A Walk with the GRD

I took my GRD I with me to go out and take some photos around London. I like the black and white quality and figured it would be nice to take some street shots with it.

The weather was quite nice and there were a lot of people out and about so it provided plenty of opportunities to take photos.

London is always nice if you can just walk around and don't need to be anywhere, when you can just wander and take photos.

Puddle

GF1, f2.8, 1/500, ISO 400, RAW, 100mm (Canon f1.8 50mm FD)

What started with a lot of rain ended up being a nice day with some sun and blue skies in the afternoon. I went for a walk to get some air and take photos with the GF1.

Fridge Family

GRD, f5.0, 1/400, ISO 1600, JPG b&w

This is more a fun picture that I saw while out for a walk today. The fridges seemed just randomly dumped half on the road or maybe they were out for a walk, too.

5 In London

I had to go into London to do one of the things I try to avoid as much as possible, shopping. Still, I figured before running around the shops I might as well do some photography first.

Instead of heading straight to Oxford Street, I started off at London Bridge and walked to the Tower to take some photos of the ceramic poppies they laid out before these would be taken away.

A long walk across the City and Holborn, I made it to Oxford Street and started looking around the shops. It was painful as usual and this time of the year it's even worse with people already starting their Christmas shopping.

After a somewhat unsuccessful shopping trip, it was time to go to the LPMG social meetup and get a (well deserved) pint.

On a day like today, the GR is the perfect camera because it's small, light and easy to carry while taking great photos.

Pink Umbrella

GF1, f1.8, 1/250, ISO 3200, RAW, 100mm (Canon f1.8 50mm FD)

While out for a walk in a light shower I kept taking photos and came across two girls with umbrellas, one with a pink and one with a green umbrella. Unfortunately by the time I got close enough the one with the green umbrella walked inside so I only got the girl with the pink umbrella in my photo.

Crossing

GF1, f1.8, 1/250, ISO 3200, RAW, 100mm (Canon f1.8 50mm LTM)

When going out for a walk and to do some shopping, I decided to take the GF1 with me and put the foggy Canon f1.8 50mm LTM lens on it for fun.

I switched to the b&w mode but when developing the RAW files and batch applying my profile over them some color remained even after dialing the saturation down. It must be a bug in RAW Therapee with my profile but I quite liked the effect so left it like this.

Sunny Sunday

GF1, f8.0, 1/100, ISO 100, RAW, 50mm (Holga f8.0 25mm m4/3)

After the mixed weather and rain yesterday, it was a great day with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.
I had to get a few things done but managed to fit in a walk around Streatham Common.
Since I sold some more lenses and cameras on ebay, I took my GF1 and the (now sold) Holga lens with me for a last outing before shipping the lens off tomorrow.

Estreham Road

GRD, f2.4, 1/40, ISO 1600, JPG b&w

It's been a mixed day and I didn't quite get up to what I planned or even as much as I wanted to. In between the rain I managed to head out for a walk in the evening and take some photos with the GRD I.

Bag Search

GRD, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Took this while out shopping, I liked the light but also her expression when I was walking out. It's great to have a camera that's easy to reach and available to take a photo at any time.

Long Shadows

GR, f8.0, 1/2000, ISO 100, RAW

What's nice about this time of the year is the low hanging sun creating long shadows and nice light in the morning. While walking past the Barbican, the shadows caught my attention but I was missing someone walking past. A person always adds some life and more to a photo so I was glad hat after a short wait someone was actually walking across.

Streatham Bonfire Night 2014

Beginning of November is bonfire night and fireworks all around the UK so it's always fun despite the cold and usually rainy weather.

Hello

GRD IV, f4.5, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

Took this while out for a walk ion the morning, I liked the light and the blue in the sign and handles.

Rightmove

GRD I, f3.2, 1/400, ISO 400, JPG b&w

It started with a rainy morning and it lasted into the afternoon but then the rain stopped and the sun came out again so a great opportunity for a walk around the neighborhood.

