Street Photography

As I was wandering around Birmingham on Saturday I thought I'd try my hand at some street photography, shooting off the hip, not looking at what I was snapping at. I never imagined it would be so difficult.

All my images pretty much turned out like this. I'm not liking any of them. I think it's safe to say I need a lot more practice with shooting off the hip. 

It's focusing that seems to be letting me down. Do I focus manually and just hope everybody is at the right distance or do I use autofocus and hope the camera picks up the right things to focus on? Do I stand still or do I carry on walking as I take the image, relying literally just a fast shutter speed to capture it all. 

Published!

So the Tory Conference party last week that I went along and photographed? I got one of my photos printed in the Birmingham University newspaper, Redbrick, from it this week. Sadly, it's not credited to me but I can assure you it's mine.

Which photo? This one..

The original

How it appears in the paper.

I'm not keen on how it's been edited but I suppose it's my first publication since I started at Gloucestershire Uni and hopefully it'll be corrected. But if you want to read the article that goes with it by James Phillips, click here and go to page 8.

Chickens!

Anyone who has seen my FMP from college last year will know I'm a bit of a sucker for animals. So when I went over to the animal enclosure in the park today I couldn't resist taking photos. Admittedly, I only photographed the chickens and a peacock because the chickens were pretty and reminded me of my Nan's at home, and the peacock was just chilling near the fence posing for me.

You must admit this is a very pretty chicken. 

And this I like because you can see the chickens and the other people in the park admiring them. Along with the other birds in the enclosure too. 

The peacock. Posing, playing it cool.

But whilst in town today we also saw this unusual sight, a girl who I assume you would call a busker even though they weren't playing music. 

She's very yellow, and very cheerful looking. I've no idea how she is balancing on that wooden stick either. 

Tewkesbury Mop Fair

So tonight I've been along to Tewkesbury Mop Fair. Unfortunately I've been ill all week in the build up to the event and so my heart hasn't been in it at all tonight. But here are some of my favourites anyway.

It struck me how young this lad was and yet he was running a stand at a very popular fair.

One mountain of tack ready for people to buy.

Everybody enjoys a good session on the dodgems, as you can see.

I love how mysterious this photo is as the woman walks in front of me, out of the focus.

One very happy stall holder.

These three lads are being very carefully watched by the stallholder.

This  shot is my absolute favourite out of all them. I just love it.

Another mysterious one as you can't see the people on the ride.