My Favourite Photographic Moments of 2014

After the scrum had gone - Mesa Arch in Utah's Canyonlands National Park

Given that it's New Year's Eve and I'm trying to stave off jetlag I thought I'd keep myself busy by collating some of my favourite photos from this year, as I've done for the past couple of years. I managed to cram in quite a few trips in 2014 - Iceland twice, Norway's Lofoten Islands, a big road-trip to the US south-west, a family visit to Austin, Texas and a couple of city breaks to Prague and Rome! As a result there's quite a few highlights, which I've shown in chronological order.

Iceland - March 2014
I travelled to the east of the country for the first time this year, as well as some my my regular favourites (Jökulsárlón, Vik, Reykjavik). I also managed to see some decent northern lights for a change.

Reflections near Stokksnes, south-east Iceland

The most magnificent blue iceberg on Jökulsárlón Beach, south-east Iceland

The golden hour at Jökulsárlón lagoon, south-east Iceland

Finally some northern lights over Jökulsárlón

The annual self-portrait at Lómagnúpur, my favourite Icelandic mountain, along the south coast

The wonderful wrecked US Navy DC3 near Vik, southern Iceland

Prague - May 2014
I spent a chilly weekend in Prague in May with my hubby and father-in-law. First time back since a visit as a child in 1981 - had changed quite a bit!

View of Prague old town from Petrin Hill on an overcast day

Prague's Charles Bridge at sunrise - nice and empty!

A cartoonist takes a break with a book on Prague's Charles Bridge, as tourists walk by

Long exposure at sunset, looking up at Prague Castle

Lofoten Islands - June 2014
A last-minute holiday was snuck in before some surgery in July - the choice was between Norway's Lofoten Islands or the Faroe Islands. The Lofoten Islands won out as the weather-forecast was better. It's a bit of a pain to get to, but the scenery is fantastic. Just make sure you don't get caught speeding...

The view of Olstind from our rorbu (hut) at Eliassen on the island of Hamnøy; typical moody weather

The sun sets over Olstind, seen from Hamnøy

Hiking near Munkebu Hut, near Sørvagen in the Lofoten Islands

A late-night midsummer hike to Kvalvika beach on the Lofoten Islands

A view of the pretty rorbuer (traditional fishermen's huts) of Reine, Lofoten Islands

Rome - August 2014
I would definitely not recommend Rome in the height of the summer - so hot and crowded! But I had the chance to go with my sister and nephew and managed to get a few good shots, in spite of the unpleasant conditions!

The imposing Altare Della Patria in Rome

The Colisseum in black & white

Tourists rest in the shade of the massive pillars at the Vatican City

The rather clichéd shot of the spiral staircase at the Vatican Museum

Sunset over the Vatican City

Iceland - September 2014
Iceland again! Another last-minute trip, as a result of the eruption of the Holuhraun volcano - I just had to fly over and see it. It's a lot more colourful in September than March. Any excuse... 

The mighty Dettifoss on a very windy day

More northern lights! This time over Dimmuborgir, near Lake Myvatn in northern Iceland

The thing I went over to see - Holuhraun volcano erupting!

Another day, another waterfall - this is Goðafoss, near Akureyri

A new discovery - Holufossar in north-west Iceland

Another new destination - the impressive basalt stack at Hvitserkur in north-west Iceland

Back to the pretty waterfalls near Kirkjufell on the Snaefellsnes Peninsular

South-West USA Road-trip - September 2014

Something we'd talked about for a while, and finally got round to doing - a road-trip encompassing SW Colorado, NW New Mexico, NE Arizona and the bottom half of Utah. Too many highlights, so here's a very small selection.

The extremely picturesque Nymph Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Colourful autumnal aspen leaves in Colorado

The Eggs at Bisti Wilderness in NW New Mexico - awesome place!

Sunset at the Totem Pole in Monument Valley - the dunes were untouched and stunning!

A rare moment of solitude in Lower Antelope Canyon

A woman squats to photograph Horseshoe Bend, near Page, Arizona

A couple hikes up The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah

The sunset shot of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah

 A different view of the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Austin, Texas - Christmas 2014
Back to the US for the last trip of the year - this time to celebrate Christmas with the in-laws just north of Austin. Took a few trips into the city centre, as well as practised star trail shots.

