Day 243 : back to school - old school!

Back in the day, this Saturday would be the last Saturday before going back to school so any final purchases would have to be secured. The tedious business of new school shoes, any necessary new uniform items etc I wouldn't get involved with but stationery, that was all me. The critical decision each year would be the new pencil case. I didn't normally leave it until the last opportunity to buy, but there may have been some serious pondering to reach the final verdict and making it mine. There may also have been other essentials needed, a ruler, fine nibbed pens, pencils and rubbers. Apart form the pencil case itself, one year a magnetic closure vinyl Snoopy one and another year a fluffy orange one with eyes, the closing of the rubbers was crucial. The problem was that I loved some of these little rubbers so much I couldn't bear to rub anything out with them so invariably, if I had a crop of extra special ones, I would get a utilitarian backup to actually do the job of erasing. I remember some favourite, tiny discs, cubes and stars in black, white and pink stripes - like exotic liquorice allsorts!

It’s been very many years since I've selected the annual pencil case or carefully considered rubbers but on a visit to Paperchase to buy a few cards for upcoming birthdays, I spotted a jar of animal rubbers by the till. They looked rather fun and turned out to be a Japanese range called Iwako. Knowing someone who probably is choosing their pencil case and would probably adore these, I bought this collection. If she is like me, and there are some tendencies I've spotted, none of this little menagerie will ever be used for rubbing any wayward pencil lines out but I would just keep them safe.

They are all rather cute but I may have purchased two of one of them so I can keep it for myself, hmmm I wonder which one would I have fallen for! I suspect it will appear in a daily picture soon, with some of its friends!

 

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Day 242 : NOT NOR MAL!

When I showed my submission for the MINI Not Normal challenge around, I had quite a few people looking a little dubious and questioning my composition. As soon as someone pointed out that maybe, just possibly my photograph was a teeny, tiny bit suggestive; that the banana, the juxtaposition of the oranges could be construed just a tad phallic, I could kind of see what they meant. And then that's all I could see. I had already uploaded it to the MINI site so just crossed my fingers they wouldn't think it was a tad too PG to include in their collection.

I didn't hear anything from MINI but when I checked the NOT NORMAL site earlier, I was delighted that it had indeed made the cut. And very sensibly MINI had executed some discretion, judiciously cropping my image to remove most of the offending symbology, tighten the composition and given it a complementary yellow border.

I got such a buzz seeing my photograph there on the MINI website, it might not mean anything in particular but it makes me feel so inexplicably proud. And frankly a little relieved they edited something that may have raised a few more eyebrows. I think I passed the NOT NORMAL test, now there's an accolade!

 

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Day 241 : bunting and bags!

If I catch a tube (or two) home rather than the train, I board a bus to drop me off near Holborn station. Most of the buses stop round the corner from the station but there's a small piazza you can walk through to get closer. This is the boutique and eateries lined Sicilian Way and currently it’s festooned in vivid coloured bunting. I'm not sure why, what the occasion is, or just because but I rather like it strung from the buildings and classical columns at one end. I'm here unusually much earlier in the day than my normal going home time, as I've been meaning to try and get here whilst R.G.Lewis is open. R.G.Lewis is a purveyor of fine Leica goodies, and I've been hankering to have a little poke around and check out what they have.

There is something I'd particularly like to have a look at. I have a lovely vintage Leitz leather case to house my little Leica baby that I bought in B&H in New York, but it’s a tad tight with the newer EVF and conversely it's much wider than it needs to be (I suspect it was designed for the larger M7). The problem with its size is that as I always have it with me in my bag, and it can take up a lot of room.

I got to try out one of the Leica neoprene cases, still too big but easily accommodates the EVF, has the added bonus of also allowing me to keep my tiny Manfrotto tripod permanently attached - which was always the intention, and will squash down in my bag. I'm not super crazy about Velcro but the convenience wins me over. New case secured, time to grab some lunch and get back to the office.

 

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Day 240 : I have a dream!

Our thrice weekly Frui Photography Socials have been revamped, re-imagined and reformatted. Tonight is the first social 2.0 and we’re intrigued as to what expect. It happening just off Bond Street, I’m running late as usual and discover that on arrival, you get categorised according to your photography prowess. I had an ’advanced’ sticker thrust at me and, due to me having missed everyone else, I might need to come up with a topical LIFE magazine cover by myself. Luckily some of the other “advanced” photographers are still outside the pub, and desperately running out of time, I join them and we decide on 50 years since Martin Luther King made his famous speech for out team collaboration challenge.

