Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Chartwell Partners Breakfast Club - Eurozone Discussion 30/3/2011

In what is becoming a regular monthly habit of mine, I wended my way to the RAC Club at 7.45 this morning to attend the Chartwell Partners Breakfast Club this time with three former British Ambassadors: Sir David Madden, (Greece, 1999-2004), Sir Stewart Eldon, (Ireland, 2003-2006), and Dame Denise Holt, (Spain, 2007-2009) who discussed the future of the Eurozone. The discussion was moderated by Robin Niblett, Director of Chatham House.

It proved a fascinating discussion exposing levels of complexity, between national, european and wordwide, social, economical and political issues that left me gasping. All the speakers showed great knowledge and understanding of the matters discussed and Robin Niblett, chaired and questioned and summarised matters deftly and with great skill.
I took my Leica M9 with the wonderful Noctilux F1.0 lens and was able take pictures without disturbing the speakers or the audience.
You can see more pictures in a slideshow.
On collecting my coat from the cloakroom I snapped this scene which caught my eye, because of the light
 
and later a view from a bus, as some balloons in a tree whizzed by! caused a pleasant juxtaposition of colours and shapes.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Wednesday, March 30, 2011 0 comments

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Haunch of Venison

Yet again, after having a meeting in Piccadilly I headed for the Haunch of Venison Gallery in Burlington House behind the Royal Academy because I am always sure there will be some great new art, pushing the boundaries and for a snapper like me, an added bonus, they allow photography, which is very rare in the art world.

Work by Korean artist Meekyoung Shin was on show
 
I continue to get to know my new Leica M9, (this time with the 21mm F.2.8 Leica lens) and am finding its controls better, with ISO rating and adjusting EV values now easier to do then on the M8. The full frame chip produces beautiful quality images and gets the full potential of my lenses.

Later on my way home I photographed a car near a cherry blossom tree, then photographed a bunch of flowers at home with the 135mm F.2,8 frog eye Leica lens I also got recently but second hand and love the quality of the images it produces.

You can see a slideshow with more images from the gallery including work by German artist Susanne Kuhn.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Wednesday, March 23, 2011 0 comments

Friday, March 11, 2011

Some pictures that will make you smile

Some funny pictures all sent to me by a friend.

Labels:

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Friday, March 11, 2011 0 comments

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Cranfield Trust Reception at 2 Temple Place 8/3/2011

 As a Cranfield MBA from the year of 1977! I joined the Cranfield Trust soon after it started and have been able to act as a consultant on their behalf to charities, a few times. The work its many members do for an astounding range of charities and societies is wonderful and gives much satisfaction to the participants.
I was invited to this years reception in the beautiful surroundings of 2 Temple Place the base of The Bulldog Trust. I offered to bring my cameras a Fuji Finepix S5 pro with Nikon SB800 Flash & A Gary Fong Lightsphere II diffuser  for flash photography and a Leica M9 and to take some pictures of the event, whilst participating in the conviviality and you can see more of what I saw in a slideshow.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Thursday, March 10, 2011 0 comments

Peter Mandelson – The Third Man at the RAC Club 7/3/2011


I was commissioned by Chartwell Partners to produce a visual record of an event they organised at which Peter Mandelson shared his insights about government and power and the ups and downs of party politics & his views on David Cameron's Coalition Government, and the outlook for the global economy in conversation with the BBC's James Landale.  He also signed copies of his book, The Third Man which has just been published.
About two hundred invitees came along and listened to a sometimes spirited dialogue between James and Peter and ended with questions from the floor.
Chatham House Rules prevailed.

One can see more images in a slideshow of the event.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Thursday, March 10, 2011 0 comments

Friday, March 04, 2011

1st moments with my new Leica M9

This week I finally picked up a Leica M9 to replace my beloved M8 - why? Because its full frame, 18 megapixel and with a succession of tweaks to the design, that makes it the digital Leica M they should have made in the 1st place.
It has been a busy week and I did not have that much time to use it but here in a small slideshow you can see some of the 1st results.

It bodes well for the future.

Labels:

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Friday, March 04, 2011 0 comments

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

A book signing with Elliott Erwitt

I have been a fan of Elliott Erwitt's happy and often funny style of street photography for as long as  can remember, so when the Atlas Gallery just of Baker Street invited me to an exhibition of some of his work and the opportunity to buy and have a book signed by him as well it was an opportunity too good to miss.

My day started with a commission in the morning at the RAC Club in St James's, so my journey with my Leica M8 started there, with my concentrating on some of the fine architecture and gardens, along with a nice juxtaposition of a model of a superyacht with the street relected behind it, some colourful street scenes, then Elliot signing books for someone else, then me and being very warm and welcoming in the process.

Then in baker Street Station on the way home, a surprising poster of Gorbachev (who seems to have adapted well from KGB communist to capitalist!, alongside a mosaic of a Sherlock Homes scene and finally my three Elliott Erwitt photo books of Museums, Beaches and Dogs, safely home, with their special signatures.
 
 
 All presented in a slideshow.

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Wednesday, March 02, 2011 0 comments

Getting tickets for Gigs and Events




I like going to all sorts of concerts and events and often its a hassle getting tickets and its easy to end up paying too much.

I've just come across Stereoboard and it looks like a neat solution, which I will try out the next time I feel like a night out, with an opportunity to take some rocking images while I'm at it!



Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share
posted by stefan lubo at Wednesday, March 02, 2011 0 comments