As February draws to a close, I have been out and about taking in the abnormally warm weather, with a trip to London and Bristol Zoo.

Kicking things off in London, I took some time to explore Brixton, an area of London that although I have frequented numerous times in the past, I have not really had a look around. Luckily for me the weather was on my side so I took a stroll around the streets one very sunny Sunday morning with my 6D and trusty 35mm F/1.4 Canon Lens in tow.

The image above of David Bowie became a bit of a shrine to him after his untimely death in 2016. Jimmy C an artist I have previously featured in my blog, uses dots of paint to make up his work which always blows my mind. The harsh light did mean that the reflection on the perspex was unavoidable, but a small price to pay to keep this piece of art safe for everyone who passes by to enjoy. http://www.akajimmyc.com/

Again the strong, harsh light played havoc with the images I was taking, with flare being a real issue like in the image above. Even with the lens hood on there was no getting away with it when trying to capture some images like this piece of wall art above.

After seeing the Jimmy C work, I came across several other interesting pieces of Graffiti dotted around the now deserted back streets as well as some old school markets with their fruit and veg out on display.

I took to using the strong morning light to my advantage as I walked around the markets, using the harsh light for some black and white images of residents and market around Brixton.

Of course no London trip would be complete without seeing some very odd things, and this was just a Sunday morning…..

Following on from Brixton, I took a trip to Embankment to watch the sunset and also photograph the skateboarders who inhabit an area under one of the bridges there. I stood in a couple of places and waited patiently, using a high shutter speed (800+) with an aperture of around 6 or above to capture the skateboarders using various areas of their concrete playground as the light changed by the second.

I also used the continuous 4.5fps to capture a series of images of one of the boarders (see below)

Following on from London, I took my bi-annual trip, five minutes down the road to Bristol Zoo. Most of the animals were out and about in the sunshine, so getting some clear images of them was much easier than previous visits. I took my 5DMKIII along with the 400mm F/5.6, and 100mm F2.8 macro to document the day. There was some great shots to be had, however there was also a lot of sleeping going on…

One of the animals that I have been keen to capture actually doing something other than sit curled up at the top of a tree was the red Panda. Luckily with the sun shining, one of these guys moved around just enough to finally get some shots with the 400mm F/5.6

Other animals out in their enclosures were also in the perfect light to photograph, such as the squirrel monkeys above and Meerkats below.

One area of the Zoo that I always have an issue photographing in is the bug house and the reptile house as they are usually very dark. I would love to be able to come here with a tripod and a flash to get much better images but the 100mm Macro will have to do on its own for now at higher ISO’s.

The other area of the zoo that always poses a challenge is the tropical house, as the humidity immediately steams up my lens and the birds in there tend to be small or keep low to the floor where it is covered by foliage so tends to be quite dark. I decided to stick with the 400mm F/5.6 lens and took my time, selecting the birds that came out in the light such as the little Java finch below.

And finally, for the first time in all my visits to the zoo, one of the Gorillas decided to leave the dark and dingy safety of the Gorilla house, and made a brief appearance outside in the sun.

FIN

Mar 1 If You Know You Know

Mar 20 Life Is A Minestrone

Jan 30 There's Still A Light In The House

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