We went back to Canary Wharf again this weekend after our slightly failed attempt a couple of weeks ago.  This time we jumped through the proper hoops and got a permit to be there, so the security guards (who were all very friendly) weren’t able to send us packing.

Ian wasn’t able to make it this week due to a football related knee injury, so I was joined by none other than Lee Crawley from Crawley (the gent who created my new toaster icon).  He’s done some cool light painting in the past, but I believe this was his first orb outing.

We even tried to combine our 2 light painting styles as seen in the above image (the light ribbon to the left), and even more so in this shot.

Still kicking myself for not creating a proper orb in this shot, but I could only manage a 1 minute exposure so had to do all of that in the time available.

This is the first time I’m posting watermarked images, which I know can be a bit annoying.  They are however at almost twice the resolution I used to post images at, so there’s good news with the bad.

The rest are in the gallery here!

ps:  thanks again to Ian for sorting out the permit for us, and to Lee for being my trigger man and making sure my compositions were ok while I spun the orbs.

evilKitchen.ca has a new logo!

I’ve wanted to do something like this for ages, but I definitely lack the skills to do it myself so I needed outsource the work. I’ve spoken to a couple of people about doing it in the past, but nothing has ever panned out. Until Lee posted a link to some of his previous works on the POTN thread.  I sent him a quick message about what I was looking for and he was happy to get cracking right away.

We went through a few options before finally deciding on the toaster for its instant recognizability (and how can you not love the devil-horn-toast?)

I’ll be adding a smaller version to the header image of the site in the next day or so, and I’ve already inserted it into most/all of my online networking sites.  I’m very excited about it!

Would love to hear what you think!

Well, sort of.  The plan was to head into Canary Wharf and take a few shots in some predetermined locations with my new orb tools.  That plan was quickly kyboshed by the (friendly) security guards in Canary Wharf.  They quickly detailed the area in which we weren’t allowed to shoot which, by chance or by karmic bad luck, happened to cover every spot I was hoping to visit.

They were nice enough to explain how to go about getting permission to shoot there however.  After my impending company has left and Danni and I have returned from our trip to Greece I plan on doing just that and going back to get the shots I wanted.

Here is the one and only shot we (Ian Schofield and I) managed to get before being moved along.

The rest were taken (in almost child like defiance) from across the water but facing back into the area we weren’t allowed to photograph.

We were actually approached by another security guard in this last location, but he didn’t seem to mind what we were doing.  He was just curious I think.

I have learned that it’s very hard to find a good location in London that’s dark enough to get these orbs to turn out well.  Everywhere is so brightly lit that the light pollution makes everything fade away into the background.  I believe it simply calls for brighter orbs!

Few more in the gallery here.

In an effort to get out of London with Danni over the Easter holidays, we hopped on a train first thing Monday morning headed to Dover.  The plan was to do a bit of hiking, enjoy the weather (if possible) and see the famous white cliffs of Dover.

The camera was along and I did take quite a few photos, but most of them include Danni in some fashion and she doesn’t want me posting them just yet.  There aren’t many to show, but here’s a little taster of the day.

Once again, the fine folks from POTN and I set out for a day of photography.  This time the destination was Rochester, Kent.  I don’t recall who selected the destination as it seemed a bit random, but they had a nice cathedral and the lion’s share of a castle remaining to attract some photographic attention.

I did sneak into the crypt of Rochester cathedral for a couple of light orbs as well.  Ok, so it was open to the public and there was no sneaking involved, but it was still a very cool venue.

After the excitement of the castle and cathedral and when I’d felt said excitement had peaked, we headed down to the Medway Festival of Steam.  Honestly.  There were some interesting steam powered contraptions lumbering around, but not really my cup of tea.  It was down at the rivers edge, which gave me a chance to play with some really long exposures and shoot these boats through a bit of welders glass.

You’ll find a few more images from the day here.  There are also images from the other photographers on the POTN site here.