My new friend and fellow photo enthusiast Ted Chan invited me along to a party he was shooting as part of his bid to take over the world efforts to expand his photographic knowledge.  As I hadn’t known Ted for very long and as we’d only ever spoken about shooting when we did see each other, I made the rather embarrassing mistake of assuming Ted was inviting me along to help him shoot the event.

This was not the case.

Fortunately, he was a really good sport about it all and cleared things with the promoter so that I was allowed to help cover the event (given that I’d brought along the heavy camera gear anyway, I was thankful).

The event itself was put on by a promotions company, who from what I gather have done quite a few of these events in the past and they’ve always been very successful.  This one was sold out when I checked the website almost a month before it was to be put on.

Obviously, I’ve gone with a very different processing style for these images.  I processed them all normally, but I just didn’t think it really fit.  Something a bit more vintage was in order.  It may be a little over done on the grain, but I was happy with the results overall.

The costumes there were amazing and everyone was really keen to get their photos done.  I even had quite a few people grab me as I walked past asking to have their photos done.  Which was ideal given my usual crippling shyness in asking people if it’s ok for me to take their photos…

There are a few more vintage images in the gallery here, and the images are duplicated here without the extreme processing.

A friend had organized another Trash the Dress shoot, this time to take place in central London near Tower Hill. In the end, the wedding dress that was brought along was far too large for our ‘bride’, so we went with a backup cocktail style dress and some kooky wellies.

It was mostly just an exercise in using some off camera lighting as well as working with a model (something I need a lot of practice with!).

These were all shot within 5 minutes walking distance of my old flat, so it was nice to be back in the neighbourhood again.  I miss it out there.  It was nice being able to be a bit of a tour guide instead of wandering around aimlessly for once though.

There are a few more shots of Marina in the photo gallery.

While I may not be a big fan of my new flat, the gated community that it’s in has some really well kept gardens.

Over the past couple of weeks the grounds have more or less erupted with a huge variety of flowers, so Danni and I wandered around over the weekend taking a few photos.

I’m certain my mom would know the names of everything around, but we were just happy with the sights and smells of our colourful new neighbours.

It was such a nice day that we even took Pepsi down to the park and let him have a wander.  He hasn’t been properly outside since his BVI days, so it was quite an event!

It was nice to take a few photos not purely for my 365 project as well.  It’s been difficult to fit in time to do a full set when I’ve been so concentrated on producing a single image every day.

There are more photos in the gallery if you haven’t had your fill of spring flowers yet.

I’m still really enjoying my project, but it’s getting tricky to find the time every day for photos and I feel that March shows this more than the previous months.  There are several dull photos that were done just to fill the days requirements, but I’m blaming my move and engagement for taking up a lot of my free time.

I’m actually afraid to miss a day at this point because I’m worried that I’ll think ‘well, I’ve missed one day so one more won’t make a difference’.  I do the same thing when it comes to eating unhealthy food (well, I’ve had one cookie so I may as well finish off the bag), so it’s something I’m doing my best to avoid.

My goals for April are to shoot a few more portraits of my close friends here in London.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and this project gives me an easily explainable excuse so my friends don’t just think I’m being (even more) odd.

The overview page for the project is here, in case you’ve missed the progress so far.

There are very few landmarks in London that I don’t already have a proverbial ‘butt load’ of photos of, but the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey definitely fall into that category.  To be fair, I have quite a few shots of the HoP but most of them are from across the river in your standard tourist visiting the Thames style.  I wanted something different.

I met up with Dennis shortly after work and we wasted no time setting up and peppering Big Ben’s clock tower with shots.  Generally, shooting things with a tilt-shift lens gives me a unique twist on some oft-photographed subjects, but it’s not always a guarantee.  That being said, I was pretty happy with the set of photos I ended up with.

From there it was on to the Abbey for a few more shots while the rest of the days light faded.  This church will be the location for the upcoming royal wedding in April, so it was a fairly topical spot to shoot.  I’m certainly not going to try to come down here and get a few photos on the day, as organizers are expecting several hundred thousand people to turn up and try to catch a glimpse.  I suspect I’ll stay home and watch it on TV…

Before calling it a night and heading to the nearest pub, we wandered past the south end of Westminster Palace for a few more shots of the building as well as the required portrait shots.

Check out my sweet camera (and note the camera envy on my face)

There are a few more photos of our excursion here.