Little Chinatown London

During my trip to London I decided to spend a little time in the vibrate and colourful Chinatown. Located near the fun and theatre packed area of Leicester Square. The long square of streets that make up Chinatown is packed with interesting shops, pagodas, restaurants and even people performing political protests (including one man protesting China's stance on it banning the spiritual art of Qui Chung).

Tempted in by the fish, crabs and lobsters sitting in a tank I decided to explore a local supermarket took my time to wander round and take in all the strange and exotic spices, sauces and objects.

After exploring all of this I was hungry so I stopped at a Dim Sum restaurant and had some absolutely incredible food. I did order a touch too much though and so had to leave slightly defeated by the sheer amount of grub that was carried to the table.

I took some time to walk around Leicester Square and as the sun was setting I took the underground back to my hotel in Vauxhall. Overall I was very glad I had taken the time to explore Little Chinatown in London.

Dancing in colour

I felt the need to escape this weekend, to run away from life and have an adventure so I followed that urge and booked my bus ticket to London. There is so many touristy things to see and do in London that it can be easy to become blinded to some of the exciting smaller moments that happen in the city everyday.

After wandering through the city I returned to my hotel just as the sun was setting. It was coming home that I stumbled across a number of teenagers performing bike tricks in an alcove next the thames river. I was fascinated by the colour, energy and joy that these people found as they leapt through the air on their bikes.

As I followed them with my camera I tried to capture them flying through the air. Dancing in the light, shooting past coloured walls, landing tricks and occasionally landing flat on their arses. It was like they were dancing in colour and I was there to capture every glorious moment of it.

The highway

Hi to all my regular page viewers, first I'd like to apologise for the absence of any blog posts for a while. When I first set up this blog it was because I wanted to have an outlet with which to publicize my art which was so important to me. Unfortunately over time I found the pressure of out putting a new blog post every week soon began to take a toll on me creatively and I ended up suffering from creative burn out. From now on I will be still be doing blog posts but it will be at a more relaxed pace. One that I am more comfortable with. Thanks for bearing with me and for regularly viewing my work guys. 

The highway near where I live had been calling me for a while and after one nights wandering I came across a bridge over it. I was fascinated by the cars passing by and wanted to capture some of th light trails that came from it.

I found that light trailed created the sense of some futuristic city viewed from above of strange and hypnotic light trails slipping away into the night.

Far above the road and found a new way to view the highway.

Spellbound

Walking back home through the back streets of Cardiff I was struck one by how large and bright the moon was that night. Its strange, pale light lit the night and cast an unearthly glow upon the streets below. I was instantly spellbound.

Taking pictures that night I followed the moon. Capturing passing street lights and strangers, shadow filled roads and the buildings that had been caught in the glare of these strange and beautiful lights.

Buildings became haunted houses, passing strangers became romantic and other and trees became arcane and occult bewitched by the light of the moon.

For that night the streets of Cardiff weren't the same, for that one night the city wasn't the same. Under that unearthly night everything became spellbound.

A metal and plastic sky

A year or so ago I discovered the joy of finding reflections in unorthodox surfaces; puddles, rivers, concrete and windows. All these I poured over looking at new angles from which to take photos at.

One day I was at a bus stop with my camera and when I looked up I was inspired for above me was a second sky, one of metal and plastic. I always meant to return to explore more of the strange sky but I never did, until now.

Its been raining over Cardiff today, so I was taking shelter under a bus stop with my camera when I looked up. Immediately I knew what my latest blog post would be about. I explored a number of stops in my area as the light over head changed from a grey grizzled sky, to a deep bruised colour before finally setting into night.

It was a new world, a colourful and bright on that shimmered and shivered with all the colours and reflections of a metal and plastic sky.

The swamp waters

Down by where I work are some swampy waters to which I sometimes go, filled as they are with rushes, reeds, trees and tangled beds of roots. Fish swim in their murky depth and sometimes I can imagine that stranger, larger creatures prowl just below the surface of the waters.

Sometimes I am joined by a single solitary heron who patiently stalks the water looking for any fish who are foolish enough to pass by beneath it.

Water drips down from a grey sky creating ripples in the waters below, the reflections on the waters surface momentarily disrupted.

Its somewhere I go when I want to think, to watch a world quietly going by without a man or woman to disturb it.

And in these strange swampy waters briefly I find peace.

The world at the bottom of every pool

“Why, if we can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, mightn’t we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing there was a world at the bottom of every pool.”

C.S Lewis - The Magician's Nephew

 

I've sometimes had a secret fantasy that one day when passing by a particularly clear watery reflection that I would jump in and instead of emerging soaked I would continue to fall directly into another world, one of fantasy and magic.

Of course its just a fantasy but when I set out recently to take photos its something I bore in mind as I scoured the streets looking for puddles that reflected the world around me.

Its been raining non stop for the last week and the UK is groaning under the weight of all the water that has poured down upon the streets.

Out of all this bad weather however came the most amazing opportunities for photography as black and gold patches of water stretched across its lanes.

And though it was challenging, through patient effort I was able to create a number of images that reflected this fantasy. A series of photos which hinted that the depth of these reflections held something more. At a world at the bottom of every pool.