Photography Class Homework: Walthamstow

This week's homework project was "Walthamstow" which at first felt like it was too loose and too vague a subject matter to guide me in a particular direction, apart from east that is.

A suggestion came from another photographer friend of mine that I may want to take a picture of a Staffordshire Terrier in front of an E17 road sign to evoke memories of 90's pop band East 17. I would have loved to do this, and may still try in the future, my mum has a staff called Flick which never leaves her side for longer than a few hours so I may get Flick to model for me.

Another idea I had was to take photos of residential areas in Walthamstow that contrast the idyllic and charming houses of Walthamstow Village and shopping area against the more urban, utilitarian but uninspiring sights of the newer Walthamstow town. I may still do this, and I may even expand the project to show other parts of Walthamstow that are equally schizophrenic, Lloyd Park and it's surrounding area is an example of this.

The photos below are from the Lloyd Park walk and I will be submitting one of them as my homework project, probably the first picture with the girders and the row of houses. It shows Walthamstow as it is now and almost as it was 100 years ago, a place of considerable beauty.

I will be revisiting Walthamstow as a subject again. There is a wealth of picture making opportunities to be had here.

Posted via email from stephen walrond

Photography Class Outing: Lloyd Park, Walthamstow

Today was the first outing for the photography class, a visit to Lloyd Park in Walthamstow. Lloyd Park once owned by the Lloyd family and bestowed to Walthamstow Council by them in 1898, it was opened to the public in 1900. It's lush and green and is home to the William Morris Gallery which a handsome looking building if not that inspiring.

Having organised a few photowalks before I was eager to just walk and photo, however I hadn't factored in the classroom element of the outing and had to cool my heels to be reminded of the lessons learnt in Monday's class. The class on Monday was an hour long on the subject of composition and I picked up many tips;

• Walk around your subject to find the best angle, the best photo
• Don't be afraid to move your subject
• Look for the hand of man in your photos (telephone wires, lamposts)
• Look around the edge of the frame, watch out for highlights

Here's a selection of photos from from the day:

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Posted via email from stephen walrond

A Rainbow in my Room

This has to be a good omen. There's a rainbow in my room! Not that I believe that such things can change my luck, I don't much believe in luck. But this has put me in a good mood, which is always a great way to start the day. Good morning!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stephen walrond

Photography Class Homework: Week One - Nature

Last summer I wanted to join the Summer School at the Walthamstow District and Photo Society, unfortunately I took my sweet time about signing up and in the end was too late. Instead I joined the society in November and have been attending each Monday since then.
Now summer has come around again and the Summer School is back! This Monday past was the first lesson, and covered the basics, exposure, focus, camera types, shutter speed, focal length, aperture and all that. There were a lot of numbers thrown around, f-numbers, millimetres, fractions of seconds... and despite that it was quite entertaining.
We have homework! Homework! I don't do housework let alone homework... fortunately it is only a bit a photo taking, unfortunately the first week's subject was 'nature'. I have nothing against nature photography, I just can't get all that excited about it. I imagine that all the great photos of photography have been taken, and they're lovely but I'm going to struggle to bring something new to the table with only a week. So I've augmented the challenge, instead of taking a great, original and mind blowing photo of nature, I'm going to take a decent one with a mobile phone!

I can only choose one to 'enter' for my homework, not sure which one yet:

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from stephen walrond