Night Tree

I have been in London today starting with the V&A museum to see an exhibition of the work by Julia Margaret Cameron; photography was very different in her day (2015 was the centenary of her birth).  Her work was largely based on recreating religious stories and classical poses - an interesting concept. With the long exposures necessary her models had to keep very still and the children used are largely asleep- probably the only times children are still!  Sombre images as smiles can;t be held for long I suppose.  It was interesting to see how she has posed and lit her subjects.

There was also an exhibition by Richard Learoyd (born 1966).  He makes photographs inside a room-sized camera obscura and has perfected this unconventional process in which an image is exposed directly onto photographic paper inside the room. The results are incredibly detailed although the subject matter is a little strange. Because of his technique, the images are viewed as we would see ourselves in a mirror. 

The main aim of the day was a guided walk around the Dickensian centre of London, starting and finishing at St Paul's Cathedral.  The Guide was very knowledgeable and we spent a lot of time talking and learning about the personality of Charles Dickens rather than the characters he created - definitely worth the late night return home.

My blip is a tree reaching up from a very old churchyard (the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, between modern office blocks.  I like the branches spreading out their canopy of fingers across the evening sky.