Brompton Cemetery
The photo walks I have been on in the past with my friend Catherine have produced some of my best work. From our first trip to Borough Market, through our series of London walks in 2015, and our return to Borough Market that same year, there is something about the walks we take together that produces images I’m always happy with.
Our trip to Brompton Cemetery in 2017, however, was our first trip in a while, and I was definitely rusty at the point (so you can only imagine what I’m like now, considering I’m also only just editing these), and certainly at the start I was making a lot of the mistakes I often make when I haven’t shot for a while – simple things like forgetting to adjust basic settings like aperture or ISO for the image I’m trying to capture. For that reason you’ll see some images in this post that, despite being wide landscapes, were shot at f/4, and other shots you won’t see at all because I shot them at the wrong setting and they ended up overexposed, so I binned them.
You’ll also have to forgive me when going through these shots, because these were all taken almost three years ago and I can’t remember a lot of the walk itself, so whenever I talk about what I was intending to do with an image it may be conjecture on my part.
We met at the north-west end of the cemetery, where we quickly found a tomb of some sort.
The entrances to the cemetery being at its ends means you are also quickly greeted with long, perspective-inducing pathways.
There were plenty of gravestones for perspective photos as well.
As you can see, I’ve played about with the colour a lot in these images. I’ve desaturated the greens a lot in order to produce a bleak, miserable look, which seemed appropriate for a graveyard. I’m pleased with the effect.
For a few other shots mere selective desaturation wasn’t producing a spooky enough result, I used Analog Efex Pro to generate something more extreme.
Sometimes, I didn’t need to do much for to create ominous scenes, because the wildlife provided it for me.
Another theme you will see across most of the images in this post is one of texture. Many, many of the images feature some sort of ageing or weathering, be it the rust on the door of the image above, or as you will see later on the lovely texture of aged gravestones. In fact, when editing these images, for most of them I tweaked the ‘clarity’ slider in Lightroom to bring out the textures of the surfaces.
Other times I chose to boost the green a bit, making for brighter scenes.
Being a patch of green in London, crows weren’t the only wildlife, there were of course squirrels, which I will always find cute.
For the spots where fresh flowers had been left, I boosted the saturation a bit to bring them out.
One of my favourite things to photograph were all the shapes and details in the gravestones and markers. There was quite a variety, from small creepy angels, do sculptures of books, to simple but beautiful wooden crosses.
And, of course, sometimes the creepy brought itself.
In contrast, the kid’s section was just terribly sad.
Many pretty gravestones and squirrels later…
…we came to a large building which probably has a very specific technical name that I should probably know, which gave another variety of perspective shots.
This being an old cemetery in London, there’s plenty of rich corpses lying around, so every so often you come across a large tomb. This was the biggest one we found, big and monolithic and looking like something out of a 1970s Doctor Who episode.
Most of the others were far less ostentatious by comparison.
All in all we did a complete loop of the place and I took a great many photographs. You can see the full set of images below, but just for good measure I’m going to close out with a trio of cute squirrel photos.
Including this last squirrel, who looks like he’s a messenger about to give news to the main villain that the hero and his friends have escaped.
All in all, whilst I’m not sure this is the best walk I’ve taken with Catherine (either of our trips to Borough Market or West End Wander takes that spot for me) but overall I’m happy with the results.
#BromptonCemetery #Catherine #cemetery #London #memorials #monochrome #Photography #pigeon #squirrel #tombstones #travelPhotography #wildlife
Borough Market
Working, as I do, in the middle of London, one of the world’s most vibrant and varied cities, it theoretically doesn’t take much for me to get some interesting photos. All I should need to do is bring my camera to work, and then go for a walk at lunchtime.It isn’t always that simple. For a start I’m obviously limited to somewhere I can get to and back from within an hour, allowing time for shooting. That’s difficult. I often shoot excessively to see what comes out which means I like to not have time constraints – not to mention I obviously also need to eat at some point during that hour. Then, of course, there is always the luck of the light with whatever you’re trying to photograph..
Sometimes, however, it all comes together. Last Friday two friends from work and I (Catherine and Simon – the same two who, for anyone with a long enough memory, I went along with to attend the International Paralympic Day celebrations) headed down to Borough Market. Catherine (curator of CJ Trigg Photography, linked to the right) had already spent a small amount of time there experimenting with the photographic possibilities, so we decided to all go there and see what we could capture. Fortunately, we got a work-sanctioned pass, which also removed the time commitment.
For us, the idea was to resurrect our joint blog plan from last August, as well as have the opportunity to compare and contrast the different images we got from the same location.
As is often the case with this sort of trip, initially it can take a while for the self-consciousness of going somewhere with a camera and shooting abstract things to wear off. It doesn’t help, of course, when you show up as three people, each with SLRs, looking quite a bit like this:
Borough Market, for those who’ve never heard of it, is a mostly-covered market selling primarily food, with a few arts and crafts thrown in for good measure. We went relatively early – about 11am – in order to avoid the crush of the lunchtime rush.
We stuck roughly together as we wandered around the market, separating a little when we saw something worthy of a shot. Occasionally we all found ourselves in the same spot – at least once, we ended up all standing in the same square couple of feet of space to avoid the crowds, whilst pointing our cameras in three completely different directions.
