It’s difficult enough buying presents for people you know well, let alone entire families and people whose tastes you haven’t yet pinned down or don’t share in their taste in art or photography.

At my stall in Northcote Road we see the agonising over ‘what to get you know who’ first hand. It might have been decided that a framed or mounted photograph is the ideal present for ‘you know who’ but will ‘you know who’ like the image you’ve chosen.
The relief is palpable sometimes when a gift voucher may be the answer. OK, its not the ideal solution as you would much prefer to give ‘you know who’ something to unwrap rather than a voucher but ultimately ‘you know who’ will get exactly what they want rather than a near miss.

We can send you your gift voucher through the mail or by email. You can see the selection by going to the following page;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/vouchers.php

You can use the voucher to purchase or put towards any of the framed and mounted prints we have on offer as well as any of the services we offer.
Below is a list of links to the relevant pages. To buy a voucher just go back to the voucher link above.

Portrait photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/porgallery.php

Event photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/eapgallery.php

Wedding photography;
http://www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com/portfolio/

London photographs, Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Photographs, Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Panoramic photographs
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

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Beyond October in the run up to Christmas we get so busy with autumn photography, photographing parties, and stocking the stall, so this will be the final competition this year.

And because it’s the last competition of the year the prize is a BIG ONE!!!!

A big welmome to The Nappy Valley team and their members, we’re going to present the prize on the 21st November with the Nappy Valley Team at our stall on Northcote Road. More about that in November.

Can you guess where the following photograph was taken? I need city and country. The prize is a pair of framed 700mm x 570mm photographs worth £370.00.

You have until the 15th November 2009 to enter. All you need to do is reply to this post or if you don’t want others to see your answer email me with your answer ma@photoarte.co.uk.

You’ll find this image somewhere in the buy and rent prints gallery.

Good luck and I hope to hear from you soon.

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This is a subject I can ‘talk the handle off an iron pot’ about. It’s a subject I’ll revisit again and talk more about specifics.

When I first arrived on London in 1985 it was a much grimier and dirtier city than it is today. Since then all that post industrial revolution smoke has been cleaned off the brickwork of the major London landmarks, and the general gentrification of the city over the boom periods has been responsible for a much cleaner and greener city. London isn’t unique in that it’s cleaner these days, most cities are cleaner. The inhabitants of cities in general, like London’s, are more proud of their urban space these days.
When I started taking photos of London the first thing that struck me was how ‘low rise’ London was, and you can see this from the bridges and on the river. Of course this was before the Docklands was developed but cities like New York are so different to photograph as all the views are vertical. London suits the panoramic photograph and river cities often do (OK I know New York is also a river city but it’s an exception). London is a mediaeval city and much of is is bolted together with no apparent street plan, but I’m constantly surprised how symmetrical the views are and it is something I look for in my panoramic photographs. The modern architecture that’s been added more recently particularly the jubilee bridges, the London eye, and Docklands has been enormously helpful to us photographers looking for patterns and symmetry. There are two photographs that demonstrate this. the first is the image below I use as the header image at the top of my website and the second is a photograph I took of the Hungerford Bridge and the London eye. I really like the fact that I’ve managed to keep the bridge sharp and get movement in the London eye.

London is also full of quirky images, the telephone boxes in Kingston, the rows of cabs outside Harrods, and the way the London eye looks as though it’s falling over from a certain angle. I find that the quirky images people often comment on don’t sell that well but sit well alongside the images that do.

Being in the right place at the right time plays a huge part in my photography. Getting that ‘great shot’ often doesn’t happen first time, and if I go back several times at different times of the day there’s much higher chance that I’ll get a good shot and often a greater chance of shooting something completely unexpected. To illustrate this I spent one Friday morning photographing Tower Bridge which wasn’t successful as the weather wasn’t great. I met my sister for lunch at the Oxo tower (she was paying!) and I took the following shot of a storm rolling through from the balcony of the restaurant. Being in the right place at the right time counts for a lot.

Over the coming months I’ll talk more about the specifics of photographing a city, my next blog about this will be on Panoramics, how to shoot them, how to stitch them together in photoshop, and how best to print and frame them.

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