We check out some old Life covers and decide we want a dark, plain background with a simple portrait of our model. We start off by trying a few poses outside a black wooden door with the LIFE logo, and then decide we wanted his face to be partially in shadow. We opt to use my camera as I can do a ’one spot colour’ on the red so the logo will be punchier and the rest of the picture will be more subdued. I left the fingers holding the masthead as I thought it was funnier. We each got an eight out of ten for our group photo.

Then there's the other point of the evening, socialising (aka drinking), before heading out a second time for the solo challenge. The theme for our single-handed effort is “feeling blue!” We all rush around, catching sight of blue lights outside a hotel, a few of us are drawn like moths. There's interesting blue ceramic door handles on one of the designer shots, the Tiffany blue banners are another possibility. I try a little circle of penguins staring down at their prone penguin friend, all on top of a blue car but the (lack of) light really didn't work. Across the road from Tiffany’s and Chanel I spot a very viable idea. Perhaps if I can get the first two letters of the blue Joseph signage and single out a lone mannequin, with the cold tones, the blank expression, I might be able to score an apt ’feeling blue’. Later I realise one of my favourite places is reflected in my image, Chanel, it seems even more appropriate!

We return again for scoring (and more socialising), I managed to get a nine for my blue Jo so my score is seventeen out of twenty. There’s a special prize if you can find another four people with the same camera as yours. I'm fairly confident there are no other Leicas, never mind my model. As generally the other photographers are asking if you have a Canon or Nikon I think I have assumed correctly. I don't think anyone managed to form a particulat camera gang, it's all about diversity it seems!

We discover that if there’s a tie for the top spots in your category, there's a 3 minute “shoot-to-the-death”. A handful of contenders in the intermediate and novice run outside and have three minutes for their best shot. Apparently there's no contest for the advanced photographers.

The winners is each category get a shiny gold envelope. Oooooh indeed! This gives us the chance to have a free image printed courtesy of Point 101. I was lucky to get the prize for the advanced category on the night, which was a lovely surprise! Afterwards, we are all encouraged to post our images from the night to the Frui Social Facebook Page.

I enjoyed the revamp, pleased there weren't obscure horn questions that either just rewarded the fastest google searchers and/or provoked arguments, and the punny team names are gone too. Personally I'm happy to focus (excuse the pun) just on photography and fun!

 

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Day 239 : don't touch the banana!

After doing my research on MINI last week and seeing the Not Normal campaign they are running I was determined to have a go at submitting one myself. Other submissions seemed to be detailed MINI sandcastles, elaborately crafted MINI cakes, a MINI made out of biscuits, salad and snow. Some of the images are pure photoshop trickery but I wanted to for straight macro photography.

And I figured it would probably also have to include penguins. I already had a 1:87 scale banana coloured mini MINI and my beloved 1:87 scale tiny penguins, really it seemed to write itself.

I had this idea of the MINI, hotly pursued by the penguins over an undulating landscape of oranges. In reality the MINI just looked a little marooned on top of the orange. I needed either a much minier MINI or a much larger orange. I’d thought of using a banana as ’the road’ but hadn't been able to discover a way to keep the banana at the jaunty angle I desired. However really the answer was staying me in the face, oranges! I could carefully balance the bananas on said oranges, pad out the sides of the fruit bowl to stop them rolling and try again. The background was a problem, the wall in the office was plain, good, but just dull and with weird shadows falling across it. I was sat on one of the wheelie stools we have around the breakout table trying to get tiny penguins to stand unaided on the curve of an orange (nigh on impossible) and a banana (slightly less hopeless), which is also where we keep fruit bowl. The wheelie stools are all different colours and an idea sprung to mind. If I just balance the blue one of its side on top of table, my little tableau would have a much punchier background.

In the end I had to resort to Pritt to give the penguins a fighting chance standing on the banana. After I fired off a handful of shots I had to rush and get on a 7pm conference call, hoping I nailed the “Not Normal” brief. I left everything set up with a plan to return in an hour. After the hour of machinations on the phone I go back to tidy up and efficiently the cleaners have beaten me to it. The stool is back in its proper place, the orange restored neatly in a bowl, my penguins and MINI carefully placed on the window sill but the banana - nowhere to be seen. Now I'm not a fan of bananas, but this is my boss’s banana and I'm not entirely sure how attached to it he was. Clearly he’d been hoarding it for a while, but maybe that's he likes them.

