A photo-tour of Southbank and Westminster. 3rd November.

I have the weekend off, so I have been able to do my own thing on this rather beautiful but chilly day! Onto the DLR I hopped to get myself into central London to do some shooting. The problem with taking photos in London is that there are so many things to take photos of I need to plan what I am actually going to focus on photographing. 

My focus for today was South Bank skate park; a skate park which has interested me over the years, it has been something I've always wanted to delve into... so today and last wednesday were perfect times for me to delve away!

Daniel was just mending his bike when I asked him for his portrait, he was doing some pretty sick moves before I took this photo though ('scuse the street lingo!).

After spending a bit of time meeting great people and taking photos at the skate park I headed down the embankment; I was astonished to find a number of people clutching Ice Creams, it was such a cold day.. far too cold for Ice Cream!

Jubilee Gardens (a green space next to the London Eye) has had a make-over and I have never really had the chance to walk through it, so I had a nosey and then perched upon a small hill and watched the Street Performers from afar. I was quite disappointed with two performers who's act was the Cha Cha slide and the dance to Gangham Style, not overly original... it was great to see people joining in though!

Westminster Bridge was crammed, but amongst all the hustle and bustle I found this man pushing a cart full of souvenirs he had been selling.

Thought I'd check out Parliment Square to see if there were any protests going on, and indeed there was one small protest about wanting Democracy in Lybia. The passion and enthusiasm of the people protesting and shouting the chants was quite inspiring.

After my little photo-journey around Southbank/Westminster I headed to Kings Cross to meet Sarah Page, a friend of mine who is a Photographer/Filmmaker, she was in London for the weekend filming part of a documentary she was making. It was great to meet up with her and catch up with all she's been doing and I was able to share with her a little about what I've been doing. 

London can be such a lonely place despite the fact it is full of people, so it has been nice to see a familiar face!

Sarah Page: www.sarahkathleenpage.co.uk/

www.ruthjones.org

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www.twitter.com/theruthjones

Horse Walkers, Spitting Signs, and London. 25th September.

Here are a couple of photos I took today, nowhere near the amount of photos that I have taken today.. but I need to go through them and do something with them tomorrow! For those of you who don't know, I have been in London today as I attended the awards ceremony for the Ian Parry Scholarship, it was an amazing evening which included me having a little chat with Don McCullin, which was such an honour! I will write a little more about it tomorrow when I have time to write a decent blog.

The Organist. 19th September.

Today I spent time in a wonderful little church in Gresham, Norfolk, as it was the Memorial for my Grandma. It was a lovely day and I know that she would have loved it. As I walked into the church this man was tinkling away on the organ and I decided that it was such a lovely thing I had to whip my iPhone out and capture the moment. 

Call Centres in March. 23rd August.

I was in the fenland town of March today for a meeting, it's an interesting little town which is divided by a canal that runs right through the town centre. There are many stories which could be told by the locals, good stories and bad stories. I may go back to March sometime in the future and delve deeper into the stories of the locals.

Jazz in the City. 26th July.

Today was another one of those beautiful days where you have to get outside and do something! I headed into Peterborough, my nearest city, and took some street shots. A jazz band happened to be playing in the main square of the city, the square was full of people with many young children dancing around the fountains... there was just a lovely atmosphere. 

www.ruthjones.org

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GradAcad day 15: Overground, Tate Modern, Candid Portraiture and Jelly Pitching time! 13th July.

Today was quite laid back, I popped into Google Campus first thing to finalise the final few things I had to do for the Jelly Brief... and then I went on a little Tube-Trip (the London version of a Road trip!). I haven't really been on the London Overground before, but I found it quite cool.. it's a bit different to the underground because a) It's overground (doh!) so you get to see all the buildings around London, and b) it's one big train carriage... I decided to photograph all the faceless legs that filled the carriage.  

My Tube-Trip culminated in a visit to the Tate Modern, sadly I didn't find any photographic exhibits (I didn't plan my trip very well!), but I did find a great exhibit by Lamia Joregie. The exhibition was about Objects of War, Joregie created four video documentaries where people who had experienced life within a warzone talked about one or two objects which defined their experience within the war zone. Most of the objects were displayed in cabinets around the gallery. I found this exhibition great and could have easily spent hours listening to all the interviews.

http://www.lamiajoreige.com/films.php

After my visit to the Tate I was itching to get my camera out.. so I decided to to an impromptu portrait shoot... the sitters happened to be unsuspecting victims on and around the Millenium bridge. I am quite happy with the photographs I captured, they were up close and personal.. from shots which looked fashion inspired, to people pulling odd faces as they go through life.. none of my "Sitters" noticed me... but it's a shoot I really enjoyed and will have to build upon in the future!

This is a wall near where I am living at the moment... I believe, It used to be the entrance to a club called The Foundry.. and I believe the building is now occupied by squatters. The wall is interesting as it is updated daily with interesting artwork with anarchist themes... I might try and scratch the surface of the artists behind these works. I only have a week left in London though, so I shall have to see how much contact I can get with these unknown artists.

So, the big GradAcad thing of today was my pitch to Jelly London, as I have previously said the brief was to produce a concept which would promote Jelly moving to The Shard (which sadly, they aren't!). My concept was to create a photo-montage which would be seen as a statement, showing that beautiful architectural buildings do not have to be occupied by grey-suited corporate and financial businesses... but they can be filled with creative agencies.. ie. Jelly! The pitch went well and I received positive feedback for my concept.. I would like to develop it further, but I am not sure if I will be able to due to time constraints! 

Thank you Jelly London!

http://www.jellylondon.com/

#GradAcad

http://www.dandad.org/talent/graduate-academy

The Park Study

I shot for The Park Study this morning (before it started raining!), I found myself becoming curious about the installation with yesterday's weather on... so I researched it to find it's purpose, I found out it was created by Troika and it's purpose is to help people can compare the weather today to how it was yesterday (how very british!).. the piece is updated in real time and will relate to the weather exactly 24 hours ago. 

http://www.dezeen.com/2012/07/13/the-weather-yesterday-by-troika/