Day 166: the random act of Zentangles

I joined a group called Random Acts of Zentangle who encourage you to leave a tangled tile for someone to randomly discover, with a little explanation of what it is on the reverse.

And after finding a suitable spot to for your little piece of art, you then photograph it in situ.

I chose a Circle Line Tube seat late at night for my first RAZ. I boarded the train where it looked pretty quiet, placed my RAZ propped up against the window above some empty seats. After my guerilla photography, I leapt off at the next station. I hope someone spotted it before they cleaned the carriages.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 165: not a poppy

Found a new little corner to seek out yet unphotographed (at least my my lens) blooms. I was searching for poppies, because a garden nearby had a couple of several years ago and I have acute poppy memory. I've been poppy deprived this year, I was suggesting the other day that someone needs to come up with an iPoppy app which can locate the nearest poppies to your current location. Perhaps you could swipe left if the specimens were a little sad or out of range photography-wise. If there was a luscious crop of the papery red lovelies, you could swipe right!

Posted with Blogsy

Day 164: view up to Richmond Hill

It's such a long time since I've hung out this side of the river in Richmond. The other side has a vegetarian café, a floating restaurant, Argentinian steaks, crowded bars, swans hoping for bread crusts, boat building under one of the arches, and the grassy slopes of the riverside development. It's fair to say there's more to see and do. But I've meandered through the park around Marble Hill House and drifted down by the river. I'm not the only one walking along the path, there are a handful of cyclists, a couple of fishermen and plenty of dog walkers. On the river there are rowers, larger boats, ducks and some rather noisy seagulls. I think I'm the only one with a camera though.

I am enjoying checking out the vignettes formed by the overhanging tree branches and the abundant reeds. A famous view is up towards Richmond Hill. The larger building is (or perhaps was) the iconic grade II listed Royal Star and Garter Home for the recuperation of servicemen. I've learnt it been sold off for redevelopment and will reopen as 86 flats with most enviable views. Slightly further down the hill is the Petersham Hotel. I've heard they are known for their enthusiastic winter snow scenes, I really must check out their afternoon tea next winter and see it for myself.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 163: desperately seeking umbrellas

The plan was to have some drinks for the multi-brothered J after work. Not his leaving drinks, more just the "last day working in the office" drinks. He's going on gardening leave, so we might not see too much of him, and when we do I suspect he'll be slightly more casual!

I needed to wrap some stuff up before joining them and they were foiling me by seemingly moving from place to place. Our building overlooks their first port of call so I was able to ascertain fairly quickly that they weren't there, or perhaps they were hiding under the tables. Luckily I then received a garbled message that seem to indicate that they'd relocated to another pub. And then another message with another new imbibing location. I didn't recognise their latest drinking hole but fortunately bumped into the J formerly known as ZZ when finally leaving, and he reckoned I would have photographed the umbrella installation at Brew Wharf at some time, so I could perhaps identify it from that. And he was indeed correct. I didn't know what it was called but unsurprisingly I did know the bar with the oft photographed brolly canopy outside. Revellers located!

Posted with Blogsy

Day 162: be afraid, be very afraid!

To promote the film Jurassic World, Waterloo Station has been overrun by escaped dinosaurs. This has proved to be a magnet for selfie fans, but the audience very much depends on the time of day. On the morning commute there's a few children sat astride a parent's shoulder posing for a photo. On Tuesday there was a very excited boy with a tyrannosaurus head on a stick, where you could squeeze the handle and the toy sharp teeth would chomp together. He and his diminutive dinosaur were being enthusiastically photographed by, I assumed, his parents. I was tempted to capture the joyful image myself but whipping out my camera for unknown children can be misconstrued, so I resisted.

I've discovered that if you're around the station late at night and there are some happy passengers who've possibly consumed alcohol, they do get the urge to wrestle with the giant lizards. There were security stopping people duck under the chain fence around the velociraptors on Monday but as the week progressed they seemed to have relaxed and the scenes have got mor dramatic. I'll happily forgo the selfie, but I'm rather taken by their vibrant amber eyes so opt for the side view.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 161: footloose

It's half past midnight and 'm awaiting the last tube home at Westminster. The station is pretty empty, just several prospective passengers standing around staring up towards the train indicator board willing their tube to be the next one. On the opposite platform there's a couple sat on a bench and perhaps after a heavy night of dancing, he has removed her shoes and is massaging her sore foot. I'm rather taken by the moment of colour amongst that expanse of concrete grey, so I try a little shooting from the hip from my Westbound platform vantage position.

Posted with Blogsy

Day 160: peek-a-boo

So after my beloved baby Leica's near-death experience yesterday, today I thought I'd give it a restorative treat, a lens cosy. Though as it arrived in the post today, I'd obviously purchased it before the "incident". I've always liked the fact that as my lens cap is tethered to the camera, unlike many other photographers I know, I'm not constantly searching for where the safe place was I put lens cap. But there is a downside, a dangling lens caps is most susceptible to being buffeted by the wind. And especially when I've attached my camera to a tripod in a breezy spot, the constant battering of the cap is both noisy, and could possibly be scratching the livescreen.

I'd seen the automatic opening and closing lens cap on the launch of the D-Lux typ 109 at Photokina and had been intrigued. The only niggle was that this meant I couldn't keep a filter on the camera, which I generally tend to do. Like yesterday, there is a chance that the screwed on filter absorbed some of the impact and that's why my camera seems to have survived the fall. However when I was researching tricking out my new replacement Leica with one of these lens caps, I found a third-party one that is deeper and does allow room for a filter. So I thought I'd give it a shot and here it is modelled with my B+W IR daylight filter.

There is a hidden benefit, I rather like the nod to Thunderbirds. Somehow this lens cap reminds me of the swimming pool sliding back on Tracy Island revealing Thunderbird 1, the rocket, in its launch pad. Random I know, but a little retro memory and hopefully a safe camera, is all good!

Posted with Blogsy