once the games have gone.
It was a horrible day with rain pouring pretty much non-stop so I didn’t get to take too many photos that day.
Lion Tazza
Regent’s Park has many wonderful fountains and statues, and this is a segment of just one of them.
I have no idea what mythical beast this actually is, with the head of a lion and wings but with antlers? Either way, there are four of them holding up this fountain and as I took a walk around the park earlier this year doing a little hand held work this was the result.
Friday at last – I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead of them.
Sunset Silhouette
Another image from my trip down to the South Coast in January; this tree is in a field at the back of East Dean along with lots of friendly sheep.
It was pretty poor weather for photography so I wasn’t expecting too much decent light as the sun was setting, and my expectations were met; however that didn’t stop me snapping away where I thought there was something interesting and this tree caught my eye as I approached it – I was walking from the distance towards camera when looking at this image. I worked my way around the tree until this form was in front of me. It’s a pity there are a few trees behind this one, as I would have liked it to be standing completely solo; there was another tree closer to me that had two branches poking into the scene but a little photoshop work with the content aware fill and cloning cleaned those right up.
Suspended Animation
This is Chelsea Bridge, the first self-anchored suspension bridge in Britain. It crosses the river Thames with Battersea at the south and Chelsea at the North…if you look closely through these light trails you can see Battersea Power Station in the background.
This shot was taken the same night as my previous few shots on a nice little walk around London, something I still need to make the time to do more of this year.
BPS by Moonlight
Swing the camera left by 120 degrees or so from where I took yesterday’s shot and you get this view of Battersea Power Station.
What this image does is remind me how much I love shooting with wide angle glass, and when attempting to get both the moon in the sky and the reflection in the water, my 24mm (as was used here) does not cut it at times. If anyone wants to give me a loan of their 14mm I would be very happy to take care of it for you; it’s not as if I have a history of dropping expensive items or anything.
Not much to say about this shot otherwise; it’s an iconic building that has been shot many times – mostly from this location. I don’t get tired of looking at it, and hate it when I see the development plans saying they’re going to get rid of the chimney stacks…though I think the latest plans for this location keep those in place.
Underpass
On a photowalk the other night we ended up across the river from Battersea Power Station, a place shot many a time. While Jay and John were busy shooting the popular view of this iconic building I turned my attention to the immediate location, which was this underpass with train lines going overhead.
I spent a little time playing around, and using my torch for a few fun lights painting shots, but it’s my first shot just of the underpass with nothing else in the view which I liked the most.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend – the weather here was lovely, so I obviously spent most of my time indoors.
