Tweetfest

After work today I went to meet up with a number of fellow Tweeters who Tweet about Nottingham. It's the first time that we have all gotten together in real life, rather than in the Tweetosphere. I met some new contacts and talked about my blog, as next Friday is going to be special, as it going to be the first ever Nottingham Day. Various things are being planned, so there should be plenty of photo opportunities on offer to record the event.

I wanted to stay longer, but couldn't, as Gail and I were off to a charity pub quiz, to raise funds for Oxfam, and to help support the former Barton's Bus garage in Chilwell, that is now being used as a venue for entertainment and art shows. It was good fun, although the team that I was in didn't win, we had the satisfaction of getting a number of questions correct.

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I don't think I need to write many words to accompany this scene.

It happens all across the world. I just happen to catch these two in the Old Market Square.

Surprise, Surprise

That old Fishing Guy, Tom has picked this weeks' Headbanger Challenge theme. He has gone for the unusual theme of 'well that's a surprise'.

My contribution for the contest is this block of flats close to where we were shooting last night in Clifton. By day it looks like it is made of Lego, but by night, I think it takes on a more sinister appearance. Especially with all that communications equipment on the roof.

What surprised and pleased me was how little noise has appeared on the photo, despite it being dusk, and how the camera has retained the dark blue of the sky. Rather than turning it a dark brown or black, like you sometimes get with other cameras.

I took it with our new toy; a Nikon D3s. The lens that I used was a 24-70mm f2.8. Neither are new, but good quality second hand.

For the initiated, the ISO was set at 4000, 1/60 and at f2.8.

The ISO can really be cranked up. But I didn't want to do that. I'd rather see how it turned out at a more normal figure.

Don't forget to pop over and see how the rest of the gang have interpreted the theme, and enjoy this rather joyful song.

My blog photo today shows three girls who look surprised, curious or perplexed at what they are seeing or reading on the mobile phone. I shot this on Sunday, when we took a trip into the city centre as it was sun day too. Unlike today, where it has been raining for most of the day, and I got wet cycling into work.

Model Features

A second night of shooting models tonight at Lee's studio in Clifton.

This time it was more of a social evening, with a guest speaker who came to talk about taking local wildlife shots with a 10mm fisheye lens. He had taken some good shots, and none of them looked odd, or had the effect that that sort of lens can sometime achieve.

We had four models to try our hand with tonight. Two of whom, Gail and I had worked with before. And two new ones. All different, both in stature and style.

This is Danni; one of the models that we have shot before. She was quite happy to stand in the cool evening, while we snapped away with our cameras.

Yes, the picture is straight, it's the pole that has been bent over. A bit of a moody shot. One that just lit with the street lights.

Motorbikin'

Gail and I went on a model shoot this evening, at a local studio in Clifton where we have been before.

It's always a bit of an adventure, as you don't always know who the model/s are going to be, or what they will be doing.

But tonight we did, as Lee the owner of the studio had booked a professional model by the name of Emma Kate Dawson.

A member of the group had driven there on his motorbike, so it was drafted in as a welcome prop for Emma to pose on.

She was very good to work with, and changed into different costumes, for the different areas of the studio.

Fun In The Water

As it was a sunny Sunday, Gail and I had a trip into the city centre this afternoon, just to see if we could find anything to photograph.

We sat for a while in the Old Market Square, watching the people enjoying the attractions of the seaside. Which incidentally enters it's final week this week, before being packed away until next year.

There were quite a few kids playing in the water feature. Splashing about and trying to dodge through the jets of water.

This little boy seemed to be enjoying getting wet, that he just kept running through the jets.

On The Buses

I don't know, you wait for ages for a London bus to appear and then two turn up at the same time.

Only, I didn't take this picture in London, but this morning in Beeston.

They were being used as transport for guests at a wedding that had just taken place at the local church.

The bride and groom left in a more traditional mode of transport. Namely this rather grand Rolls Royce Tourer from the 1930s.

Nottingham's Day

Something quite special happened in Nottingham today. A first for the city, but should hopefully become an annual event. What am I on about?

'Nottingham Day'.

Nottingham Day has been created to promote local businesses, and of course the city itself. The first one was held at the Albert Hall.

I went along as unofficial photographer, as I have been following developments on Twitter, and it was quite an exciting morning.

