Photographing London @devynphotographingthecity-blog - Tumblr Blog

Final Project

L O C A L

1. One Shot Coffee- This shop is in Camden Town on 82 Parkway near Camden Underground Station.

2. Black Sheep Coffee- This shop is in Fitzrovia on A5204 near Goodge Street Underground Station.

3. Starbucks- 1/951 licensed stores and company-operated stores in London located near King Cross St. Pancras Underground Station.

4. Cafe Nero- 1/500+ locations in London located near Kentish Town Underground Station.

5. AIDA- This shop is in Shoreditch on133 Shoreditch High St. this is located near Old Street underground Station or Shoreditch High Street Overground Station.

6. Palm Vaults- This shop is in Hackney on 411 Mare St. this location is near Hackney Downs Overground Station.

This is my final project for Photographing the City: London. We were told to pick something in London that interested us. After a few topics I was exploring I realized that I kept going to these local coffee shops while my other American friends would continue to go to shops like Starbucks every morning. I at that point made shopping local the focus of my topic. The point of shopping local is to stop monopolies form happing; when large corporations have the reign of the whole city then you will never be able to find a coffee less than 5 pounds anywhere. Also when the large shops make coffee they do not put in that extra effort to make sure it is right for you. These local shops do go the extra mile to make your experience with it because they do not have the name brand behind them to keep you coming back, they need their quality of their product to be good enough to get you t come back. The baristas are very nice and have a friendly face when you come into their shop. The shops are beautiful and unique everywhere you go there is a different shop to explore unlike your major brands have stores that when you go in you can see the same shop in USA as you can in England. The issue that London is facing currently is that the companies that own store fronts in the city are more willing to rent/sell their store fronts to large names like Nero or Starbucks because there is a guaranteed revenue due to the name. This ends up making these small businesses lose their stores and then eventually there will be no where to rent and then there will be no were local to shop. I just want to encourage people all over the world to go and support their local shops to keep local people in business.

Pilot phase

1. Black Sheep Coffee- This shop is in Fitzrovia on A5204 near Goodge Street Underground Station.

2. One Shot Coffee- This shop is in Camden Town on 82 Parkway near Camden Underground Station.

3. Starbucks- 1/951 licensed stores and company-operated stores in London located near King Cross St. Pancras Underground Station.

4. Cafe Nero- 1/500+ locations in London located near Kentish Town Underground Station.

5. Palm Vaults- This shop is in Hackney on 411 Mare St. this location is near Hackney Downs Overground Station.

6. AIDA- This shop is in Shoreditch on133 Shoreditch High St. this is located near Old Street underground Station or Shoreditch High Street Overground Station.

I am really trying to emphasize the fact that if the large corporations like Starbucks, Nero, and Costa are taking the empty spots in the city that could be going to local businesses. These businesses are going far and few between because renters would rather sell their paces to larger companies because they are guaranteed to make more money. I think people need to see the beauty of these small businesses and the coffee they offer to every customer.

As a part of my final phase I wanted to highlight the competitors of the local businesses in London. If people do not shop at the local shops then you will start to see more Starbucks and Neros pop into empty shops. Renters will tend to offer the empty space to the major companies because they know they will bring in more money. So if this continues to happen you will start to see a decrease in independent shops and only these major players will dominate the whole coffee scene.

Today I visited Peggy Porschen for some coffee and cake. These pictures were taken in attempt to get pictures for my project but the shop ended up being too busy to really get the idea that I wanted. But the building was beautiful which is why it is one of the top must see places in London. Their cupcakes are voted best in the world by Vanity Fair and I would completely agree. Defiantly worth the visit.

Another coffee shop that I got to visit yesterday was AIDA in Shoreditch. I did a google search to find the prettiest coffees in London and this shop was top 5. This was a rose latte and that is why they are pink. I really enjoyed taking pictures with the rainbow bench outside of the shop as well.

Today I got to go visit even more coffee shops in London, this shop was named Palm Vaults. This one had one of the tastiest lattes by far, the flavor was red velvet so the coffee itself was RED! I really enjoyed this shop because the tables were marble and they were all topped with a beautiful vase of flowers. I would recommend for people going out and trying this place out.

