The speed of light is definitely more than 20mph in London.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 13s |
Tag Archives: Street Photography
Urban Life Below Los Gigantes
The setting sun cast a lovely colour on the cliffs of Los Gigantes in Tenerife while I was packing the car. We had just eaten in a nice restaurant and were going to drive down to the harbour on the other side of town when I saw the cliffs lit up this way.
Quick as anything, I got out my camera when I spotted the scene in front of me. There are so many layers here. The family crossing the road, car waiting, parked cars on distant hills, the apartment blocks, and the looming Los Gigantes behind them all.
We left shortly after, and while the sun had dipped closer to the horizon, there was still some light on the cliffs.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 58mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
JD Sports Coming Soon!
It was October 2019 and JD Sports had yet to open their shop on Patrick’s Street in Cork. The back of the building, on Drawbridge Street, featured JD Sports hoarding, but now it’s derelict, with “TO LET” signs in the windows, and the SAVOY entrance is boarded up.
A sign of the times. The city can’t compete with online sales.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 125 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
A Smoke Break in Athens
We were on our way to lunch when I spotted this gentleman sitting on a crate, chatting to a person in a newspaper kiosk.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Anchovy Symphony in Black and White
I’m not a huge fan of anchovies, but the way these fish were displayed caught my eye. The silvery fish created an almost hypnotic pattern across the vendor’s counter, their tiny bodies catching the harsh market lights in a way that demanded to be photographed.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
A Moment’s Pause in Málaga
Sometimes you have to stop and let humanity go past when there are too many people around.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 320 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
The Daily Commuter
While waiting for the train in Athens, I spotted a pigeon walking around the station, calm as you can imagine, as if he owned the place.
A few minutes later, a train rolled in, passengers started moving, and the pigeon flew into the rafters. Observing all that he rules.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
The Cat in the big smoke
There’s something delightfully peculiar about finding a cat on a lead. I spotted these two characters taking a break near Camden Town in London. The scene just screamed to be photographed. The smoke caught in the sunlight and the cat’s nonchalant pose, how could I resist?
It’s a candid shot, of course, and as the photo was taken in 2022. I wonder if they were and are still living in London?
I searched and found this TikTok video from later in 2022, so they were still around there in October that year!
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 1000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Parking Bay Oops
Looks like someone wasn’t that careful parking here. The poor parking sign is doing an imitation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Happy new year to you, dear reader. I’ve been posting photos here for twenty years this year. My first image, this yellow flower, is only 700px wide, but with the advent of high-resolution screens I’m now posting 1280px wide ones. I’ve gone through times when I used the featured image of the post instead of embedding it in the post like I did with this one, and that lasted for a year or two. To deal with those posts, I wrote a small function that copies that image into the post if it’s not already there. It seems to be working OK.
Here’s to the next twenty years. Gulp.
I also decided to embrace the new WordPress Twenty Twenty Five theme, and play around with the formatting of blocks. Nothing fancy at all. Just the bare bones, really.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 250 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Edinburgh’s Feathered Monuments
There’s something magical about Edinburgh during the golden hour, when the sun begins its descent and bathes the city in warm amber hues. I was walking along Princes Street with my colleagues after a long day of meetings when this scene stopped me in my tracks.
At first glance, it might seem like just another urban sunset, but nature has a way of adding its own whimsical touches to our carefully constructed world. A pigeon had chosen one of Edinburgh’s grand statues, the statue of King George IV, as its evening perch, creating an unintentionally perfect silhouette against the burning sky. As I framed the shot, I noticed its companion – another bird adorning a statue atop one of the buildings to the right (The Royal Society of Edinburgh, if Google Maps is right), as if they were having a silent conversation across the street.
The Georgian architecture of Hanover Street creates perfect leading lines, drawing your eye down to where the street meets the sky. The passing cars, their tail lights glowing in the dimming light, add a modern contrast to the historical grandeur of the buildings. There’s something deeply satisfying about capturing these moments where the past and present, nature and architecture, all converge in perfect harmony.
I shot this handheld with my camera set to underexpose the scene slightly, letting the buildings fall into shadow while preserving the rich orange tones of the sunset.
I love that there were pigeons sitting on those statues, even if they’re barely visible in the web-sized version here. They’re a reminder that nature finds a way, no matter what we do to tame it!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 70mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/15s |
