He suggested not using my own name and specialising in just one type of photography and further suggested that for street pictures, it was a good idea to work mainly in Black & White. And so F4Niko was born and I have been uploading a picture my F4Niko Flickr site every day since the start of the year. I still have a Flickr site in my own name as well as this site and www.goodphotolocations.com but my recent focus has been on F4Niko.

It has been great fun learning how the system works but the best thing is that I already have 38 contacts from all over the World and when I post a picture that they like, they tell me so. This is incredibly encouraging and really helps me to sort my good pictures from my not so good ones. Something that I find really difficult to do by myself.

So let me in turn encourage you to try what I did. Concentrate on your favourite type of photography and keep a Flickr site just for that. If you like street photography, have a look at F4Niko (there is a link in the links list) and make me a contact if you like what you see.

If it’s not too late, a Happy New Year to you all.

Don't believe everything that you read in newspapers

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So where does the keen photographer go from here? It seems to me that there is no point in fighting the progress of technology. The best is to work with it and let it take us into new areas that were either too challenging, too expensive or too inconvenient in the past.

In my case, as with thousands of others at the moment, it seems to be “stobism” (working with portable lights).

Having used the Nikon Speedlight system for some years, I have now invested in PocketWizard radio control units that are simply amazing. It is possible to set up one, two or three speedlights in different zones and reliably control the power of each flash. So a picture can be taken, reviewed then modified from the camera in a matter of seconds. And I don’t need a van to carry all my gear. I can get three lights, small stands, umbrellas and the Pocket Wizards in a small holdall.

So, if you are wondering where to go next with your photography, have a look at www.strobist.blogspot.com It will open up a whole new world.

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Well, it has happened but it isn’t one of the camera manufacturers, it is a Company called Hahnel  www.hahnel.ie that specialises in photographic products.

The Hahnel Inspire uses a transmitter that slides onto the hot shoe of a Canon or Nikon camera and you can then get a live view image on the remote 3.5 inch screen up to 60 metres away. You can also focus from the remote screen, allowing much easier operation and control.

I for one welcome the fact that I no longer need to spend several minutes crouched on my knees with my head bent over trying to focus on a flower in the garden. I can now set up the camera and then retire to comfort and to a place where the sun is not reflecting on the screen and complete the shot.

Thanks Hahnel, I hope that you are well rewarded for your efforts before the camera manufacturers make this the default viewing solution on all their equipment.

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EL Skyport

I have recently discovered a great piece of software issued free of charge by the good people of Elinchrom. Called EL-Skyport v 3, it is available to download from the support tab on http://www.elinchrom.com

The great thing about it is that on opening a new project, it presents you with a basic studio layout with the background, camera and object to be photographed already in place. You can then very easily move things around, change background colours etc and add lights of various types in whatever position you wish. It is a great way to experiment with layouts and keep track of shoots that you have done. Although it is designed for the studio, I see no reason why it shouldn’t be equally useful for outdoor shots with lighting as well.

Serious photographers, whether amateur or professional will love it and for students, it is an absolute dream.

If you are lucky enough to use Elinchrom RX flash units, the software goes much further, allowing you to test and control your lights directly from your computer and automatically save the settings you used.

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A few things that I now do the night before (if I remember!) are to take a quick shot of anything just to make sure that all seems well. You might also like to make this a shot against a dark or grey background so that you can more easily tell if the sensor needs cleaning. By the way, I now set the camera to clean the sensor each time I switch off and this seems to help.

Then pack the bag in a methodical way and you’re ready to go.

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As a holiday project and as a complete change to my project on the classical architecture of John Nash, I decided to make Urban culture the subject of my next project. Places in London that came to mind, included Covent Garden, Playstation Skate Park, Camden Market and Brick Lane.

Before I went, I asked my friend who runs the Photojournalist group for some shooting tips (he is one of the best pro shooters of all time by the way – ex Fleet Street) and I pass these on in case they are helpful.

The key thing, as with wildlife photography and many other subject is not to go chasing around but to take up a position, be patient and let the subjects come to you. With luck, as you were there first, you will be part of the scenery and they won’t even notice you. But you do need to be ready to shoot from the hip if necessary. So the lens cap must be off, use a wide angle lens if you can, have the aperture wide open, increase the ISO a bit if required and make sure that the shutter speed is 1/250 sec maximum.

It is amazing fun and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I am doing. It is early days yet and I will hopefully post some more shots in the gallery as time goes by. Several new shots have been added to the gallery today in most of the categories by the way, so please have a look.

Please drop me a line with your experiences and maybe we can use some of your favourite locations on the goodphotolocations.com site.

Street Art in Brick Lane

Brick Lane

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The interesting thing about projects such as this is that as well as having to get to grips with the challenges of photographing buildings during the day and at night, it is an opportunity to learn more about the buildings themselves, the architect, the owners past and present and even the history of the period when they were built.

I decided to go for Regency architecture, which basically means John Nash working for the Prince Regent. Between them they completely changed the area of London, from Buckingham Palace, along the Mall, Trafalgar Square, the Haymarket, Regent Street, Regent’s Park and most of the streets surrounding the park.

They also had a big impact on Brighton with the centrally located Royal Pavilion which still stands today as the single building that most defines the town.

Working on this project, mainly with the Nikon D300 and using Photoshop to correct and process the images, I also took some black and white films and also colour slides, which for me still produce some of the best colour available.

I do recommend that you have a go at shooting some buildings in different conditions and hope that you enjoy the new images in the architecture section of the Gallery.

The Holme, Regent's Park

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I hope that you will pay it a visit or two and find it useful when you are planning holidays or just weekends or away days. More importantly though, I hope that you will join in and recommend some of your favourite spot. The best way to do that is to email me at john@goodphotolocations.com

Currently the site consists of a list of places that you can search by continent, country, town etc and soon there will be suggestions of special regions of the World, such as The Lake District”, where there are lots of photogenic places within a small area. As well as sharing your favourite places, please let me know if there are any new features that you would like to see on the site that will make it easier to use or more helpful.

Lake District

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For my latest project I am taking pictures of buildings designed by the Regency architect, John Nash. I am taking some during the day and some in the evening. Those of Marble Arch, the Institute of Directors, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and the Royal Pavillion in Brighton all went well and without incident. However, when I moved to the steps between the two sections of Carleton House Terrace, things changed.

It was 8.00pm in the evening and already dark and I was using a tripod, an 18 to 200mm zoom lens and mirror up with a remote shutter release, but the place was deserted and I wasn’t in anyone’s way.

The way I read it was that someone left an office in Carleton House and had a close look at me as they drove from the car park in front of the building and into the Mall. About one or two minutes later, a police car arrived, went past me, did a U-turn and parked about six feet away, to my left. You can see their arrival in the picture below.

Nothing else happened. They were out of the cameras’ line of site; they ignored me and I ignored them. When I had finished, I packed my gear and walked away. I looked into the car but they appeared engrossed in paperwork.

Perhaps the rally in nearby Trafalgar Square when photographers protested about police intimidation has had some effect but clearly there is still something about a serious photographer with a tripod that disturbs people. Unless they park there every evening, of course – but I don’t think so!

Evening all

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Tomorrow I am heading out to take some more pictures for my Architecture project and just maybe I will be able to incorporate some flowers in those as well. I will have to move fast with this project now, as the trees will be getting their leaves soon and that will obscure some of the better angles on the buildings. Nature is great but we can’t have it all ways and that is one of the challenges of outdoor photography.

Anyway, I hope that you will be inspired to get out and shoot as much as I am.

An artistic shot of two lovely crocuses

Spring

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