Our cleaners are Spanish so when I asked if they knew what happened to the banana, my complete lack of suitable Spanish vocabulary meant I was met with shrugs. I then total inexplicably thought I'd mime the missing banana, as you would. They look puzzled, mildly alarmed and one them just keeps pointing at the fruit bowl saying “orange, orange, orange”, clearly I’ve gone well past the realms of “not normal” now!

But just in case I ever have issues with wayward bananas again and need to interrogate any passing Spaniard, I have been suitably armed with useful phrases “Por favor, no tocar el plátano!” or “¿Dónde está mi plátano”. Sorted!

 

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Day 238 : nightly ponderings

Another Richmond at night shot. I think this week I will be mostly focusing on beefing up my night photography portfolio ahead of my submission decisions for the next London Photography Festival. I don't think this one will make the final cut even though I prefer the softer effect on the River Thames than last night. More night excursions required!

So many decisions, so very indecisive!

 

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Day 237 : the power of water!

I discovered a colourful little bolt through my close-up filters by the side of the river whilst the tide is out. As I guess the bolt is often underwater hence the interesting patina. Water can make beautiful things, like this, and also be so destructive.

I'm being a little haunted by the power of water at the moment, after flooding my downstairs neighbours’ bathroom, clearly what goes around comes around and my upstairs neighbours’ balcony is leaking again into my lounge. I was woken at 5am this morning by two new leaks dripping or even two new drips, leaking! One has targeted my broadband router by the window, which is probably not entirely waterproof. And the other found a new more noticeable place in my ceiling to attack. I had just sleepily put a bowl underneath to catch the occasional drip when I thought I could see the drips getting faster. And then whoosh, possibly the entire balcony full of rainwater poured in through my ceiling in an impromptu waterfall. That certainly woke me up and also, added a new hole in my ceiling. What joy!

 

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Day 236 : it may not be alright on the "night"

I'm thinking “night” again for the London Photo Festival. This is a slightly different view from Richmond Bridge shot to inspire me ahead of the show. I now realise that I like the composition but I'd prefer a smoother Thames. It’s a full size tripod for me I think, if I plan to take twilight/night photography seriously. And I think the full gamut of filters too. I've got until the end of next weekend. Tick...tock...tick...tock! Gulp!

 

 

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Day 235 : night terrors!

Each day when I cross Waterloo Bridge on the way home I feel the urge to photograph the view. I want it to be dark so I can maximise the twinkling lights and I definitely want the OXO Tower to feature. I'm not the only one here, there are several people lined up along the bridge holding their cameras aloft. I've got a tiny Manfrotto tripod in my handbag (doesn’t everyone?) so I can aim for decent night shot. After a few of those I fancy a bit of something creative and went handheld. My plan was to see if when I shake my head gently from side-to-side I could get an interesting stripey image.

It needed a few attempts, I didn't want the skyline so abstract that it was indiscernible. A couple of the photographs looked like I’d fallen over clutching my camera but I liked this one.

Today I signed up for last spot at the London Photo Festival in October. I have to submit my entries by the beginning of September. Eek! The themes are either Black & White or Night and I've no idea what on earth I'm going to show.

Panic...very much...kicking...in...about...now!

 

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Day 234 : normal for mini!

There’s a massive screen at the station scrolling through a collection of multicolour adverts and the odd news item. One catches my eye immediately, as I suspect is the exact intention. It’s the Mini ad. Since the reinvention of the Mini Cooper not only has the actual car been a triumph in design but the adverts, on billboards, in magazines on television have been innovative, quirky and definitely stylish.

There's a particular print ad that sticks in my memory though it’s many years ago. I can’t find any verification online so I’ll just have to trust my own recall.

This ad appeared in the Evening Standard magazine. On a full page there was a banana coloured mini with a black roof that's stopped because there’s been in an altercation between a lorry carrying bananas and another. On the road is a large empty cage, dented, with it’s door ajar. The copy says something about making a decision between assisting with rounding up the genetically engineered monkeys that have escaped or scooping up the bunches of bananas. A few pages later there is a fashion spread, clothes, accessories, which all seems perfectly usual. And then a few pages later is a repeat of the same spread but subtly different. Each image has got some monkey motif and the implication is that the monkeys have now taken over because the wrong decision was made.