The show was introduced by Adam Corbally, who was one of the finalists of this years Apprentice series. Alas, he didn't win, but came very close. He is now a motivational speaker, entrepreneur and is still involved in the family's greengrocery business.

Another guest speaker was Afran Razak; who is the owner of one Nottingham's best curry restaurants: The Curry Lounge. 'Raz', is no stranger to being on television himself, as he and his restaurant came under fire from Gordon Ramsey a few years ago and he has also been a Secret Millionaire, where he helped various worthy causes in his home town of Oxford.

There were also a number of trade stalls there from such organisations as Nottingham Forest Football Club; Nottingham Racecourse; Kanoo Travel and the Victoria Centre.

I also met for a Tweet-up this evening at a local bar. It was nice to meet some new people and have the opportunity of promoting my blog and my love of photography.

My photo shows (from left) Raz, Adam, the Lord Mayor's escort and the Lord Mayor, Leon Unczur.

Model Making

Here's a shot of a friend of ours called Mike, who we joined on a model shoot in the city centre a few weeks ago.

The model's name is Samantha and she's posing for Mike at the doors of the Council House. Obviously they are closed, as we went in the early evening.

They look quite grand doors. I don't know if they are original, from when the building was erected during the 1920s, or replacements from a later period. But they do make for a good backdrop.

If you want to see the photo that Mike took, you may find it on Flickr under Who's Photo, which is Mike's non de plume.

Making An Exhibition Of Oneself

Yes, it's Wednesday again and so that only means one thing; the Headbanger Challenge.

Stewart has dreamt up this week's theme of "a photograph that you'd like to see in an exhibition." Stewart's thought of this theme, as he will be staging one himself in a few weeks in his hometown of Grantham.

Now I like taking all kinds of photos, but I especially like street, or social photography and models; or glamour as it used to be called.

I think social photography is important, as it records the general public going about their daily lives, or can highlight important issues like homelessness or poverty. It's also very hard to do. I have a couple of friends, curiously both called Steve who are very good at it, and seem to be able to spot things before they happen.

Incidentally, today marks the birthday of probably the best photo-journalist that there's been so far and that's Henri Cartier-Bresson. What he managed to capture with his Leica is amazing. Other well known snappers include Bill Brandt, Robert Capa and Vivian Maier; who has only just become well known, some three years after her death.

As much as I enjoy hunting the streets of Nottingham for photos, I find it very difficult and often miss shots due to being too slow or too nervous. Sometimes I do bag a good one, such as the one in my header, which shows a couple of possible homeless guys juxtaposed with people enjoying their lunches in the sunshine outside the Playhouse.

Do pop over and see how the rest of the gang, including our newest member Richard (welcome Richard) have interpreted the theme, and do enjoy this short documentary about Vivian Maier.

As I mentioned previously, I also enjoy taking photos of female models, and Gail and I have done a few short courses together about how to do it. It's been a very interesting education and like to think that I have taken some reasonable pictures, like this one of a local model called Oona, who I had the pleasure of shooting a few weeks ago here in Beeston. There is obviously so much more to learn. Not just about getting the model to pose well, but thinking about the poses and how to light the scene. We have booked a Groupon course that will hopefully show us how to do this.

Tuesday Tidy-up

Here's last week's Headbanger Challenge silver medal winning photograph.

The theme that I came up with, as it was my turn to choose was stripes. And so I took this photo of some striped candies that were for sale in the Old Market Square.

Tomorrow is of course Wednesday, and so the new theme and photographs will be revealed. Although I have changed my header already; as I know what the theme is!

Blast From The Past

In this age of digital cameras, I was somewhat bemused to see this chap taking a photo of the beach in the Old Market Square using a film camera.

But a special one at that, as I think it is a Rolleiflex. Not that I am an expert on cameras, just remember seeing them being used by the likes of David Bailey in films and documentaries etc from the 1960s.

I had thought about striking up a conversation with him and finding out more about his enjoyment of photography, but I didn't want to break his concentration, while he was composing his picture through the unique vertical viewfinder.

Sunday Sun

Whilst passing a small area of waste land the other day, I noticed a bright yellow sunflower had sprung up amongst the weeds.

Quite an usual sight, especially as people don't normally go into this area. So it must have been dropped by a bird earlier in the year.

It was quite nice to see, basking in the late afternoon sunshine.

