Postcode Project

Tolworth by day

woman-in-tunnel — iso250 28mm f6.3 1/30sec

: iso250 28mm f5.0 1/30

Tolworth is quite a bleak place, at any time of the year.But it has something intriguing for me. Not alone because of the Tolworth tower.I went there a few times in order to take pictures for this postcode project.I started approaching the Tolworth tower , taking pictures from different angels . But it never came across as imposing as it is, on my photographs. Then I thought I want to have people in my pictures and set out and took some photos with people . But at the end , when I went through all of the images in order to select the ones for my project, I chose 5 that are more about spaces, underpasses and materials, concrete, asphalt, paint and neon light mixed with daylight.And the small details, graffiti, rubbish, leaves , and the wear of time on the materials and paints.Like cracks in the asphalt and faded paint.I did learn about exposure. And most of all ,with the corridors , I learned about lens correction .Which lines are the important ones to have straight.I also learned to use the sharpening tool.

Tolworth at night

nigh-fence-edit — iso250 50mm f4.0 0.5sec

For those three images I used longer shutter speed, stabilising my camera, on bollards or similar items that I found. A tripod would have been the better option, only I would have been less agile. It was interesting to experience what light does with longer shutter speeds. The size of the bouquets in the photo with the black car on the left, or the way it paints a wide red stripe,as seen on the relevant image.

Richmond Park

In those park pictures, I experienced the effect of wider aperture . How the leaves, fern and orange grass in the foreground are in focus , whilst the background is blurred. With the 28mm lens the trees and grasses further away are less blurred than the trees in the background of photo Nr 1, where I used the 105mm lens. On the orange grass I used some fill in flash to pronounce the brightness of the orange. I learned how to get more control over the outcome of the image. For example to read the light of the ground, not the sky. And then compromise if I want the sky or the ground a little over or underexposed.

Health and Safety

I didn’t come across any health and safety issues, apart from scanning the area each time before taking a photo to ensure I was safe in terms of people and traffic for the few minutes it took to take each photo.