Not sure how many Minis they sold on the back of it but it was clever and intelligent.

There was a Mini in my life once. It was never mine but I enjoyed many mini adventures in ’Baby Blue’. We used to buzz over to France where a certain speed-freak driver believed that he could race as fast as he liked on the autoroutes, and he'd never get any points. He certainly got away with when I knew him but I'm pretty sure you can be penalised on your UK licence, for transgressions in France. Minis were still pretty new in France when we used to drive round and round the Abbeyville roundabout and the advertising hoardings by the side would claim “Mini - objet de culte” which we rather liked. Mini Baby Blue lives somewhere else now, he wasn't really compatable with two children with his two doors and diminutive boot. I have fond memories though.

The “not normal” campaign has got me pondering, Mini are asking for our own “Mini not normal” submissions and I feel one coming on featuring a tiny yellow Mini and penguins!

 

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Day 233 : a moment of stillness

I like watching the crowds at Waterloo station through my camera, looking at all the hurly burly. I slow down the ones speeding around and leaving the little moment of stillness where a passenger is perhaps trying to decide if there's enough time to run and grab some supper from M&S or pick up a magazine to read on the train home. Decisions, decisions!

 

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Day 232 : still blossoming

Sometimes it’s just the simple things that catch my eye. There are only seven houses until the end of the road and I've started to get to know the front of these seven gardens, where they meet the pavement very well. I see them one or two times a day depending which bus-stop I leave from and arrive back home at. With my slight knowledge of the seasonal nature of the local flora I would have thought all blossom would have been and gone by now. Surely everything should be on the fruiting stage by now. But it’s pink buds opening up that catches my eye so it seems things are still blossoming.

 

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Day 231 : milk, honey and memories

We’ve been threatening a belated birthday celebration for AOR at Milk and Honey for a while. We figured we could languish on the roof and be lavished with yummy sliders and delicious and spankingly fresh cocktails. It's also a belated birthday for Swedish CJ as she's managed to tear herself away from Mourinho and join us! It transpires that it's not the balmiest of nights, so we retire to the Red Room. I love this room, this is where we came when LB let me avail of her private membership the first time and it reminds me of a vaguely prohibition/speakeasy vibe. The place is filled with the sort of cabinets that sat in my grandmothers’ front room. Both my grandmothers seemed to have an extensive collection of little knick-knacks "for best". These pieces would sit in highly polished cabinets in a room which never got used. As a child I couldn't grasp the concept of this front parlour or front room. I was allowed to be in there if I was careful, examine the brasses, the odd pieces of china, figurines, lace doilies, turn the little key in the cabinet and rifle through all the bits of bric-a-brac, very gently. The sofa and chairs were new, immaculate, covered in weird stretchy covers, crocheted antimacassars and, to my knowledge, never, ever sat on. The legs of the wood furniture were placed in little plastic cups so as to not mark the carpet. And talking of carpet, this would be extravagantly flowered and also covered with a plastic runner that made a distinctive loud scraping sound if you managed to catch you shoes on it just so. It was kept spic and span, if I asked the point of this room, some veiled reference to being ready for the queen to visit would be made.

It seems really odd, both sets of my grandparents when I was little, lived in small terraced houses in different parts of North Manchester. And despite neither of them having a bathroom, they both preserved the utter sanctity of this untouched parlour.

In their next homes, they finally had lovely bathrooms, with inside toilets and all mod cons. I wish I'd asked them if they missed these museum rooms or did having a bathroom soften the blow.

I'm sure my granny would have loved examining the contents of these cabinets full of etched glass goblets, lead crystal decanters and silver cocktail shakers. I'm not sure why the glasses holding tea lights seem to be studded with cranberries but they made a nice cosy image and brought back a flood of memories.

 

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Day 230 : a swinging piñata

EM is still celebrating her 30th birthday, but then why not? I think if you can stretch your 30th year celebrations over several weeks and several countries, then you absolutely should! This party has a Forever Young mixed with “Latin tings” theme. EM showcasing her Irish and Spanish roots has organised an exotic cocktail of an evening, with Guinness, Champagne, piquant sausages, Ibiza vibe tunes and a Piñata. She's rather fallen for the Piñata though, it’s the eyes apparently!

