Flypast

Taken at my last visit to the Yorkshire Birds of Prey Centre.

My last visit to the Birds of Prey Centre (back in October last year!!) highlighted just how much the auto-focus of Canon’s 60D sucks. I lost a lot of shots on my last two visits because the 60D just couldn’t keep up. (One time with an L lens as well.) In comparison, Nikon’s D90 – which I used on my first visit – coupled with a slow focusing lens did a much better job.

Then again, I got some nice blurry shots to play around with, but this one really stood out, and after some playing in post, I got this. Sometimes, shapes and colours combine to give you something that just stands out. This was one of those images.

The View From 10th

Merrion House is a dull, grey, concrete monstrosity that is just as grim on the inside as it is on the outside. Working on the 10th (also the top) floor brings with it the additional challenges of being hotter than other floors during the summer and colder than the other floors during the winter. However, we do have one advantage over all the other floors and that is the view.

Today being an overcast day, the view wasn’t at its best, but when the sun breaks through on an early morning it catches the buildings, covering them in a beautiful golden light that makes the city shine. Every now and then, we also get a cracking sunset.

The view from the photocopier has allowed us to watch the Leeds Arena grow from wasteland to concrete shell to 1970’s toilet styled shell. (It looks brilliant inside allegedly – its just a shame about the outside.)

Sometimes being on the top floor isn’t so bad.

The View from the 7th Floor

Finished the last session of a photo shoot at work today. Not the most inspiring piece of photography – corporate headshots of the Children’s service leadership team – but it’s been a nice break from staring at a computer screen.

While waiting for people who really didn’t want to have their picture taken, I snapped this. Apart form the grime on the windows, it shows quite nicely just how varied the architecture of Leeds is. You can see both Leeds Met and the University of Leeds (or as people round here tend to call it, the real university!)