I think I’m going to have to create an album just for shots of London, as my new project has me out quite often shooting scenes within the city. This past Saturday had me out with Lord Crawley again shooting the oft-photographed south bank including Westminster, the eye and even the Banksy Tunnel.

I’ve shot the tunnel in the past, but this time I dragged along some lighting kit to do a portrait shot or two.  Lee was kind enough to be my model for the evening, which made things much easier!

We also managed to spin a couple of orbs on the south bank, much to the surprise of the passersby out for a quiet stroll.  At one point I was worried about collecting tips as a street performer while I stood on a raised dais whirling my LED’s around.  Still, I think it was worth it and I wouldn’t have said no to a few quids worth of coins.

Sunday was spent with my friend Su Kim doing some portrait head shots for her London relocations website.  It was fun to do something in a psudo-professional capacity and getting a free, yummy lunch out of the deal just made my day!  We’re still in the selection process, but there should be one or two processed photos online shortly.  If not here than at the very least on my 365 site as I didn’t take any other photos that day.

A few more shots from the weekend are available in the gallery.

I was out with a few of the guys from POTN again this past Friday.  The plan was to get a few London Landmark photos for Ian to adorn his walls with, but I ended up spending a lot of my time playing with lights again.  It had been a while since I’d made any orbs and didn’t want to get too out of practice.  Also, I’ve been chatting with quite a few folks on Flickr about making the orb tools so it sort of put me back in the mood.

Neal and I walked from my place along the north bank to St. Paul’s, shooting the standard stuff along the way and trying to stay warm.  After my recent trip to Harbin I figured that the -2 degree weather wouldn’t bother me that much, but given enough time it’s hard to distinguish -2 from -20.

I spent most of the evening playing around with my tilt-shift lens.  I love it for shooting buildings and it’s even fun to play with when light painting.  It’s nice because it’s a slow-to-use lens that makes you take your time and think about what you’re doing, and manual focus always adds to the challenge.

Tide was out so we got down under the millennium bridge for a few of the ‘standard’ photos of it and St. Paul’s.  It’s one of those scenes that’s so often photographed that I just don’t have the creative capacity to shoot something new.  Still, I’m content with the results of the evening.

Also, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen an orb done in this location before so it’s got to count as unique right?

Couple more images in the gallery.

A few of the POTN lads and I snuck down to Brighton on a school night to do a bit of sea-side light painting.  There wasn’t a whole lot of time, but we managed to get a few shots in before having to scurry back to London.

Thanks to Lee & Matt for bringing along some additional lights and to Neal for being my bitch chauffeur and driving me all the way back to London.  I owe you a few pints for that one mate, cheers!

The POTN thread for this night out is here, and there are a couple more (samey) images in the gallery here.

These are just a few quick shots from my last outing.  I wandered to the canals that run between my flat and the Thames hoping for a bit of darkness.  It’s so hard to find dark places in London, far to many lights!

It was also an excuse to try out the new light toy I built.  I like it, but it needs work.

Well, sort of.  The plan was to head into Canary Wharf and take a few shots in some predetermined locations with my new orb tools.  That plan was quickly kyboshed by the (friendly) security guards in Canary Wharf.  They quickly detailed the area in which we weren’t allowed to shoot which, by chance or by karmic bad luck, happened to cover every spot I was hoping to visit.

They were nice enough to explain how to go about getting permission to shoot there however.  After my impending company has left and Danni and I have returned from our trip to Greece I plan on doing just that and going back to get the shots I wanted.

Here is the one and only shot we (Ian Schofield and I) managed to get before being moved along.

The rest were taken (in almost child like defiance) from across the water but facing back into the area we weren’t allowed to photograph.

We were actually approached by another security guard in this last location, but he didn’t seem to mind what we were doing.  He was just curious I think.

I have learned that it’s very hard to find a good location in London that’s dark enough to get these orbs to turn out well.  Everywhere is so brightly lit that the light pollution makes everything fade away into the background.  I believe it simply calls for brighter orbs!

Few more in the gallery here.