The View from My Window II (La vista desde mi ventana II)

Your desire to be near to window is your desire to be near to life!

(Mehmet Murat Ildan)

For the third time in the last year and a half, I had to spend several days in a certain building in Central London. At least I had a view.

Enjoy this ‘study’ of the changing skies of London, May 2019. (Click in the gallery to enlarge the photos.)

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¡Tu deseo de estar cerca de la ventana es tu deseo de estar cerca de la vida!

(Mehmet Murat Ildan)

Por la tercera vez en el último año y medio, tuve que pasar unos días en un cierto edificio en el centro de Londres. Al menos, había una vista.

Que disfrutéis este ‘estudio’ de los cielos cambiantes de Londres, mayo de 2019. (Haz click para ampliar.)

You might also like / Quizás también te gusta:
⇒ The View from My Window (La vista desde mi ventana)

Life Beyond Auto-Intelligent

 A Dummy’s Lessons in Photography – 2017

2017 – the year when I took the camera off Auto-Intelligent. Which, by the way, does not mean that I attempted to go fully manual; that is still a long way off, if it ever happens. But I experimented with the Program mode, with Aperture and Shutter Priority, with Manual Focus and Macro.

The View from My Window (La vista desde mi ventana)

Recently I had to spend several days in a building in Central London. (I leave you to speculate whether I’ve been arrested, called on jury service, hospitalised or something else. 🙂 ) What consoled me for having to be away from my family was the view from my window.

Recientemente tuve que pasar unos días en un edificio en el centro de Londres. (Os dejo hacer conjeturas si me han detenido, llamado al servicio de jurado, estaba ingresada al hospital or alguna otra cosa. 🙂 ) Lo que me consoló por no estar con mi familia fue la vista desde mi ventana.

Enjoy this ‘study’ of the changing skies of London, November 2017.

Que disfrutéis este ‘estudio’ de los cielos cambiantes de Londres, noviembre de 2017.

25 November, 12:59

25 November, 21:13

26 November, 7:04

26 November, 08:04

26 November, 10:43

28 November, 12:58

28 November, 15:08

29 November, 16:54

1 December, 16:48

 

View Through the Periscope (HMS Ocelot)

Far from the best photo I’ve ever taken but how often do you get to look through the periscope of a submarine?

Patterns in Kew Gardens

I went to Kew Gardens the other day with the camera. It’s amazing how a camera can change your perception: I went to look at flowers – but I saw patterns.

Along the Thames (Black & White)

You might have thankfully forgotten but I’m working my way through the Dogwood 2016 photography challenge. I spared you Red (my efforts were dismal) and I’m not sharing Headshot because Sophisticated Young Lady, the only willing volunteer, is entitled to her privacy.

Which brings us to last week’s challenge: Landscape: Black & White. I went down to the Thames on Sunday afternoon; it was low tide.

Iconic (St Paul’s Cathedral, London)

Iconic

The only photo I remember from my primary school history book is this:

St Paul’s Cathedral, rising above the bombed London skyline, is shrouded in smoke during the Blitz. Taken from the roof of the Daily Mail offices in Fleet Street. Copyright: © IWM.

I’m sure you’ve all seen it before: St Paul’s dome standing intact above the ruins, surrounded by smoke and flames, seemingly indestructible, converting into a symbol. Iconic doesn’t even begin to describe it. It was taken on 29 December 1940, the 114th night of the Blitz, by Herbert Mason, a Daily Mail photographer, from on top of the Daily Mail building in Fleet Street. I take my hat off to Mr Mason – quite apart from any other considerations, just for having the guts to stand on an exposed London rooftop during a German bombing raid, taking pictures.

Just How Difficult Is It to Take a Self-Portrait?

Under certain circumstances: very.

The first challenge of Dogwood2016 was a self-portrait, using the camera’s self-timer. Well, finding out how to do that was easy (I read the manual).

But the rest…!