View of Austin's skyline seen from Lady Bird (Town) Lake

Star trails above the Texas Hill Country

The Texas Capitol Building in Austin, complete with dreadful coloured paint on the dome!

It hasn't all been travel; I've also managed to get a few shots of London, as well as friends and family.

London

The lovely tree-lined avenue in Wandsworth Park

A long exposure at sunset, looking across to the Houses of Parliament

Shadows of visitors to the magnificent poppy display at the Tower of London

View of Tower Bridge at dusk

A tall ship sails down the Thames past Greenwich

Cool girl at Columbia Road Flower Market in east London

Old meets new in East London

A woman walking down Rivington Street in Shoreditch, east London

Masked demonstrators in Trafalgar Square

One of the pillars in Trafalgar Square

Buses at Oxford Circus, with the Christmas Lights just visible

Autumn leaves in Parsons Green on one of the early frosty mornings

 Family & Friends

My friends Rob & Georgie's wedding

The essence of Mands, taken at Rob & Georgie's wedding

My niece Lottie

My niece Surya

My friend Helen, who is a fantastic singer, at a recording studio

My first pregnancy shoot - this is Alli

My first new-born baby shoot! This is Alli with week-old Stella

And of course no year of photography would be complete without some photos of my beloved cocker spaniel Henry.

Henry, taken with a rented 21mm Zeiss lens

Henry waiting for dinner

It's a hard life being Henry

Henry does not like the Christmas hat

Last but not least, a photo that totally captures Henry's personality for me.

So that's all folks for this year - look forward to lots more photos next year! First trip planned is Iceland, February 2015!

Happy New Year!

PS. More photos on my website - www.sophiecarrphotography.com

30 Day Photo Challenge - Week 4

Last day of the 30 Day Photo Challenge, inspired by photocritic's idea. It's been more challenging than I thought, and I haven't always felt very inspired....

Day 30 - Christmas
Finally the last day of my photo challenge has come, on Christmas Day. It was harder than I thought, as sometimes I felt totally uninspired by the topic, and sometimes I just didn't manage to get a shot that I was happy with. Some days it was just impractical to get a decent shot; twice I was a day late. Some of them were quite personal, which I don't always feel comfortable with. Today should have been an easy one and I tried a few things, but none quite seemed to work. Finally I captured the most festive of us all - Red, my nephew-dog, who is wearing a Christmas bandana.

 
I will try to find another challenge in the New Year, as it has been good to get my brain thinking a bit, and to get me shooting things I might not otherwise have thought of. Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 29 - This Year

There can only be one thing that sums up this year for me, and sadly it's not the great trips I've had to Iceland, the Lofoten Islands, or the US, and it's nothing to do with family or friends or my lovely little cocker spaniel. It's not been the "Great Year" that Facebook is trying to make everyone say they've had by collating a bunch of random photos from your timeline. No, in April this year I was diagnosed with early breast cancer. Many appointments and tests and a couple of surgeries later and it was soon all over. I'm left with scars, the need to take some kind of hormone-treatment for at least the next 5 years, and the fear that one day it'll come back. I also discovered that I'm Vitamin D deficient, so pills needed for that too. So all in all "This Year" has not be a good one, but it could've been a lot worse!

Tomorrow's subject is "Christmas".

Day 28 - Portrait
It's a day late, as I spent most of yesterday sitting on a plane on the way to Austin, Texas, to see the in-laws for Christmas. When we finally arrived I felt wrecked, so had no energy to take any photos (I did take a few of the stunning peaks of Greenland from the plane earlier, though). This is a portrait of my husband, Murray, reading the Austin Amerian-Statesman paper, a morning ritual while here.

Day 27 - In My Hand
I got a bit literal today, after having a lazy day with my hubby and having missed any decent light. This thing is in my hand quite a lot.

Day 26 - Winter Solstice
So the shortest day is upon us (although it's already getting lighter every evening in London now and darker later in the morning - see Day 15). Again the sky was stunning after the sun had set (but not as amazing as last night's which was incredible - sadly only had my iPhone out with me), so I captured the now leafless silhouetted trees near my parents' house in Little Chalfont.