I decided to take the GRD I along and even set it to RAW mode to play around with some color photos but in the end I just prefer the black and white images it produces over what I can get out of it's RAW files.

After asking the question if people want to see the EXIF information and putting up a voting for it, it does look like most who voted prefer to see the EXIF information. So from this post on there will be EXIF information under a photo but as before not when there is a series of photos.

Tree

It's been a mixed day with a lot of rain in the morning and evening but in between the sun came out and made it quite nice.

I made use of the sunshine and went for a walk around and took some photos with the GRD IV this time. The GRD IV is a great camera and the most advanced GRD, it is a shame though that it pales when compared with the unique GRD I images or the way superior GR quality. It is a very capable camera on it's own but when it comes to the GR series nothing beats the GR and GRD I.

Classic Cars on Regent Street

It was another nice and sunny day so it made sense to go out and take some photos. I met with Kesh and we went to check out the car show on Regent Street.

Welcome to Halloween Town!

Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates it and to the others hope you had a great Friday!

I went to a pub for some drinks in the evening and to celebrate Halloween in my usual scary costume, dressed as myself! ;)

Once I got there she opened the door to let me in so I had to take a photo and it came out better than expected so I had my photo of the day.

I processed the GR JPG in Snapseed on my Nexus 5 phone so this is the photo you see here.

In Streatham

Took this photo while out for a walk around Streatham today.At first I only saw the two guys in the back and liked the half open shutter with the hands reaching down. While I was crossing the street to take the photo the police woman and other guy walked across the photo and made it a lot better than I expected.

Your Custom

It's been a grey and rainy day so I only went out for a walk in the evening. I took the GRD I with me to take some grainy b&w photos but it was quite dark and most came out quite blurry due to user error on my part. This is the only photo that I kept and despite there being some camera shake I do like it.

Looking for the Train

This was one of the first photos I took today, it was while waiting for the train to London Bridge. While I have been taken quite a few more photos around London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the City, I liked this one best.

Bug

I don't usually take macro photos but the GR has a quite decent macro mode so while I was enjoying a bit of the autumn sun on a bench, I took this photo of my company.

Penguins

Took this photo while out for a walk in the evening with the Panasonic GF1 and the Canon FD 50mm lens. It's funny how using these old cameras again feels so different now, still it's nice taking them out every now and then and see if it's still worth keeping them around.

Around Brick Lane

I decided to go to Brick Lane for some photography today. While I don't usually like the area that much and think it's Hipsters Paradise, it's fun to take photos at times.

New Sweet Adventures

Today, I set off specifically to take some low light, grainy b&w photos with the GRD I and figured I might as well use the 40mm adapter again. There just is something about the b&w image quality at ISO 1600 of the GRD I that I don't get with most other cameras.

Music & Drama

I am not that often in the City at the moment and while I don't miss it that much, I do like the area around the Barbican.

Since I had to go to the City today, it was a good opportunity to walk around the Barbican for a bit and take some photos.

Talk and Walk

Sometimes it's good to talk about a photograph and other times you can let the photograph do the talking.

There is however always something interesting at these underpasses where it feels like you might get mugged or killed if you walk through too late at night. It's fun to take photos though and maybe in the coming days I'll post a photo of he burnt out bin inside that tunnel.

I'm Back

After finishing my 'Round The World' trip and being back in London it was strange, at first it felt like I was still travelling and just at another place on my travels so I kept taking photos and walking around as usual.

Then after a very short time in London I decided to head to Germany and stay there for a few weeks, visit Photokina and try to see where to next.

The past weeks finally have seen me back in London and looking for jobs, going to interviews and selling some of my stuff on ebay to reduce clutter (after living out of a small backpack for a year everything not needed feels like clutter).

After taking hundreds of photos every day and over 60,000 photos during my trip I also took it a bit easier with my photography. That's not to say that I haven't been taking photos but I have taken many with my phone and didn't take a photo every day.

I didn't know how and when I would continue my blog but it always feels like there is something missing when I don't post.

