The Classic Tourist and Their Camera...

Hipstamatic
Buckingham Palace
England, UK

It's funny being a tourist in your own country. Many people all over the world come and visit Britain and during the Summer, Buckingham Palace is a popular destination. My family and I have always wanted to go on this 'Royal Day Out' stated on our tickets. It was absolutely delightful and positively British in most the respectful sense. We then rounded off the day drinking tea out of paper cups which couldn't be more of a contrast; quirky though.

Hipstamatic 
Buckingham Palace Garden Cafe
England, UK

Onto more of a photography note now that was the spark that inspired me to write this post...

Hipstamatic
Royal Crown
England, UK

I had a home-bought picnic lunch and ate it in St James' Park just around the corner from the palace and watched foreign tourists take pictures of this immaculate trimmed bush of a royal crown...

 It was extremely interesting because they would walk round all angles of it, finding their place and perfect composition of this...well bush. I wrote a little about Tourist Photography on my trips to York and Venice back in Summer months and it is fascinating how we want to take a picture of the same view a million other people have taken. It could be easy enough to type into Google and search for this sight. After all we all know what the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Hollywood sign in LA looks like, even if we may have never seen them in person. After thinking about this a little, I have come to the conclusion that we want to put our personal mark on things. We go somewhere like the Grand Canyon and we have had the memory of it but we want a picture to be taken to validate what we saw. This crown, this Buckingham Palace, no matter where you live, this picture is a reminder of what you did on a certain day which enhances other thoughts and feelings that were part of this day. I guess that is why Photography is so great. We just want to remember. 

People. Places. The World. Life.

Hipstamatic 
Leaf
England, UK

Brownsea Island...

Red Squirrel 
Brownsea Island
Poole, England

Summer is always a time where day outings happen. Everyone wants to explore the sunshine covered country in it's rare moments. I went to Brownsea Island the other day. I wasn't expecting it to be much; National Trust and all. However once the clouds parted and a perfect combination of breeze and warmth came through, it was a lovely day in a picturesque set of woods and cute little beaches full of escapism and full blown wanderlust. Red squirrels are very rare in the UK, we don't have many, so it was great opportunity to see one and let alone capture one on camera. I must say, it wasn't easy and with a little clever focusing and a good deal of cropping, I'm quite impressed with my shot.

Dramatic Sky
Pool Harbour
Brownsea Island

Take a seat
Brownsea Island
Poole, England

Little Boat, Little Beach
Brownsea Island
Poole, England

Fairy woods
Brownsea Island
Poole, England

I feel I am really starting to get the hang of Lightroom. I can't get enough of those dramatic skies using the Graduation Tool and with a better understanding of the manual controls on my camera, I feel a great improvement from last year. 

Hipstamatic Summer...

I do love Summer and after much trying and pushing to keep up with my Hipstamatic 365 project, it simply wasn't working. I have, however taken a few pictures here and there to capture the summer of 2012 and rather bit them in a slideshow I decided to keep the text short overall for this post and let the pictures do the talking. 

York on film...

York, United Kingdom (2012)

Would you have perhaps imagined that I took this picture using coloured film? It sure wasn't that long ago that cameras used film and you had a limit of 36 exposures. Technology has certainly developed over the years. I remember my childhood was captured on various film cameras and from time to time, selecting a wallet from the draw with a random date kind of just takes you back. I find coloured film nostalgic.

I never imagined York to be an old place, the photo above, says it all really, but even the roads were cobbled and mainly untouched by the modern man. It was a coincidence that I wanted to try out coloured film here. I had been using black and white HP5 film during my first two semesters at University, but other than the odd disposable camera, I had never used a proper coloured film with a proper film camera.

Black and white is one thing. It is very classic, very vintage and the grainy quality is one of a kind. I wondered if I would get such an effect with colour but I have found that once a print has been scanned, there is almost a clear-film like texture overlaying the image and I quite like it. It is what a photograph is supposed to look like, in my eyes anyway. I have learned over this year that photography is about truth and capturing what the eye can see, unlike in painting. However my style and my interest in photography is making the photographs a little different from what you see and I like this because it is almost like an escape to from the real world. You can take bits you like from them and make them richer or desaturate them and I guess from saying this that the digital world suits me very much, however I still love using film.

What I have found, also, when scanning in a film print is that if you don't deselect auto-exposure then that is how you get a more saturated image. In addition, by comparing the images below is that the auto-exposure image is more like the digital cameras of today. There is certainly more definition and more truthful to reality but it is the fact that anyone these days can take an image like that and it is the quality of the film that makes it unique.

scanned - straight from print
   (no alterations)

scanned - (+ auto exposure)

Not much of a difference?

foggy - natural

auto exposure - more definition

There is a subtlety but it depends on what you are looking for and how fussed you are. 

The great thing about photography, these days is that you can experiment to your hearts content. However new cameras and the progress of technology wouldn't have happened without experimentation in the first place. I believe it can get you far. 

Want to visit my Flickr photostream with the featured photos in my blog and more then click the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brown_eyed_dreamer/