 
Day 25 - The Written Word
Today I have chosen a quote that I'm ashamed to say I hadn't heard before. I guess my free education didn't teach me Dickens... If you know it, you'll know it. I also dug out an old fountain pen that I haven't used for over fifteen years!

Day 24 - Natural Light
I'm still on a Christmassy theme - perhaps all the remaining photos will be. I can't leave the flat, as I'm waiting for a delivery (please Parcel Force - give time slots!!), so I'm limited to indoor shots for the moment. If I hadn't already done two self-portraits I might have tried another, but I think two is enough! Instead I decided it was time to get the Christmas hat on the dog again. Poor Henry wasn't too happy, but I made it a bit better for him by plying him with treats while I tried to get some shots of him in natural light. His eye-lashes are getting a bit out of hand again...

Day 23 - Red
This would have been an easy one if it had been next week - as I'm off to see the in-laws for Christmas, and my sister-in-law's dog is called Red. As it is, I'm still in London, so no Red dog. I've just put the lights up on my tiny fake tree, so thought I'd photograph my wonderful red advent calendar that I was given about 5 or 10 years ago with some nice bokeh from the lights in the background. The calendar has small drawers for each day, the perfect size for a Lindor truffle. Yum. Not many to go. So here's my red, Christmassy image, taken with the rather special Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L lens at f/1.2.

Day 22 - B is for...
...Boots!
I was planning to head to the South Bank today and take pictures of the bunnies that are there at the moment, but lethargy got the better of me. It hasn't been a great day, with no contrast in the sky, so I'm going to try to get there on Friday when better weather is forecast. So instead, I chose boots.

I was putting a few things away earlier and came across my beloved cowboy boots and decided that they would do for today's shoot. I've taken photos of them before (as well as of those belonging to my hubby), but thought I'd do a "on my feet" perspective shot instead. I bought them 7 years ago on my first trip to my hubby's family near Austin for Christmas; it was only right to invest in a pair being with a man from Texas! I could barely get them on or off then, but now they are the most comfortable (not to mention gorgeous!) footwear I own.

For the rest of my project click for Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3.

Capturing London in Time-Lapse

I was recently involved in a fantastic photography project, involving 40 photographers and London. The idea was for each photographer to capture a little piece of London in time-lapse. It was organised by Haje Jan Kamps, the CEO of Triggertrap, a company that has created a mobile dongle and app that helps with taking time-lapse photography (among other things). A group of us met up on a beautiful sunny winter's day in King's Cross and had a few introductory presentations from Haje, Nicholas Goodden (a London street photographer) and Chad Gordon Higgins (a professional time-lapse photographer) before heading out to create our time-lapses.

Having lived in London for 20 years the options for venues seemed endless. I'd been mulling over a few ideas - St. Pancras station, Oxford Circus, but didn't feel they were quite right. I wanted to capture something that meant something to me, or that had featured in my time living here, so I headed to the Ebury Bridge just south of Victoria Station where there's a great view of the trains weaving along in and out of the station, but more importantly with Battersea Power Station (possibly my favourite building in London) in the distance. The light wasn't great, with the low afternoon sun obscured behind a building to the west and the power station now sadly mostly under scaffolding and surrounded by cranes and in a distant haze.

One still shot of the trains from Ebury Bridge

I set up my tripod, camera and intervalometer (I wasn't using the Triggertrap dongle and app, as I'd only learned how to do time-lapses the previous day, playing around with my intervalometer at home, so I didn't feel confident enough to try a different method!). I stood there for 25 minutes, taking a 1/15th second shot every 2 seconds. People with young children came and looked at the view and a couple asked me what I was doing. No-one seems to know what time-lapse photography is! In 25 minutes I took enough photographs for 30 seconds of footage, at 25 frames per second. Sometimes there were no trains for a couple of minutes, which I knew would result in gaps in the movement of the finished time-lapse, but that's just how it goes (and I knew that only a couple of seconds of footage would be used in the final cut anyway). Click here to see the full 30 seconds.