When the revellers start trying to hit the donkey with a stick, it has other ideas and keeps fallen from the roof of the marquee. But with much perseverance the piñata is reattached, and the thwacking continues. Whilst EM is replenishing her guests’ drinks again (you are certainly not wanting of lavish hospitality Chez M-R) one of her friends, exasperated by the every plummeting donkey smashes its poor head on the floor releasing the sweets and party-poppers! RIP piñata!

 

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Day 229 : very odd behaviour, indeed!

Today’s the first day of the London Photo Festival pop-up exhibition in Richmond and we’ve gathered to check out the images and have an overdue catchup. And maybe after we’ve had some lunch, we might be able to squeeze in a bit of Richmond environs photography also.

It seems that everyone has plans for later so quickly the photography expedition plan goes out of the window, some of us dodge the rain to get lunch and the remaining four of us find ourselves sharing a chocolate brownie cake.

Somehow the penguins make an appearance again and Spanish JP wants to have a go at a spot of macro. He places one on top of the last vestiges of the gateau remains and tries brandishing, not very successfully, his new lens (courtesy of (AOR). LB puts him out of his misery and lends him one of hers. I attach my close-up filters for a go myself. KR suggests trying to make miniature penguin flipper prints in the cocoa powder sprinkled on the plate. This is way more challenging than you might think! LB then starts photographing us photographing the cake. This may be getting just a little weird!

I look over to some other diners near the window and they are clearly perplexed by our antics. What on earth are we doing? It must indeed look very odd, it seems that three people are photographing some cake crumbs, it would be tricky to explain. So we don’t.

 

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Day 228 : the bat cave

I'm clearly in an architectural mood. Yesterday was the Shard and today a revisit to a much smaller building not so far away from our meal last night. We’d spotted this shiny, black structure whilst photographing around Shad Thames and More London one Sunday early last year and decided it was a Bat Cave or Batdog’s lair (if you haven't checked out the “texts” from Dog, you must, they are seriously funny).

Since then I've got to know this building better, from the inside as well, they've been my client (I've only recently handed them over my colleague) and also taken some cool photos of their map of the world made out of miniature people (much bigger than mine).

Apparently their professional services competitors refer to their London headquarters “the Dark Star”, which is fabulously Bond villain-esque! I like the fact if you stand just right, with the of the front of the building reflecting in the right side and look up, you can see a bat. I really think it might be a lair after all!

 

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Day 227 : view from half way up

The Shard (or Shard of Glass) does rather dominate the London skyline, well it is the tallest building in the European Union. It was the tallest building in Europe briefly, but Moscow’s Mercury City Tower surpassed it on completion. There’s talk the French are planning to steal the top spot, they are hoping the Hermitage Plaza will have them soaring up the tallest building charts in 2017.

I've been wanting to visit, and see the view, takes some photographs but I haven't had the chance yet. However tonight I'm booked into the Aqua Shard restaurant with the fabulous T and can get to the see the view at least from nearly half way up. And despite the wonderful (and overdue) company, the delicious (and expensive) food the view is transfixing me. We haven't secured a window table but the sunsetting over London is reflective in the mirrored columns and my shutter finger is twitching in an alarming way.

I manage to excuse myself, sneak behind a pillar and grab a few shots of the sunset over the London Eye, the railway tracks and all the buildings below. The light us really tricky but funnily enough I don't have my tripod and my ND grads with me. Also I'm having to fight the reflections from the lights in the restaurant.

After we finish our wonderful meal, the fabulous T bids her farewell and I take a few more shots. I have to contort myself to dodge those pesky reflections but I manage to get a nice picture of the Southwark Bridge in its red phase and St Paul's glowing in the twilight. Maybe next time I’ll go to the top of this pointy building and check out the broken glass effect for myself.

 

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Day 226 : a splash of colour!

I'm walking towards King’s Cross station with the other J. I've never taken this route down Gray’s Inn Road so I'm having a good look around. There's a building that looks like an old hospital as the figure on the roof seems to be holding a caduceus that catches our eye. There are also some intriguing stone friezes but we can't discern the theme. The building is now a budget hotel, a Travelodge but surprisingly their branding is fairly subtle, a leafy tree obscuring the silvery logo.

