I’ve had a bit of a summer funk and haven’t bothered to take many shots.  I think my motivation and inspiration took a bit of a summer holiday, but I’ve promised myself to change that in the coming weeks.

Some of you may know already, but I’ve been putting together a website for my good friends who’ve recently bought up our fencing club.  It’s going through a general rebranding and concepts are still being finalized, but the club name and website address have been decided upon.  From now on, I’ll be fencing at the Central London Fencing Club.  The website should be up and running before the end of September, assuming we get completed designs in time.

Part of that process has involved me taking a few more fencing photos which I’ll get online soon (I can feel your excitement).

In addition to all of that, I decided to take a few self portrait shots this past weekend.  Mainly because I really want to start doing some more portrait style shooting and I don’t have a willing model these days, but also because I hardly ever photograph myself.  It’s challenging if nothing else.

This is sort of how I’ve been feeling over the past 2 months, although no tequila was harmed in the taking of this shot. (setup is here)

Simple 2 light setup at home for this one. I took an awful lot before I finally managed one I like.

There’s a new self portrait section of the gallery with these and future self portrait images here.

The London Roller Girls hosted the European championship tournament this past weekend with 12 teams (10 UK, 2 German) descending on Earls Court for a bit of a brawl.  Obviously we (being myself, Mitesh & Neal) were there to take some shots.

The venue was huge compared to what we’re used to, so there was lots of room to move about and the lighting was much more even.  Also, since there were so many matches to watch there was plenty of time to fool around with camera settings and get everything just right.  All of that resulted in what I feel are some of the best Roller Derby shots I’ve taken so far.

Here’s a couple of my favourites.

In addition to the usual “rest are in the gallery“, I’ve gone ahead and set up a Flickr account so that I can post a few more shots that I think derby fans (or the skaters themselves) may be interested in seeing.  Stuff that I wouldn’t normally post to my gallery in other words.  Anyways, those photos are located here.

Another great night out provided by the lovely London Rollergirls.  This time it was a double header event with the London teams hosting competitors from Leeds & Birmingham.

The final scores weren’t all that pretty for the visiting teams, but it was an entertaining evening none the less.  A couple of shots from the night, and more in the gallery!

I choose to work from home today with the intention of avoiding all of the riots protests going on in the City of London.  Little did I know that the protests would be brought to me.

Around 11 I heard a fair bit of commotion behind my flat so I had a quick look outside to see a few police vehicles in addition to what looked like an armored personnel carrier.  My first assumption was that the police were organizing and getting ready to move into the city.

It turns out, the armored vehicle belonged to a group known as the Space Hijackers (a name I didn’t get until I read their intro page).  The police had pulled them behind my humble little flat to question them, inspect their vehicle, and in the end, arrest them all for impersonating police officers (or simply possessing police gear, I’m not clear on which).

Obviously, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a few shots from my high vantage point and then a few more from street level.

I’ve wanted to get out and take a few shots of The Gherkin for a while now and finally got off my ass and made it happen.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten how much lighter it is in the evenings and didn’t leave myself enough time to wait for dusk, so there aren’t enough lights on for my liking.  Fortunately, it’s only about a 20 minute walk from home so I can always go back and try again!

Anyways, here are a few photos and the rest are in the gallery.