If there’s anything I hate more than being seen with a camera in my hand, it’s being in front of the camera. I was only sure of one thing: the resulting self-portrait should not really show much of me. If you say that can’t be a self-portrait, yes, it can.

Take Your Time: The Case of the Neurotic Photographer

One of the greatest impediments to me becoming a better photographer is that I wouldn’t want to be seen dead with a camera in my hand. 

Quick on the Trigger like John Wayne

In a city like London not wanting to be seen taking a picture does rather pose a problem. Even if you use a phone, even if you had an invisible camera, you would be still seen acting like a photographer.

What I’d like instead is to take great photos without behaving like a photographer.

To pull out the camera and shoot from the hip, as it were, in one quick movement, non-chalantly, seemingly without aiming but hitting the target for the first time, all the time. Yeah! Like John Wayne.

Framed by the Sun (Ambience)

Winter: leaving for work in the dark and arriving home in the dark. The only redeeming feature of my winter working day is…

The London Eye at Night (Geometry)

Or, as this post more appropriately should be titled:

A Dummy’s First Attempts at Night Photography

(I’ll let you know when I feel competent enough to write A Guide to Night Photography for Dummies instead. Just watch this space.)

Generally, I much prefer taking pictures in blazing sunshine – they seem to come out so much better with so much less effort. But since winter arrived in London (in as much you can call 10 degrees above zero winter), the only choice is between fuzzy-muzzy-grey or night scenes. I’ll take night any time!

New Horizon

whhheeeeᴇᴇᴇᴇᴇᴇᴇᴇEEEEEEEE! The scream of jet engines rises to a crescendo on the runways of the world. Every second, somewhere or other, a plane touches down, with a puff of smoke from scorched tyre rubber, or rises in the air, leaving a smear of black fumes dissolving in its wake. From space, the earth might look to a fanciful eye like a huge carousel, with planes instead of horses spinning round its circumference, up and down, up and down. Whhheeeeeeeeeee!

Small World by David Lodge

In response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: New Horizon.

The Red Eye of St James’s Park (Shine)

A night-time walk in St James’s Park…

You’d think there’d be lights on along the paths but it’s pitch-black. Apart from the Moon, the London Eye above the trees on the other side of the Thames… and the reflections on the water, that is.

In response to the Daily Post Weekly Challenge: Shine.

HMS Cavalier (Edge)

HMS Cavalier, a World War II destroyer in Chatham Historic Dockyard

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

Posted in response to the Daily Post Photo Challenge: Edge.

Links:
⇒ O Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman
⇒ The Fastest Ship in the Fleet - an 18-minute film of the 1971 race between HMS Cavalier and HMS Rapid (Imperial War Museum). No prizes for guessing who won! 
⇒ The service history of HMS Cavalier on Naval-History.net

Upwards (In Search of the Red Squirrel)

Formby in Lancashire is famous for its beach, its sand dunes and its pine woods where you can still see the elusive red squirrel. (Shame about the Irish Sea.)

Inside the Alcazaba (In the Distance II)

My second entry for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In the Distance. A different take on the prompt altogether: a passageway with receding lights inside the Alcazaba of Mérida in Spain.

Link: 
Not all Spanish holidays have to be about beaches: to see the most impressive Roman ruins in Spain, why not visit Mérida in the Extremadura?

Red Arrows In My Heart (In the Distance I)

A young air-show goer remains enraptured while the heart drawn on the sky by the Red Arrows slowly dissolves.

Posted in reply to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In the Distance.

Link:
If you'd like to see the Red Arrows, check out their 2016 schedule.

L for… Light (II)

Light streaming from heaven… 🙂 Sadly the photo is not near as beautiful as the real sight was – but then I took it with my phone through the window of a moving bus!

(In response to the 26 Weeks Letter Challenge: Letter L by Lumar1298)

L for… Light (I)

(In response to the 26 Weeks Letter Challenge: Letter L by Lumar1298)

Black & White

Black and white is powerful… and not just in the form of black words on white paper.