The other J hadn't noticed it before so I'm determined to discover a little more about it. It transpires I was right about the caduceus but I'm wrong about the symbology. The sculpture with hand aloft clutching the golden caduceus is actually Mercury and all the other friezes depict communication - the blowing of the horn, the carrier pigeon being sent off to spread the word, the cherubs on the telegraph pole. All this was designed for Willings Advertising in 1910.

I'm glad the Travelodge people haven't covered all this classical ornamentation with gaudy signage, the temptation must have been strong!

Instead of photographing the Willings House, I'm drawn to the Barclays and more upmarket hotel Megaro hotel closer to the station. To enliven the exterior they've deployed some quite dramatic graffiti which apparently has provoked some controversy. Some feel that the architecture isn't enhanced by the vibrant abstract designs but I think it’s eye-catching and though I didn't immediately to do some banking or book a room but I certainly remembered it.

 

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Day 225 : a spot of red

Again I've grabbed my camera and have gone in search of creative succour. I've nipped out to the ’garden’ we share with the others in our building. It’s a weird little soulless place, a couple of benches, a dry fountain, some dying roses, a curious Teletubbies style grassy mound dotted with a couple of daisies and other wilted flowers.

A couple of my colleagues are having their lunch, it’s a little oasis of outside space, occasionally a small patch of blue sky above but other than that it's rather desolate. Seeing my camera they point at the sad looking flowers on the mound but I can't really get enthusiastic. I check out the roses, they really are at the point of no return so I move on.

Finally I resort to peering at the not very well kept shrubs. Perhaps I can discover a jewel-winged butterfly, a shiny ladybird, a spider busily weaving a web or something occurring. But there seems to be nothing. One of the shrubs has a handful of baby red leaves, a striking counterpoint to the sea of green.

 

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Day 224 : something from nothing

Ever since I've been experimenting with macro and close up filters I've suddenly noticed that tiny little corners of nothingness reveal themselves to contain more than first appeared and to be considerably more interesting than nothing. Just like yesterday realising the moss on a brick wall contained a miniature world almost invisible to the naked eye.

This small enclave of unpromising photographic material is a small patch of wilderness near our office. It’s just a clump of overgrown stuff so I was having a look to see if I could make an image of it.

It's perhaps a little bit of something from nothing, it’s not going to set the world alight but it’s the sort of picture you may see mounted on black edged board above the IKEA sofa in someone’s sitting room.

 

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Day 223 : the microcosm in moss

I didn't venture too far with my close-up filters, only as far as the wall dividing our communal garden with next door. I was intrigued that by using triple close-up filters the moss on the top of the wall looked like a miniature jungle. The oh so tiny flowering plant stands like a sunflower compared to the wispy green fuzz covering the brick work.

 

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Day 222 : incurring the wrath of the door police!

This is a popular photogenic spot in Richmond after doing the river and bridge shots, I even have someone else’s less vibrant version as a magnet stuck on my fridge.

When I travelled to Berlin on my first Frui holiday, back in April 2011, LA had mentioned that he and FG were very scathing about the predilection for “doors and windows” photography so many of the holidaymakers adopted, especially on the Morocco trip. It is undeniably a popular (and clearly commercial) theme for travel photography but especially as LA is more a street, reportage and a would-be war photographer, the concept of photographing a door must be beyond alien.

I’ll admit it’s a certain cliché, I may have a few examples of my own but, fearless of incurring the serious photographers’ wrath, I will confess that I think these doors are rather striking! So say what you like LA!

 

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Day 221 : raindrops on roses (leaves)

The rain has shown its face again and I go looking for roses, or indeed rose leaves. I like the effect of raindrops specifically of a rose leaf as they stay spherical and like little crystal balls reflecting the surrounds. In this case, the raindrops are reflecting the the pinky red of the roses in the silvery droplets.

 

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Day 220 : track reflections

I've swapped the tube for the train again tonight and with the Piccadilly line being deeper than the District you're more likely to spot the tiny black mouse scuttling around. I quite fancied photographing these blind mice but they're wily tonight and staying out of of the range of my camera.

Instead I had to make do with the advertising posters opposite the platform reflecting an abstract pattern onto the shiny tracks.

 

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