My Last Photography Social :(

Yes, I want to see the Deathtrap play for the sole reason that Jonathan Groff (Glee's Jesse) is in it (and no, this photo and many of the others do not have any relevance to the challenge)!

Shoes! ok, getting sidetracked again...

"Use Reflections" was one of our ten challenges to get photos of

"Use Props" or on the way to "Shoot a portrait not showing someone's face" (but obviously didn't quite get there). Could also be "Capture Personality"...kind of (all depends on how you sell it to the judges!)

More non-relavant photos...

"Use Shadows" was another challenge

More shadows!

"Take a photo from an unusual viewpoint"

"Create Drama" (and as you might have noticed, we were supposed to bring props as well, as one challenge was "Use Props", hence the witches hat and the perfect opportunity to use it thanks to Wicked posters in Leicester Square!)

To get her in the right place where she would be the same size as Glinda in the poster (or as close as we could get) took quite a bit of moving, repositioning, and looking a bit silly!

"Self Portrait" was one of the challenges as well although this didn't turn out too great...

Theme of this social is: (drumroll please) PORTRAITURE! This immediately made me not want to sign up because if you've noticed, I don't really like people in my photos. Not only that, but our teamates and ourselevs are supposed to be the subjects in the photos which made it less appealing (that's why I take the photos, so I don't have to be in them!). And the third drawback? Bring props!haha... But I'm really glad I went because the next social isn't until Nov. 17th which is the day I go back to the states :( . So our night started at the Round Table pub in Leicester Square and we got our assignment with our ten different challenges pertaining to portraits "Shoot an abstract portrait, Use backlighting in a portrait, and the ones listed above (plus one more I can't remember). Our team, "Shooting Pumpkins" (a take on Smashing Pumpkins, Halloween, and Shooting in the photography sense), went around Leicester Square for an hour trying to get all the shots in. It proved to be as hard as the last social on the boat where instead of shooting randomly, you have to plan all of your shots and even create a few! As usual though, I had a great time, and I will really miss all my photography friends :( I only wish they had something like this in Houston!

Photography Social #3-Ahoy Matey!

So the theme of this photography social was a nautical theme as we started by meeting on the R.S. Hispaniola boat which is docked along the Victoria Embankment. We had 10 sailor/nautical related sayings such as "Fly-by-Night", "The Devil to Pay", "Square Meal", "High and Dry", "True Colours", "Feeling Blue", "Blind Eye", "The Bitter End", "Cut of his Jib". Now I don't exactly know what any of these mean in any nautical sense (or other), but it was clear that this social would be difficult. Instead of just having one theme that we had to shoot bewteen our 4-6 team members, we had to take specific shots that would represent each one of these strange sayings. We started out with a group of five, added one to make a group of six, and lost two as we went out and shot for an hour to give us a team of four. Not sure why two of our teamates left us "high and dry" (sorry, bad pun our remaining team members came up with after a few drinks), but it was fine because between the 4 of us, we got each of the sayings covered, even if they were pictures we really had to explain to get to the meaning! Because I was unsure of the challenge, I took a lot of extra photos as you can see that were non-social related.

Our boat as we arrived! Too bad Chloe and I walked the wrong way out of Embankment tube station and walked for a good 15 minutes in the wrong way when the boat was literally 10 feet from where we came out.

Walking across Embankment Bridge

View of Southbank from the Bridge


Embankment Train Station

"True Colours" (I mean there's colors...)

More "True Colours"

Looking across the Thames

"Feeling Blue" option (I mean there's blue...)

Our boat again!

Reflections of St. Paul's

This was taken accidentally when my umbrella flew inside out for the fifth time.

No one on the Millenium Bridge-amazing! It probably had something to do with the massive amoutn of rain.

Tower Bridge off in the background

So last night I went to my second photography social in the St. Paul's area. Too bad it was one of the most miserable days and nights we've seen the whole time I've been here with cold temperatures and pouring rain from dawn to midnight! This being said, not too many people showed up for this one. Our assignment was definitely appropriate for the day, as it was to capture St. Paul's in reflections only. As you can see, some of these photos wouldn't really classify as I captured St. Paul's itself, and other things-not St. Paul's, but while I was getting soaked to the bone, I wanted to get as many good shots as I could. Holding the umbrella while shooting was impossible, especially when crossing over Millenium Bridge which was super slippery and super windy, blowing my umbrella inside out with every chance it got! We made it back to the pub just in time for my camera to go haywire and the screen to turn pink. It was more than a little wet, and having to wipe the lense on my shirt every 5 seconds couldn't have helped. Hopefully it just needs to dry out and rest, but had a great time just the same!