This artwork was in the London Nights Exhibition at the Museum of London. The photo was titled “Sleep Walk Sleep Talk” by Suki Chan. I really enjoyed the city lights in the photo and compared to all of the photos in the gallery it was really cohesive as a set even though the pictures were taken by other artists. I enjoy the road that had the curve to it on the bottom but compared to the city buildings it is kind of distracting because it really draws your eyes away form the buildings. it really draws me into wanting to be in the city which I have really enjoyed as I have lived here in London. You can tell the city live is vibrant in London and people are always out and about. I also enjoy that you can tell that this picture was taken in London because of the double decker busses.

For my last post at the v&a: I chose to have a lower aperture because with the craziness of the garden I like having the focus really be on my subject. I chose to upload more than one picture because I felt the three really showed different sides of my project I am trying to work with. I like having the background of the shop in my photos, I am also debating if I want to put the cakes from the shops in my pictures, and finally I like showing the logo of the shops in my pictures so I am tying to work with style with my pictures.

At the V&A I decided for the relation of my project I would run by the cafe and get some cake and coffee. In the picture with my coffee and my mango, raspberry cake I had my camera settings at: ISO- 200, aperture- 3.8, and my shutter speed at 1/3200. For the picture of me holding my cup I had my camera settings: ISO- 100, aperture- 3.5, and shutter speed- 1/1250. Finally for the picture of just the cup on the table I had my camera settings as: ISO-100, aperture-5, and shutter speed 1/1250.

Today for class we went to the V&A to work on our camera settings. We shot in manual mode which was a first for me. I had my ISO on 200 for all of these pictures but I was switching my metering settings, aperture, and shutter speed. These are some of my favorite pictures that I took of the art and the people.

#V&AMuseum

In this set of pictures I was trying to look at different camera angles with my iced coffee. This shop was named one shot in Camden town. I really like working with the depth of the camera to make the main focus of the picture the cup of coffee since the small shops focus so much on making my coffee so specific. I read in my research that the best way to take a picture of food is at a 45 degree angle so I tried to get that style in my photos today.

This was at Harris and Hoole. The baristas I talked to were very interested in my photography class and me studying abroad, it was nice having a small conversation with them. I enjoyed the art they had on their wall because it made for a really good background.

Black Sheep was definitely a favorite shop I have visited in town. The baristas were friendly and even started to dance until they noticed we were watching. They did cute latte art on the top of the lattes. I liked how they give back to the community by having a free coffee board that you can buy a stranger a coffee if they cannot afford it.

I like to call this series “the day in the life of an espresso”. For my pilot phase I wanted to comment on the support of local coffee shops and stands. There are so many local shops, yet people still choose to go to places like Starbucks or Cafe Nero. As I visited multiple coffee shops around the city, I saw the lively people of the city and the energy was so exciting. The way that the barista know their coffee they brew is much different than a typical Starbucks worker. There is a delicate nature in their brew and they take a lot of pride in it. The typical life of a coffee begins at the order. Once the barista knows what you would like, they grind the beans and tamp them down. The beans are then attached to the brew head and when the water is clicked on, the timer is started. Interestingly, the barista is only given a specific amount of seconds to pour a shot and use the shot in your drink or else the shot will burn. Then we see the Londoner drinking their coffee. Coffee is a way of life here, a lot of people in the city have a cup of espresso in their hand as they walk around the town. People will spend their lunch break sitting at parks sipping espresso with friends or reading their books. Then, as the drink comes to an end and you can only see remnants of the foam at the bottom, the cup is left there all alone serving no further purpose to the coffee connoisseur.

#coffeeinthecity

I wanted to highlight love in the city with this rough draft photo series!

#londonlove

This is Briana! We met today in class and we both walked around the city and got to take some really fun pictures of each other. While we were taking pictures I got the luxury of getting to know all about her. Some interesting things about Briana is that she is Puerto Rican and Romanian but she really knows more about her Puerto Rican background because of her mom. Another interesting fact is that she is from New Jersey but she use to live in Philadelphia, she does go to school in Jersey now though. Lastly, a fun fact I learned was that she is fascinated with the black light poles in the city of London. That is why I decided to take her picture where we did. I wanted to show my diversity of photo tones and so the first one is cool toned and the second is warm toned. Briana noticed the interesting, tall sky scraper and so we decided to stop and shoot. I let Briana direct this shot so she decided what pose she wanted to do. I got to direct the second one, I was interested in the BBC building with the tall point and so we decided to stop to take this photo. I enjoyed taking the second one because I really got to lower the aperture and focus on Briana for this picture. I had difficulty in the first picture because I was really fighting the direct sunlight on her face.

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