Browsing 41 posts tagged with Street.

 
 

My Birthday In Switzerland

I wasn’t thrilled about turning 30. To soften the blow I celebrated my birthday abroad. The criteria was the following:

  • Cheap flight from Edinburgh or Glasgow airport
  • Short journey
  • Scenic place to take photos

A flight to Geneva was £80 from Edinburgh and only a 2 hour flight. With a lake and mountains within distance, it was the ideal location.

Booked.

I train hopped from Geneva to Lausanne and Vevey. Lake Geneva was very grey. I come from Scotland-I am used to grey weather, but we often get a break in the cloud at some point during the day.

For the 4 days I was in Switzerland, it was coated in a grey blanket of cloud.

I tried chasing the light by visiting Lausanne and Vevey, but the weather app lied to me. Still, this didn’t dampen my trip and I did a lot of street photography seeing as landscapes were out of the question.

Despite the greyness, I had a wonderful birthday. Switzerland was beautiful, I drank good coffee and expensive gin, and I got to try out a different style of photography.

 
 

Buchanan Street

It’s been a while since I took to the street with my 135mm, and with a shoot falling through last minute but the overwhelming itch to use my camera, street photography seemed the next best option. I forgot how much I enjoy snapping random faces in the crowd.

 
 

A Romantic Weekend in Bruges

When Christmas was approaching and I had family asking what gifts I wanted, I realised I have too much ‘stuff’ and would rather add to my memory bank than my DVD collection. I asked for flight money towards a weekend in Europe, though at that point I was undecided on where to go or who with.

A few months later, Shawshank and I had booked flights to Brussels and an apartment in Bruges (via Airbnb). I went to college with Shawshank and she is one of few people I can spend a lot of time with and not want to kill (I like my own space). Having spent a year backpacking around the globe, I knew Shawshank would be good company to travel with.

I don’t really know what to say about Bruges, other than my photos can’t do the beauty of this place justice. It’s a very romantic city, so it came as no surprise that people thought Shawshank and I were… together. If you like mad parties and late nights, perhaps Bruges is not the best city to visit. But for somebody like myself who enjoys early mornings and exploring with a camera, then finishing the day in a quiet pub with a bottle of red wine, Bruges is perfect. My eyeballs had a lot of eyegasms with the architecture, too.

The only downfall was our day trip to Brussels. Admittedly we hadn’t looked into what to do before we got there, preferring to blindly walk about and see what we stumbled upon. The city was a major letdown, however, and looked like a tip (with the exception of Grand Place, ho-ly wow). In fact, Brussels reminded me a lot of Glasgow, and as much as I love my city I know it’s not the nicest to look at. I wish we had visited Ghent instead.

The breakfasts are big, the beer is tasty, the waffles are a delight, and the whole city is bathed in medieval magic. Oh, and you can also check out my Instagram photos.

 
 

Naconf 2013

Another January, another New Adventures in Web Design. I have attended this conference every year, and can safely say the third and final New Adventures was my favourite. The topics covered and how they were delivered inspired me, to say the least. I know a conference has been worth the expense if I’m itching to run home and create, which New Adventures did (and I’d be running almost 300 miles). My personal highlight of the conference was Wayne Hemingway’s talk.

Initially I was mildly displeased the conference fell on the day before my birthday. Did I really want to spend my 26th birthday driving home for 5 and a half hours to an empty house? Naw. I stayed an extra night and hoped there would still be familiar faces kicking about. Chloe, Andy, Stringer, Hughes, Jack Smith, Mark, Paige, Jack Osborne, Leckie and Robbie treated me to dinner at Bonzai, followed by cocktails at the Lace Market Hotel. I’m still very grateful for their kindness.

The photo walk was another highlight. Despite this being my third year visiting Nottingham, I hadn’t seen much of the city. I was surprised by how pretty it is. Of course, with my preferred subject matter being people, I spent the photo walk shooting the attendees as opposed to our surroundings.

All in all, a fantastic end to New Adventures in Web Design. Nottingham, you’re nice.

 
 

Shipyard Faces

Any opportunity to partake in some street photography, I visited Ferguson Shipbuilders to watch as they launched Hallaig, the first commercial ship to be fully built on the River Clyde for over five years. I was surprised at the turnout; people of all ages – including school kids – had come to wave flags and cheer. And everyone had a camera, which meant I could subtly blend into a sea of lenses.

 
 

November on Buchanan Street

I think this photo pretty much sums up November. It’s wet, people wear poppies, the Christmas lights make an appearance (but have yet to be turned on), and everyone is wearing big, winter jackets. Still, I really like this time of the year. I can’t wait until Friday when the Christmas market arrives at St Enoch square!

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Pride Glasgow

I am 97.4% straight, yet I found myself at Pride Glasgow over the weekend to dabble in some street photography. Pride Glasgow is a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans pride festival. Essentially it is a huge street party with a lot of checkered shirts and hair wax.

I know this is a controversial topic, but I have many gay and lesbian friends and am supportive of being in love with whoever happens to make your heart sing. It shouldn’t be an issue.

As it happened to be so suffocatingly busy, however, I merely passed through and took a few snaps. I would have stayed for longer, but the sun had made a rare and harsh appearance, and I was on the hunt for a cupcake.

 
 

Laura

The best friendships are the ones that require minimal effort to keep strong, in my opinion. Laura used to be a regular face on my blog and Flickr stream, but we fell out of touch for, yesterday being the first time we’ve seen each other since some point last year.  We did a bit of evening street photography, though the light began falling fast at around 8pm, then visited another friend we hadn’t seen for a while. The whole evening was quite spontaneous and exactly what I needed.

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Des Clarke Carries The Olympic Torch In Glasgow

This morning I awoke with an itch to do some street photography, and I pretty much hit the jackpot as the Olympic Torch was being carried through Glasgow this evening. It’s always great to shoot in a massive crowd as people rarely notice you, therefore you can catch some fantastic candid moments. Plus, there was a incredible buzz about the place. It was also great to see Des Clarke, who I’ve photographed before, carry the Olympic Torch.

 
 

Kay Slater on Newark Street

I first met Kay in February when I was shooting for Parma Vintage on Asos Marketplace. We swapped details so we could do a proper shoot at a later date, and that time came yesterday. I headed to Newark Street in Greenock where the Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom and the properties are old, Victorian buildings. Basically, it’s a pretty sweet location to shoot with a lot of surroundings to utilise.

Yesterday was a pleasant reminder why I love photography.

 
 
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