Neon Extravaganza

 

Sometimes things take you by surprise and you shoot almost automatically. This was such an occasion—this is the weather awning of the main entry to Heathrow Airport, west of London, and I was making my way back to Australia on the evening of Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, having come down from Sunderland by train to King's Cross, passing through much fog on the way, then making my way through the metropolis as the sun went down and finally out to the airport by train from Paddington. Just as I was walking into the airport, they turned on the neon and the effect was stunning! It looks purple but I remember it being individual red and blue fluorescent tubes that together created the illusion of colour. I shot several frames to record it, having already photographed the night-time environs—the camera was in my hand as the lights came on. I could have squared up the image but it would have cut into the thematic material, so this time I'm posting it just as it came off the camera, other than a touch of sharpening, contrast and gamma correction. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

High-rise Living by the Waters

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This is another reflex shot. I was getting pretty good at it with all those bridges and urban vistas in eastern London as I rode the Docklands Light Railway in November, 2007. Watch for a bridge coming up, frame out over the water of the next canal or dock and shoot whatever appeared. The finished shot looks like it was purposefully staged, but it's actually entirely opportunistic. Only the dark area at top right gives away the fact it's shot through a train window, that's either a bridge stanchion or part of the window surround, otherwise I was lucky with a clean window. Enhancements include sharpness, contrast and colour saturation, though I keep my adjustments subtle: I like to preserve the 'feel' of the original frame, reproducing the visual atmosphere of the time and place as much as possible. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Through a Bus Window, Clearly

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This is another reflex shot -- see it, frame it, shoot it. I usually try to snag a top front window seat on London busses, especially if it's the type with a single-piece window (no structure to cross the image), so I can constantly scan the city for great images. If I'm lucky the windows were cleaned before the bus began the day and there'll be minimal marks to potentially intrude on the image, though there are some reflections toward the right side of the frame that let you know it's a window shot. This is Marble Arch, though I don't know London well enough to be sure of all its monuments. This shot is special because there's no motion-blur, the framing is squared-up well, and the loss of contrast through the glass was also easily tweaked digitally. November, 2007; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Celebrity Snapshot... Almost

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London, December 2006 -- any old afternoon. I had left the British Museum in search of an ATM, which I found at a Sainsburys a few streets away, to conjure cash for a bite to eat, and was about to cross when a clamour of sirens cleared the streets. Pedestrians clustered at the corners waiting as Police bikes halted traffic, and I heard someone say the man in the top job was going through. The FinePix S5600 was always around my neck, so I scoped in on the intersection for a reflex shot and snapped the Prime Ministerial Daimler as it raced by. Full automatic, of course! Photo by Mike.