That said, when we got back into the office and had a quick look through the photos, we all have some very similar shots to each other. Some of them border on identical (give or take the height difference).
Still, it was interesting to shoot somewhere else, and above all shoot images that are impressive but generic. I even managed to use all four of my lenses at one point or another.
Due to the nature of the subject and the photographs, I liken the results to the Sights and Sounds of London Town post from two months ago, and as a result have put these images into the gallery format.
I added a filter to this one to give it a 1970s Europe feel. | 1/20sec, f/7.1, ISO 125, 18mm
I added a sepia filter to this one. | 1/20sec, f/5, ISO 200, 53mm
This one has been mostly desaturated. | 1/100sec, f/4.5, ISO 250, 39mm
Past their best, but still worth a sup. | 1/60sec, f/4.5, ISO 250, 37mm
A nice, old-school feel. | 1/320sec, f/3.5, ISO 250, 18mm
Cabbage and stuff. | 1/800sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm
I forget what these are. | 1/250sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm
I don’t know what this is, but I like the detail. | 1/250sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm (cropped)
I love the clarity of the stuff and the bokeh of the background. | 1/500sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm (cropped)
Part of a display. | 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm
I don’t know why you’d need ‘extra’ virgins in your olive oil. | 1/500sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 100mm (cropped)
Disgusting things but I like the texture and divided colour in this shot. | 1/100sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Love the colours. | 1/100sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm (cropped)
Love the lighting on this shot. | 1/200sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Not really a fan of these either but they look interesting. | 1/125sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Any jokes I make about something with ‘rape’ in the title are bound to be inappropriate. | 1/50sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
I love the way this is surrounded by the leaves. | 1/60sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Ah, now we’re getting to the sugary delights. | 1/1600sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Tasty, tasty fudge. | 1/800sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
I don’t know what this is but I know I want to eat one. | 1/2000sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Can… can I have some? | 1/200sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
I’ll just take a bit… | 1/250sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
That knife looks a bit sharp for just nougat… | 1/800sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
My favourite shot of the whole set. | 1/400sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Ah, balsamic vinegar. My favourite of the vinegars. | 1/1250sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
They stack it like that to make it harder to steal without making a noise. | 1/160sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
Uber brownies! | 1/10sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
As long as that green bits aren’t mould or mint, I want some. | 1/250sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm (cropped)
Do you like bread? I’ve got a French loaf *whomp* | 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 100mm
We weren’t really sure what they were doing with this cheese, but it still looked tasty. | 1/800sec, f/5.6, ISO 800, 135mm
Looks like they overcooked this a little. | 1/125sec, f/11, ISO 1250, 120mm
Are you hungry yet? Does it matter? | 1/400sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, 75mm
The multicoloured ones taste like rainbows. | 1/500sec, f/5, ISO 500, 55mm
Meat served up on a platter. | 1/400sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, 120mm (cropped)
Could you imagine the bus driver’s face if I tried to use one of these to pay for my ticket? | 1/250sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, 135mm
This is why we eat paint. | 1/640sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, 85mm
Simon, photographing a line of smoothies. | 1/500sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, 135mm
Eel stakes. They’re high. | 1/125sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000, 75mm
Stilton. | 1/100sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000, 135mm (cropped)
I love the sharpness and detail on this shot. | 1/320sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000, 135mm (cropped)
A multicoloured jam. | 1/1250sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000, 70mm
Spoons in a jam. | 1/1250sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000, 70mm
I think they’d get angry if I were to take that and try dunking it in the fudge. | 1/800sec, f/5, ISO 1000, 180mm
I think these barrels are for people to be sick when they’ve eaten too much. | 1/800sec, f/5, ISO 1000, 135mm
I’m pretty sure this is the shot I took, not the one Simon took. | 1/200sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000, 70mm
Screw the olives, that feta looks delicious. | 1/800sec, f/5, ISO 1000, 140mm
A scoop in a barrel of olives. | 1/160sec, f/5, ISO 1000, 160mm
Do owls like biscuits? | 1/2500sec, f/5, ISO 1000, 160mm
I love the colours of these. | 1/500sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000, 95mm
A customer ponders his purchase. | 1/320sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
Some of the fishing gear at a stall. | 1/100sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
I’m not really sure why these were above a fish stall, but here they are. | 1/250sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
I love the perspective on this shot. | 1/640sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
A fishmonger’s stall.
After all the fudge, nougat and fish, burgers for afters. | 1/500sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
Like a 50s orange juice advert. | 1/1600sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm
It took a lot of effort, but this shot came out really, really well in the end. | 1/80sec, f/2.8, ISO 800, 100mm
There was also a white rose. | 1/400sec, f/4, ISO 1250, 100mm
… and a pink one. | 1/250sec, f/4, ISO 1250, 100mm
A low cloud on the day obscured the (admittedly unfinished) top of the Shard. | 1/100sec, f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mmIf you like these, check out Catherine’s shots on CJ Trigg Photography. Simon’s shots have been mixed with ours and posted on our shared blog, CSR Photography.
