B.e.a--uutiful lines and great architecture....

Victoria quarter central, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

I ended up being 20min late for a cake club meeting but for my sins I captured this brilliant celling in Victoria quarte, Leeds .

I have been struck quite heavy with a fondness for architecture especially when it looks like this.. And to think I once said It didn't float my boat :)

Going up in the world....

Another morning shot before work..slightly off-centre shot which i will have to revisit and possible do again.. but its an ongoing project...

ISO800 -F8 - 1/125

Cloudy with a chance of ... Cloud

On my drive back from the train station I noticed the cloud cover over the valley... After battling for the right spot with a random bloke taking photo's of his motor bike I snapped away then once back I "tweaked" it within PS.

First of all i decreased the saturation just to bleach out everything apart from the blue, this gave a faded retro look to it and following some further messing with the blacks it added a nice depth to the clouds themselves.

ISO200 - F11 - 1/250

1940's Cloudscape a photo by The Knight Of Noo on Flickr.

Anchors away...

Great merge of corporate 80's architecture and an abstract Bohemian  pub!!

ISO200 - F11 - 1/60

Leeds Cake Exchange

I was lucky enough to be a plus one at a cake social over at primos in the corn exchange. Now I’m a man that love’s cake and couple that with brilliant architecture and im all set. In my youth I had often sat outside the corn exchange looking moody and angry with the world… But now following the refurbishment of the exchanges ceiling it truly is a beautiful site.



ISO800- F7.1 - 1/10

Leeds Corn exchange 1 a photo by The Knight Of Noo on Flickr.

I didn’t have my tripod on me at the time and now looking back I wish I did so that I could use a longer exposure rather than a high ISO as the end results look good but do have a certain amount of grain due to the fact I was up at 800-1600 (this was mainly to avoid handheld blur).

And the wheels on the bus ..

Mobile bus jam packed full of vintage clothing...

ISO200 - F8 - 1/50

Downtown..

Vintage street capture, overall the colour version was ok but after switching to black and white, dropping the contrast and a little tweak in PS I think it works better.. then again I am becoming a little obsessed with my black and white / Infra shots..

ISO200 -F9 - 1/200

Mr Blue Sky.....

Another beautiful day and the contrast of this weird orange building against the deep blue sky. I'm not sure what is drawing my to architectural photography but maybe its the lines or shapes that seem to appease my OCD. I added a polarising filter to my 18-55mm and that seem's to enhance the vivid colours.

ISO100 - F8 - 1/60

Also the ELO song Mr Blue Sky was a fitting sound track ....

Its a concrete jungle out there...

Leeds city centre mid day lots of people and brilliant sunshine, the shadows cast from this tree looked very desolate, add the fact that the tree was bare and its a great urban capture...

ISO200 - F6.3 - 1/200

A chance meeting...

This shot below wasn't actually intentional as i was waiting for a gap between people walking through the tunnel. However it just proves that having an open mind and a little bit of luck can lead to great results

ISO400 -F10 - 1/100

Water Reflections...

Just managed to capture this about half an hour before the sun was due to go down.. amazing light bouncing off the building. Another added effect was using HDR to capture the whole range of colours...

ISO800 - F11 - 1/100

Bridge over wooden water...

Another morning and another walk through a quiet yet steady Leeds city center, below is a small and quick attempt at an abstract image that's been in by head for awhile and finally is done and out there for the world to see.

The shot has quiet alot of grain to the poor lighting conditions and lack of time on my commute to work. I actually like it.

ISO1600 - F8 - 1/15

Also the trick to slow shutter shots is only press the shutter button whilst exhaling.. like shooting a gun :)

Architectual Property.......

Having never spent any time actually looking were I walk (Yes I'm the one with my headphones in and head down), I spent most of my afternoon building gazing and it led me to the conclusion that most inner cities are a complete mongrel hive of buildings from art - deco, Neo classical, corporate modern, Post modern.. I could go on.

But needless to say it led me into a new avenue of photography that I had never comprehended until this point.. It's not rock and roll but I like it. The lines, abstract angles, and complete freedom of artistic licence was brilliant and well worth it, I came away looking at most buildings in a completely different way.

Main things to look out for:
Reflections - When adjusting the colour spectrum in PS you can reveal more reflections than originally shown.
Parallel lines and symmetry - When choosing close ups or parts of buildings make sure the composition of the shot is even
Experiment - Obscure angles and objects make great material
Orientation - Shoot in both Portrait and landscape as its hard to get the full feel of the scene until you revisit it at home
Scale - when shooting whole buildings or city street its always good to try and fit a tree, car, post box as this gives a visible scale of height in relation to the building in the frame.

ISO400 - F8 - Shutter 1/80

ISO400 - F11 - 1/80

No More Stairs... For Now

Seen as I have been obsessing about most things linear and stair like Today was spent grabbing a quick shot in the centre of leeds something linear


This shot was taken in bright sunlight as I was trying to catch alot of the sun to gain the most from the infrared filter applied in PS.

ISO200 - F8 - 1/250 Shutter

Follow the yellow brick road...

There are many things I try not to do while in my early stages of photography and one of them is tamper with the photo that I have taken... But sometimes once I get the picture home I can push the envelope so to speak.


Even though the initial shit is dramatic and brilliant I feel my creative side suggesting things ...


Below I have edited the shot in PS and layered the duplicate With only the bright yellow rails.




ISO200 - F8 - Shutter 1/15



Playing about with saturation...

This shot was taken at millennium  square in Leeds... Once I got this picture into PS I reduced all the colours saturation level to 0 and left a little in the blue spectrum, this gave a nice subtle black and white feel whilst leaving the Blues.

ISO200 - F11 - 1/250

Mental note to self next time use a quicker shutter speed and the angle could be better!!

The white tower..

Buildings and more buildings...Lovely Gothic spire in central Leeds.

ISO100 - F13 - 1/80

The Beer and Pie Cometh.....

Today was the annual Bradford beer festival and the only thing better than a Beer festival is Pie and Beer!!

 

ISO320 - F5.6 - Shutter 1/80

And for those of you who are wondering how big the pie was here's another one

For more foody goodness have a look at stickypinny's blog.

Man About Town.............

The first sunny day in a long time... Now I'm really getting ready for summer... Again i used a high shutter speed as i was in the middle of busy lunchtime pedestrian traffic.

ISO200 - F9 - Shutter1/400

Stone Guardian...

Another overcast day... This picture was originally going to be in colour but seem'd to look better in Black and White. 

ISO400 - F8 - Shutter 1/100