Where and how to continue was a bigger challenge and I went through a few ideas but have now decided to just start with today's photos and back fill the days I have some good photos from the past weeks, including my Photokina posts and some series I have been taking on weekends.

Continuing from he lessons learned during my trip that less is always more and that gear certainly doesn't mater, I will not post the EXIF information to my photos because it really doesn't matter. If there is enough demand I will bring it back but for now I think the photos will mater more than the EXIF information.

There will be more updates coming from now on, both the daily post but also older posts that will appear to fill up the past weeks so I hope you are still following it and enjoy it.

More changes to the format or layout might follow and there will be adds since not enough people donated (but a big thanks to all who did!!) for the blog so ads will at least help me to maintain the blog.

Reading

More people than ever seem to read these days but not many do so using a physical book and even less walk while reading.
He seems to have been absorbed in his book and didn't want to stop just because he had to go somewhere.

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

The nice thing about fall is the light on a sunny day, the laves turning yellow, the low hanging sun and long shadows really provide a great light to take photos.
The rainy and grey days are not so nice but on a sunny day it's indeed very nice.

RD1 Photo Walk

Saturday is always a good time to meet people and go out to take photos and it was no different today.

I took my RD1 with the Nokton 40mm lens, to use one more time before selling it, and headed to Whitecross Street to grab a coffee and meet with Kesh and Tom.

On our way towards Camera Cafe and while doing a quick stop at Red Dot Camera, we ran into Dan and decided to all set off to Camera Cafe and take some photos along the way.

We all had different cameras but it was good fun to shoot on the street and afterwards look through our photos while enjoying a pint in a pub.

I do like how the RD1 performs and while it's very frustrating to shoot without a live view screen, it was overall fun and I managed to guess reasonably well the framing. With exception of the 2nd photo, all others were shot without using the OVF and by holding the RD1 like a p&s camera (which is best for street photography if you ask me).

Around Borough

I joined a few photography meetup groups in London but don't always get to go to the meetups and with my travels I haven't been in a while. So it made sense to go to the 'We Shoot People!' meetup and exhibition visit of the London Photography Festival near Borough.

Rainy Day

When it's raining and dark you don't usually feel like going out to take photos but it can be nice and it gets you out of the house.

I have used many cameras and seen photos taken with even more different cameras but none have the same black and white image quality as the Ricoh GRD, this is why despite it's age and other shortcomings it still remains one of my favorite cameras.

A Day in Brighton

The day started with great sunshine and it was pleasant so I decided to head to Brighton with Tom.

Farringdon and Richmond

I had to go to an interview in the City so instead of lugging around a heavy camera with me the GRD I was perfect for this task, as would have been the GR.

Rainy Shopping

Sometimes you go to a place because you want to see it, sometimes you go to it because you have to go. Still, it's always worth spending some time seeing a place even if only for half an hour, especially if it's somewhere you would never end up otherwise. 

This is what happened with me being in Ringwood today, a p[lace I didn't even know it existed but it was fun getting there and seeing it briefly.

Running Ahead

THe sun came out and I went for a walk around Streatham, it is not Greenwich but still ok. There certainly are less people out and about so it makes street photography a bit more difficult but there's always an opportunity around.

Sundial

Took this while out for a walk and enjoying the nice sunshine in Streatham.
Although the focus of the camera is on the sundial, he focus of the photo was on the couple on the bench in the background and it was them why I took this photo.

24 Red Baloons

I've met a friend in town and we've been walking around a bit enjoying the nice sunshine, I didn't take too many photos since we've been mostly catching up but I had my GR ready for anything interesting that crossed my path.

I liked the red balloons here and the red pod on the London Eye.

Sunny Day in Richmond

After getting back to London yesterday, I went to Richmond to meet Tom and we've been out taking some photos in the afternoon once the sun came out.

Looking at the U-Boot

After an early flight from Cologne and a longer bus journey from Stansted I made it back to London, it was time to get back here and look for a job, go to interviews and so on.
While it was nice in Germany, it was good to be back in London. There is just more happening here and it's also easier to find a job.