Wrapping Up Carnival

I have a few more photos from carnival that I wanted to put up. Some colour, some black and white. I am still experimenting with colour and am still not entirely happy with how it's going. I have come to the conclusion that the faster the film the better the pictures. Anyway. That's for another post. So yeah. Here is my last bit from Carnival before I more on.

Jump and wave.

These two were running a stall on the side of the road and wanted me to take a picture.

There was a sound system. You can see the people beginning to gather. I took the photo because if you look into the little shack on the left, you can see a guy poking his head up. It was quite funny. He seemed to be resting on his moustache.

Orange: A good colour to take a photo of...

This was a slight experiment into long exposures. I took two like this. The other was too bright, so I am going with this one. Maybe colour would have added something more to it.

Right. Stay tuned for China (in glorious black and white. Ha~!).

Better Late Than Never

Right. So finally I am going to get to putting up some photos. Possibly two months later than when I originally planned to. But hey... screw you.

Carnival is the theme for today...

Other than colour, there is a lot of food. Poor guy was probably there all day. And this was taken at 11 in the morning.

This woman is cool. That is all.

You may have cottoned on to the fact that I like taking photos of groups of policemen.

This guy was cooking and looked like he was taking a break. I'm not sure if I should've cropped the no entry sign out of it, and just had the graffiti.

It could almost be fog. The sheer number of BBQs leads to this kind of thing.

I like how the police are just completely ignoring her, like it's completely normal.

"What's up?", "Just chillin'".

So many many people. I like the slightly washed look of this.

I just like this photo.

It kind of shows how people are just doing their thing and having a good time.

Something I have touched on before

These are a couple of random images that I have picked up on my various travels. They don't really fit in any particular subject. I suppose after my recent photos of bits of graffiti, they would sort of fit in that, but these are a little more special. And they weren't taken in Bristol either; it didn't feel right to put them in with the others.

This was actually taken at Notting Hill Carnival. But this guy was just off a side street pretty much playing to no one. I quite like how he sat down in front of a boarded up window that was scrawled over. I appreciated the fact that he was in his own little world I guess.

This is a wall. A dirty wall. With a electrical box of some kind. I just like the colours. I'm a little simple like that. It's also straight, which is quite rare for me.

People of Paradise Presents:

It was Notting Hill Carnival recently, I went for the day with my brother and a mate. The weather was decent, the food was good, and there was plenty of spectacle. I took about three rolls of film the whole day (being somewhat conservative due to the ridiculous costs of film developing these days - £19.60 for one roll of b&w film!). I took two in colour and one in black and white. The b&w came out better as usual. I am pretty unimpressed with my colour shots, but will be putting a few up over the next few days. But here is a small selection. The photo above sums up for me the feeling of Carnival. My mum's family are from the West Indies, having moved to the UK in the late '50s; I think there is something comforting about the ability to have something like the second biggest carnival after Rio's on a tiny rain swept isle in northern Europe. Aside from the occasional flair-ups of trouble it's a good day out. I will be putting these up gradually, but it's late, I'm tired, and my internet connection is so painfully slow it's hard enough uploading these at the best of times.

Seriously. Painfully slow...

One of the best things about Carnival is the colour. It adds to an already incredible atmosphere.

With all the dancing, there is plenty of flag waving. The pride in one's origins at Carnival is pretty special. The flags above from right to left are Trinidad & Tobago, Bermuda (you can't really see it), Dominica (above), St. Lucia (below and last on the left). The perception of West Indies most people have is of Jamaicans, but all the islands are so unique.

The costumes are fantastic. The black and white photos don't really do any justice.

Case in point...

Colour. Lots and lots of colour (well, lots of pink in this case).

More to follow. Good night.

When Saturday Comes

Occasionally I get out of the po-dunk town that I currently reside. Occasionally.

But now that it's August, good times are afoot. There is weekly football. I went to catch a pre-season friendly (as they are slightly more affordable) and thought I would try catch a bit of the atmosphere of a football game. It kind of worked; it also kind of didn't. I was using a new lense that is rather long, and trying to take quick shots (something I haven't really tried to do) proved a little testing at times.

Anyway. As they sing on the terraces:

Oh When the Spurs...

I'm glad I got this shot. I love it. There were loads of flags in the stands, but getting this one was quite special. It's not completely clear, but give me a break it was blowing in the wind.

Lots of flags. The above photo has actually been flipped using The GIMP (PhotoShop software on Linux). Being behind the flags, and the way the wind was blowing meant that I couldn't get the logo the right way round all the time. You can see the Puma logos are backwards. I suppose I should cut them out. But I thought I'd be honest.

Like I said: lots of flags.

Still going with the singularity theme. I probably will forever.

I'm annoyed I cut the end of the sign off. But such is life.

People make football games interesting. I'm still shit at taking photos of them.

Obviously there is a sizeable police presence at football games. Friendlies are pretty timid affairs in all honesty.

Ok. Maybe this is a little better.

Hell is other people...

...Apparently. It's a Satre quote that is generally taken out of context. But sod the context. It's as near a truism you'll ever get.

But people can be quite interesting to take photos of. It can be kind of awkward if you get squeemish about it. Which I do. So I try when people aren't looking. It also makes it hard if the person you want to take a photo of isn't keen on the idea. Either way. I haven't really got the skill of subtly taking photos of random people. But there have been occasions I have got a gem or two.

This is Sam. She doesn't like having her photo taken. But this is probably one of my favourite photos. We were messing about on the beach. The water was pretty cold apparently. If there is one thing that bothers me, it's that the horizon isn't straight. But whilst it is very noticeable, I still really like this shot. It's one with a good memory too, so it's a little more unique than a lot of the others.

A day on the beach in Jersey. These two kids were doing what kids do at the beach. I would have preferred to have had colour film at the time for a shot like this. But I think it came out ok. Maybe zooming in a little would have helped.

This girl was walking back and forth past me outside King's Cross Station in London. She had a dog with her as well. But it wouldn't stay in the frame annoyingly. This is actually from my first film in colour, and second role ever. There aren't many shots from this role that I actually like but I do like this.

I know you can't really see it clearly but there is a shoe on a foot sort of behind the bush here. From where I was sitting I had a clear view of it. But I had to move closer to get it clearer. I didn't have a decent zoom lens to do this and so not as good as I would have hoped. But it's from a day out at Sandringham, and the woman was there by herself reading a book. I didn't want to be too intrusive, so I moved backward and just went for this.

These next two (above and below) are pretty lazy shots. I was lying on the grass and was messing around. I was pretty high up, so you can't see what the woman could be pointing at. But it's out to sea. But it's a relaxed scene. I like how I managed to frame it pretty centrally though.

This is just kind of amusing. Four people on a bench. Seemingly looking at a tree.

This old boy was on his day out at Sandringham. I like his hat.

What is a summer without a barbeque?

This is the table from the previous post. But complete with what you would expect. I really like how the chilli sauce stands out.

A Pretty Common Activity

Smoking. Lots of people do it. It's something you see every day, and probably don't think twice about. Smoking, and it's associated mess is isn't pretty. But it is pretty simple to understand.

The picture below was taken at the end of an afternoon barbeque I was at. The table was filled with crockery, cutlery, and other such things. But at the end of it all, this is all that's left. A phone, sunglasses, and a pack of cigarettes.

I like this one. It's so simple. And again, such a common sight.

And a smoker.