Some very good news for me to start with today before I cover the next part of my project. I took this image (above) back in February last year. I had gone out with the intention of making a video but the location I chose was too dark for that. However, this scene caught my eye and I took a couple of shots. Nothing else was worth keeping from that night, only two shots of this restaurant. This was from just before I thought about selling prints and I sat on it for quite a while. After all my planning of how to sell prints and then which ones to sell, I finally loaded this one in November last year. I’m so glad I did because it’s become my largest size print sale so far. Yesterday it sold in a 30” by 20” size. I usually work in metric so I had to think about that one and it’s 76cm x 50cm. I’m very proud to have reached this point from where I was this time last year. It feels as if my dreams and plans have started to pay off and are becoming a reality. I really hope the buyer will love their print.

Back in February 2020, before any restrictions, I was able to take photos wherever I could travel to but it’s quite nice that this one was taken in my own ‘manor’ and that it’s local. Which could lead me to say “East, West, Home’s Best”. I’m also pleased that it’s a night photo which is one of my favourite type to take. For me, there’s always something mysterious and attractive about a nighttime image.

Back to my work in hand and day 17 of my project was spent tracking a grid of streets on the west side of the Isle of Dogs. I’m conscious that I’ve covered a lot of the riverside already and a couple of the parks and I don’t want to cherry pick and leave what could be seen as the less exciting parts to the end so I’m going to spread these out and try to even out the wide open spaces alongside the street layouts. Here’s the day 17 map.

Walking around these streets, the key things that caught my eye were the new style buildings and the mix of buildings and nature. I was in Wapping recently and I was struck by how traditional the riverside is there. A lot of the old wharf warehouses have been preserved and turned into flats and you can really get a feel for how the streets might have looked going back into history. Most of the Isle of Dogs isn’t like that. Modern buildings shoot up everywhere and the low rises are more likely to be standard terraced houses or small blocks of flats of the type that are common all over London.

The colours of the Millwall Fire Station on Westferry Road are really attractive. Soft mid blue, gold and pale grey. And so that found its way into my gallery.

And of course, the blossom is still out everywhere. It seems to be more abundant this year than most. I’m on a mission to take a really good blossom photo so I’ll keep practising until I get it. This might take some time! On this day, I got 3 that I’m going to add here. All 3 are in very different styles.

Number 1 is a vibrant pink blossom against the marine blue glass windows of a high rise block.

Number 2 is a high rise with white blossom branches overhead. I’ve used 3 different placements in these shots as well just to mix things up!

And for number 3, we have a startingly deep rich pink blossom tree in contrast with an old brick wall and mismatched garage doors.

Although this day’s walk didn’t look exciting on the map, I found there was more than enough to catch my attention. I quite like it when things aren’t so obvious, it makes you look harder. Upwards, downwards and into the distance. I’m constantly trying to train my eye and this is the perfect exercise.

I hope that you’re having an interesting start to the week,

Yours

Loren