Nicholas Armitt Photography

I’m busy preparing at the moment for a one day photo project, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years and this year I’ve finally got the opportunity to. I’m planning to spend the whole of Christmas Day taking cityscape pictures across London.

The idea came about from a picture I took a couple of years ago on the Millennium Bridge looking towards St Pauls, I’d gone out on a Sunday morning at 4am and London felt empty. The photograph grabbed the attention of people who saw it as it showed something many had not seen before. The thing that caught their eye was the fact you couldn’t see a single person in the shot. This might not seem that strange but when you consider that in busy tourist areas of London it is very rare not to see group of people. In fact the majority of people who live or commute into London very rarely see this side of it unless their up very early.

The project will start at midnight and finish 24 hours later, I’ll be going as far west as Kensington and as far east as the City. Hopefully I should get some photographs as interesting as the original that created the inspiration for the idea.

 

For some made reason I went to bed early and set the alarm clock for 2:30am Sunday morning. I'd agreed to take part in the 4am Project, the idea is lots of people round the world go out and take photographs at 4am. The project was started by Karen Strunks back in 2008 while driving from one side of Birmingham to the other.

So the alarm went of and I eventually got myself out of bed and headed for the local train station, I'd decided a couple days earlier that I'd pick that for my subject knowing that it would be well lit. I really enjoy taking photographs in the early morning as you get to see places with out the hustle and bustle of people. It still suprises me how different somewhere can look with out the crowds.

I'd pre visualized the shots I wanted so I quickly set-up the camera and waited for the time to tick away, while watching the local foxes play. The clock turned over on the train information screen and I clicked away taking several shots of the two scenes I wanted. I packed my gear up and headed home to bed in the knowledge I'd got the results I wanted and it was no longer 4am.

Where to start, well they say at the start is usually the best place. I've been into photography since I was quite young, I remember going to local libary and pulling out large books full of photographs and flicking through the pages. It didn't matter what the book was about, I'd just liked to look through at all the pictures. 

The strange thing was it wasn't until i was much older that I bought my first SLR camera, it seems strange to me now that it took me so long to jump from apprication to the actual taking photographs. Now I'd always taken pictures, but they were of holidays or special occasions. The event that finally got me to take a much more serious interest was an exhibition by Yann Arthus-Bertrand called The Earth from Above, the photographs were stunning, since then I haven't looked back.

Over the last couple of years I have been doing more and more photography for clients, starting with simple portraits, moving onto photographing live bands and expanding into corporate events. Most of this work has come about from people approaching me and asking if I would help them out. I've been asked on many occasions if i would consider a career in photography and always come back with the same answer maybe in the future. Well the future is now and this site is the start.......