Category: Travel

Taken on vacation trips

Flying High Above Selfridges

Flying High Above Selfridges
The Selfridges at the Bullring in Birmingham, England, has always been something that I have wanted to photograph in a long time. Having read and seen pictures about it in UK photographic magazines, I first saw the building during a visit to Birmingham in 2006. Unfortunately, that visit was more about work than pleasure, and I didn’t get the chance to take pictures of it. On my recent trip to the UK, I made visiting Birmingham (and the Bullring) a priority when I planned my travel itinerary. The building certainly did not disappoint! What made the picture even more special was when a seagull in flight soared into view just as I was about the click the shutter. I have done some “cleaning” of the discs in Photoshop (water stains made the original a little too distracting) and have applied a high-pass filter effect to enhance the contrast of the striking patterns.

Like A Painting

Like A Painting
One of the compositional intents I set out to fulfill when I take a picture is to endeavour to fill the frame with elements from the fore-, mid- and background. Being able to do that successfully would give depth to what would otherwise be essentially a two-dimensional picture frame. I spotted a quick opportunity to achieve this while taking the previous post at Derwent Water. Spotting a boat that was moored in the frozen lake surface, with a flock of seagulls sunbathing in backlit conditions, as well as the misty hills in the distance, I switched quickly to my 70-200mm to catch the moment. The almost-monochromatic colours of the scene helped me to focus on the compositional elements of the picture, which is one of my favourites from that day.

Iced (Derwent) Water

Iced (Derwent) Water

I am back from a trip to the UK (teaching on a course and vacationing with CY after). Crazy weather conditions (the coldest UK winter in a century!) meant a trip peppered with adventures: icy, snow-covered roads that were treacherous to drive on, made worse with a hired car that refused to start on several occasions in the cold, and which refused to climb a slope leading to our B&B in the Lake District! On my third visit to Derwent Water at Keswick in 3 years, I found an entirely different scene due to the cold weather conditions. The surface of the lake has iced over with the surrounding hills covered in snowy white. One man decided even to take a risky walk along the ice, reaching far into the lake, making almost two-thirds on the distance towards the nearest shore! We had fun skimming pebbles on the hardened lake surface, as they bounced and slid their way along.