I took a bus a short distance to Sloane Square, another place I've spent a fair amount of time in during my time in London. It was a busy pre-Christmas Saturday afternoon with huge numbers of people, buses, taxis and cars passing by. I stood opposite Peter Jones and set the equipment up again, this time taking about 20 minutes' worth of shots. A photographer from Romford chatted to me for a while, which helped to pass the time as the shutter clicked away. Click here to see the result of that shoot - busy place! The man headed off east and I then wandered up the road a bit to the edge of Duke of York Square. I set up my tripod out of the way of the foot-traffic, but within minutes an officious security guard told me that I was on private land and had to move. I asked him where the public land started and it was about 4 feet away. I moved my gear the 4 feet but was now in the way of the people passing by, so people had to skirt around me. I was worried about people knocking the outside tripod leg, so I stood protecting it, taking up even more room. I didn't feel too concerned as it was a wide pavement, but oh it would have been so much easier if I'd just been allowed to stay where I was to start with (on private land)!

Even though buses passed that could take me back home and drop me outside my house, I had to head back to King's Cross to submit my work. The journey was pretty quick (fortunately no problems on the tube) and once back at the Triggertrap office they downloaded my shots and I chatted to a few of the team. Nico Goodden also showed up, having taken shots on a no. 10 bus to Hammersmith. I mentioned that I'd read his blog on camera straps that he'd been testing, and he said I could have any of the spare ones, so that was worth the journey back up there! I eventually headed home, chatting to fellow time-lapser Eddie Botsio, and downloaded the photos myself and uploaded a couple of the "videos" onto youtube.

It was a great experience, helping me to learn something new (there's always new techniques to learn in photography!), meeting some other inspiring photographers, and being part of a wonderful project. The final video has now been put together, and obviously I'm glad that some of my work got included - including a 3-second shot of the trains and a 1-second shot of the traffic at Sloane Square. There's some incredible footage in the final video including my two favourite bits - boats going through Camden Lock and the view from inside one of the Emirates cable cars going across the Thames. Nico's bus footage is pretty cool too.

Now that the final video is out, it's received loads of positive publicity, with Haje and Chad appearing on LondonLive this morning, and the video spreading around UK newspapers (eg the Independent) and websites (eg. the Londonist, Mashable). Here's the youtube version.

Thanks to Haje and team for organising - I'm proud to have been part of such a cool project and awesome result!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Week 3

My 30 day photo challenge, inspired by Photocritic, is now at the end of week 3. I'm still going...

Day 21 - I Feel...
I feel lots of rather negative things today. Uninspired, directionless, a bit flat. I also felt like playing around with a bit of photoshop, so here's what I came up with (another self-portrait), which captures how I feel...

Tomorrow's subject is "B is for...".

Day 20 - I See...
Back in London, and today's photo challenge subject is "I See...". This is a fairly wide open subject, and I hadn't quite decided what to do until I noticed the dog looking out of the window. He used to do it all the time, but only occasionally now. He puts his front paws on the back of the sofa, and from there he can just look out onto the dog exercise area and road opposite the flat. Who knows what he actually sees though...

Day 19 - Size
On the way back from our weekend away in Ipswich today we passed a massive half-built structure along the harbourside, that I captured for today's subject - size. We stayed there in 2011 too and it was in the same state then. A bit sad!

Day 18 - Candid Photo
This isn't too hard, as I'm surrounded by a large group of people and no-one seems to notice me taking photos any more. This is Yoav and baby Sofia.

Day 17 - Aftermath

I'm a day late! Ooops. Well, I'm at a weekend Christmas party in a lovely old coaching inn in Ipswich and was hoping to take a picture of "aftermath" just before midnight. Of course I forgot, so I've taken it this morning instead. Don't know where the rest of the bottles are, as there was definitely more consumed!

Day 16 - Silhouette
Yesterday's photo almost qualifies for this subject. Today's is not dissimilar, with the London plane trees silhouetted against the sky. There were lots of pretty pink clouds in this morning's sky. I couldn't decide which photo I liked so decided on a triptych.

Day 15 - 4pm
I had a choice here - either something dog-related or sky-related. At 4pm the dog gets his dinner, and just before 4pm, the sun sets. I decided on the latter - not wanting to include too many easy dog-related shots, so went outside to the lovely Eel Brook Common to see what the afternoon skies were presenting me with. Unfortunately there was no dramatic sunset, in spite of a glorious sunny day, so I had to be happy with a pleasant but very vague glow from the earth's shadow to the east.

I thought I'd add an interesting little fact for the day that not many people seem to be aware of... 