Back to the 1960s

A Saturday morning in Beeston during August can only mean one thing; music in the Square.

This week it was the turn of a band called 60s.R.Us, who played a number of classic songs from the 1960s by the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Hollies. And very good they were too.

The audience thought so too, as they sang and danced along to the five piece. I don't think you can beat songs from the sixties to get an audience going; no matter what their ages.

Whatever happens to music styles in the future, I predict that we'll still appreciate and enjoy the songs of that era. And quite rightly too, as the tunes were wonderful; just like the band themselves.

Jampacked

As I mentioned yesterday, Gail and I went to a quiz night to help raise funds for Oxfam.

It was being hosted and compared by a friend of mine called Matt, AKA Lord Beestonia. Although now that he has moved to the neighbouring village, he has tried calling himself Lord Attenborough. But I said that the well known British actor and film director Richard Attenborough may have something to say about it!

Anyway, there were 50 questions in total, together with a picture round. Another friend of mine called Lewis and his mum Karen joined us, together with another couple they knew.

We went by the name of 'Oddshots' as most of us are involved in photography. Alas we didn't win, but we had the satisfaction of doing our bit for charity.

There were quite a few people there, and there was also a singer/guitarist called Martin Jackson, who played to us a couple of times during the evening. He wasn't bad, and produced his own way of playing well known tunes.

My shot, shows Matt in full flow in reading out one of the questions. Matt by the way is also a blogger and edits a local free magazine called The Beestonian. If you want to know more about him and his work, HERE'S A LINK to his website.

Stripes

Apologies to all, but Gail and I have been a little late with our Headbanger Challenge entries this week. This has been down to spending a great Wednesday evening talking photography to friend of ours. We stayed longer than we intended, but he was so interesting to talk to, and he showed us how Lightroom worked and what you can do with it. So this may be the next piece of software we buy for our Macs. Thanks Jurgen, you're a pal.

So this weeks theme is mine, and I've gone for stripes. Quite a good subject to show, as you see stripes absolutely everywhere. So I wasn't short of ideas. But I saw this display of stripy lollypops and candies for sale in the kiosk around the Old Market Square that arrived with the substitute seaside a couple of weeks ago.


The sweets on sale adds to the idea of being at the seaside, although we only see pigeons in the city centre, rather than seagulls. They look rather eye-catching and so I thought a photo of them would make an ideal header.

Do pop over and see the others' ideas and work of how they have interpreted my theme.

Stairs

These stairs are very old; probably Victorian, as they are situated in the Lace Market, which is one of the oldest parts of Nottingham.

I wonder how many thousands of feet have walked up and down these stone steps over the last hundred years. I know that I have been on them a few times.

Silver Dreams

Well the Olympics is finally over after the months and months of hype and controversy.

Coming along shortly are the Paralympics, which to me is far more noteworthy, as all the competitors will have a disability of one form or another.

Unfortunately they will not be receiving as much attention and the games have been relegated to one of our lesser TV channels, and therefore won't be receiving such blanket coverage in the media.

I saw an advert in my local Sainsbury's the other day, inviting shoppers to come along and have their photos taken with the special silver torch. I had no real compulsion to have my photo taken, as it's something that I don't really like. I always prefer to have my face behind the camera, but as it was something different, I thought I would.

Alas there was no flame in the torch, as it's being driven around. The guy who was taking the photos said that he had just come from Derby. Apparently they are visiting all the Sainsbury's stores around the country, as the supermarket is one of the sponsors of the games.

So do keep an eye out for your own opportunity of holding the torch; if only for a few seconds.

Having Your Cake And Eating It

A new cake shop called Patisserie Valerie has just opened in the city centre. It's got an art neoveau look to it as the firm has been around since 1926.

It's not one that I've heard of before, but their cakes look delicious, if somewhat expensive.

According to their website, the company actually started in London, not say in Paris from the logo and style of the shop. I didn't pop in, just looked through the window. Maybe I'll go in and treat myself and Gail to one of their luscious cakes, and it will give me a chance to snap a couple of pictures.

I was going to use this photo for Wednesday's Headbanger Challenge, but have now found something better. So go on, imagine how tasty one of those cakes is going to be.

Hitting The Beat

Another shot of Carmina.

This time it's of their drummer; Ian Beestin who did a pretty good drum solo.