Moments of the streets
Yesterday I got up at 5 a.m., grabbed my camera, and headed for the city. It was pitch dark, and with high ISO set, I lurched around at Aker Brygge, a combined shopping mall, restaurant area and financial district, seaside Oslo centre.
And in the darkness of the night this contrasty scene emerged right in front of me, with lights from the still empty buildings conjuring mirrored reflections on the water below.
Living in Norway, where the elements often turns out to be quite interesting, people always keep telling me, “Such an awful weather we have today. It’s certainly impossible to take pictures now.” And I’m always thinking, “Why??”
Photography is all about light (and composition). And the weather conditions itself is a just force that drives the light settings. So only taking sunshine photos restricts ones creativeness, I think. The weather brings so many interesting effects into the scene, and is arguably the photographers’ best friend, not his worst enemy! (But this is just my opinion. At the end of the day, the important thing is, of course, to enjoy being out with your camera!)
This shot was captured earlier this week. It was morning hours, and a specially murky one too. I was on my way to work, feeling quite miserable. Approaching the stairs leading down from the Underground station, the fog whirled up copious amounts of haze everywhere, turning people into ill-boding structures.
Frankly speaking, I was really a bit under the weather that morning, but nevertheless I withstood the urge to seek shelter with a nice, warm cup of coffee, and instead forced myself to rise my camera and linger around for a while.
Bethnal Green is one of my favourite spots in London. With a population of something in the region of 30 000, of which approximately 40% of Bangladeshi descent, and the rest being made up mostly of Africans, White British, Somalis and Caribbeans, it’s a bustling place, packed with green grocers and curry houses, churches and mosques, nice pubs, shops, and even quite a posh restaurant (Typing Room).
Having walked form Aldgate, following Brick Lane through Spitalfields, I turned right at Bethnal Green Road. In a split second I was about to jump on a bus, and standing there undecided, I was somehow angry with myself for not doing so, as I had been out for quite a while and my legs where killing me. Having watched the bus disappearing down the road, I was heading for the Tube station, when I glimpsed this scenery behind the window of a local florist. Luckily I didn’t need to be cross at myself for letting the bus slip away anymore!
Here, I’m on the summit of “The Acrobat”, a 206 meter bridge spanning from the cutting-edge “Barcode” area, to the Old Town district. It’s traversing the railway tracks leading north and east from Oslo Central Station, making it a convenient shortcut between these parts of the city.
As you probably already have figured out, this particular picture was captured facing the modern end. Passing the bridge at the middle of the day, I noticed some fascinating patterns and lines emerging from the bridge elements, as well as from the nearby buildings. And as I lately have been reasonably focused on bringing my camera with me, I used the opportunity to get this shot.
Walking beneath the Golden Jubilee Bridge in London I aimed my camera more or less straight into the sky. Out of the camera the result wasn´t much to brag about, to put it mildly.
But nevertheless I dumped the RAW file into Lightroom, and goofed around with colours, exposure, shadows and a lot of other things. Then I cropped and desaturating the whole mess. And this is what it turned into …