Today's sunset in Parsons Green, London was at 3.52pm. Tomorrow it will be at its earliest of 3.51pm and again at that time for the next three days. On the 15th December, it's back to being at 3.52pm and from then on it will be later and later until its latest on June 24th (on June 26th it starts getting darker earlier again). 

As for the mornings, sunrise is later and later each morning until December 28th (with the latest sunrise at 8.06am) where it stays for a few days, until January 3rd when it starts getting light earlier in the morning again (this goes on until June 12th when sunrise is at 4.43am and lasts until June 23rd, after which day it starts getting light later again).

My point? Well, everyone assumes that it'll start staying light later in the evening after December 21st - the winter solstice, but this isn't the case. That is the shortest day and the day on which the sun is lowest in the sky, but the evenings have been getting lighter for a week before it, and it's still getting darker in the mornings for another week after it.

So now you know.

Tomorrow's challenge is "silhouette".

Click for my first and second weeks of my 30 day photo challenge.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Week 2

My 30 day photo challenge, inspired by Photocritic, is now at the end of week 2!

Day 14 - Sometimes I...
Sometimes I spend hours photographing frosty leaves. There have been four frosts so far this autumn/winter and I've been out in the local park for each of them, photographing the beautiful frosty leaves and grass. Here is my favourite from this morning. More can be found on my website.

Tomorrow's subject is "4pm".

Day 13 - Distance

The photo I've chosen for today's subject of "Distance" could easily be for tomorrow's subject of "Sometimes I..." as sometimes I like to take photos of planes out of the window! They are the most distant objects that I can see from my window, apart from the clouds.

Unfortunately I live under the flight path, and apart from the long-gone sight and sound of Concorde the planes are pretty unwelcome. Occasionally I see planes pass through a rainbow or passing through stunning sunset skies, but mostly it's just an unwanted, continuous grumble in the sky. Today they look quite pretty, though, passing through fast-moving low clouds, lit up in the sun. I Googled to check the distance and think they're at about 3,000 feet above sea level when they pass over me here in Fulham. So this photo of distance is 3,000 feet!





Day 12 - Play

I feel as if I'm losing momentum a little. Today's subject is "play" and I didn't want to do another picture of the dog (which would have been an easy one, as he insists we play ball if we go to the park). Instead today's photo is of a bunch of young lads playing football - probably a scene seen all over the country (and world, in fact). It was raining slightly, with annoying washed-out skies. I also tried some time-lapse shots of the hubby and dog playing, but wasn't massively impressed with the results, given the white skies.





Day 11 - Work

I spent the day taking part in a great photography project - #lapselondon - where 60 of us went off to create some time-lapse shots around London, organised by TriggerTrap, which has produced a dongle and iPhone app to help take time-lapses. Today's photo challenge subject was "work" so I captured one of the TriggerTrap team (Thomas) demonstrating how to use their dongle and app. Work doesn't have to be boring...

Day 10 - Happiness

Today's photo challenge subject is happiness, something that seems pretty easy to depict. I could've taken a photo of my dog (but he was yesterday's star), my hubby (he's at work), my camera or a host of other things that make me happy, but as a typical tea-obsessed Brit I thought I'd capture a simple symbol of happiness - a cup of tea in my favourite mug (Scottish Highland Stoneware, purchased in Ullapool in 1997). You just can't beat a good cuppa!

Day 9 - Fear

This was a tricky one. How do you depict fear? I guess I could've walked down a dark alleyway at night, but I don't actually want to do that. And it's a bit obvious.

The next thing I thought of was how Henry, my dog, always hides under the coffee table when he's afraid of something - me approaching him to put on his raincoat or with a grooming implement (without an edible bribe) are the main two. I'm trying to avoid taking too many photos of him during the photo challenge, but he is a handy subject. So here he is, under the table, peeking out to see if the coast is clear (has the comb gone...?).

Day 8 - Mother Nature

As soon as I saw today's topic - Mother Nature - I thought of a couple of little trinkets that I picked up in Cusco, Peru, back in 2001. They are small pewter statues, representing Pachamama and Pacha Kamaq - Mother Earth and Father Earth. I rarely collect souvenirs on my travels these days, so it was nice to dig them out again!

For Week 1 - have a look here.