Expanding Vision

It is very easy to become jaded by the familiar. I have to remind myself to think and feel like a tourist. I live in a beautiful part of LONDON - Maida Vale & Little Venice. I see it everyday and think I have seen it all. 

No, I haven’t and will not.

I hope this place will continue to enchant me and my eyes for the rest of my life.

This is my neighbourhood - my goal with my camera is to transform my vision of this place into an extraordinary place to live. While it appears ordinary, there is a lot of things about it that make it one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Let’s take my park for example - Paddington Recreation Ground.

I have played in this park since I was a very young boy. It once had a cycle track, now replaced by open green landscape. Summertime, this place is packed with sunbathers. The running track is our place to get fit, this park fits perfectly with the suburban homes and is whithin perfect walking distance for its residents.

Maida Vale is quite an affluent area. The roads are filled with expensive cars, classic cars and Bicycles. 

This neighbourhood reminds me of Amsterdam - Bicycles are everywhere, transportation in this part of London features all modes.

Any neighbourhood will be defined by its people. We have quite a demograph of nationalities. I like this, as a world traveler, I am more comfortable mixing with people from different backgrounds. This has enriched my life and appreciation of people I share this planet with. My local coffee shop attracts all sorts and is run by people from Europe. This is my usual hangout during the day, after work -  it offers a perfect place to unwind and just be.

Finally, the purpose of this post and images is really to see myself through my vision and how I can capture the beauty of this place. I used a Wide Angle Lens for some of the shots just to offer up a spectacular point of view. For some of the shots, I set my Aperture to F22 and pre-set my focus to 1 meter to inifinity. This gave me a sharp image front to back to convey the vastness of my neighbourhood, Park and Coffee Shop. I was inspired to do this after reading a great book called ” Everyday Extraordinary Photography” by Brenda Tharp.