A blog today about new beginnings and new chapters. I do have one more installment of my Yellow sun series, but before that I just wanted to share some images I have taken over the past few weeks since, and during my families move away from where I grew up. 

My family have lived in this house for over 23 years, so leaving where I have so many of my childhood memories has been tough for all of us I think, and not just for me. I find it hard to think of a bad memory here so it just shows how great this home was to me and how lucky I was growing up. I guess you find perspective and appreciate things like this when it comes to an end, but with an ending comes new beginnings, and this is no exception. With me moving to Bristol too, (all in the space of a week) its onto the next chapter and more happy memories to be made!

The last few days in the garden of my parents house, Autumn really kicked in so I took advantage of this time to take the 100mm Macro lens out and capture some of this explosion of colour before we left.

I was even Lucky enough to get close up shots of a Bumble bee trying to find a place to hibernate. It was sat on the decking outside my parents backdoor, and was lethargic enough for me to be able to get close enough to get some images (see below)

As well as me moving/helping my parents move, I have had a chance to wander the streets of Bristol a little bit. I unpacked my life and took in some of the new sights, being a full on tourist for a few days (guide required, apply within). I have started to try and take images of a city which is not the bog standard 'snap-shot' image that a million other people have already taken with their IPhone. Now this sounds easy but I find street photography very challenging so I am constantly looking for details or contrast, colour or shade, rather than the standard photo of a historical building etc..

I managed to find this in some of the buildings that Bristol is well known for, finding contrast and vivid colours to hone in on and make a striking image out of.

Having said all that, I did do the standard Panoramic of the Clifton Suspension bridge.....  

Along with my time in Bristol, I have also been up in London a few times for work, and was able to do some street photography here as well. 

The first image was a panorama I took hand held, The light pollution is very prominent, as is the noise from having to use a higher ISO. I wish I had my tripod with me for this one as I would have been able to use a slower shutter and lower ISO. The image is 4  stitched images together.

A similar image (above), shows the same scene as the sun goes down, again hand held but much improved on noise levels due to the 'magic hours' soft light.

Finally then I made my yearly pilgrimage to the Wildlife Photographer of the year awards at the natural history museum. The genius that I am picked half term to do this in, but it was worth it in the end. The winner was a controversial one, (see below) but was at least taken by a human and not a camera trap like last year (see my blog post 'New Year' for me ranting about this issue). 

After visiting the exhibition, I had some time to look around the museum so again tried to take some images of the main, and most photographed foyer, and try to take a more dynamic, and interesting photo of a well known tourist attraction. 

I used my 8-15mm Fisheye lens to capture the whole auditorium, and capture the size of the blue whale that inhabits and dominates this huge building.

I was at this point approached by 2 security guards who asked if I had a permit, asked to view my photo's and questioned me on why I was there. They made me feel like I was doing something wrong, I was almost made to leave or at least felt obliged to, so I did leave, feeling very angry at being targeted for being a lone male with a professional camera and lens. Maybe if it wasn't half term I would have been left alone. Either way it left a sour taste in the mouth and highlighted the problems a street photographer can have when carrying a professional camera. Maybe a smaller camera is needed for this sort of thing, who knows...

FIN