The not-so-subtle hoarding and red builder's fence prescribe an obvious 'theatre' for a photograph. Not only do I follow the 'see red, shoot red' rule but there is a chromic-balance offered by the two wide bands of red in the image (the fence and the text of the hoarding).

All I then had to do was to wait for the right actors. And I must be doing something right to have been offered this sweet, yet venerable, couple.

I think the story writes itself.

This was quite possibly my most popular image when I posted it to facebook. The decision to take it was made in a fraction of a second. And good job too, because that bus you can see behind the taxi was travelling much faster than I had anticipated. Certainly I wasn't able to check the histogram on my camera's LCD screen, as is my custom.

Photography can sometimes dangerously seperate you from your immediate surroundings; but not in a concrete sense, like a bus can.

I used a long lens (105mm) in order to compress the space between the clocks, so they would stand together as sentinels.

The people are actually moving quite fast, so with a slow shutter speed they create a stream around the sentinels. Yet there is sufficient detail to discern a face here, a foot over there. I think I did a number of trials; some streams of folk are more pleasing than others it seems. Even in Canary Wharf.

The exposure time here was just shy of a second, so I was using a tripod. Which drew the attention of the local security personnel. Apparently using a tripod makes it more likely that I am undertaking industrial espionage, or worse still, planning a terrorist attack. But I know my rights, and I knew that in Canary Wharf I had no rights. So I was utterly pleasant and engaging. I showed them the pictures and went into a deep explanation about trying to use photography to warp time.

I was about done anyway so after that we parted on good terms, and I had my shot in the can.

I suppose I shall have to remember to add a keyword for the variant spelling 'color'.

Here's an example where concrete narrative matters less. My driver here was to simply make the most of the building's undulation. I think the image still has narrative, but one that is not so bound to the creator of the image than is oft times the case. BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME. Make your own story...

I used my widest of lenses at an effective 25mm - which has a warping effect anyway; perfect for undulations. Then in post I turned the whole shot black and white, taking a colour selection from the original as an overlay. The selection had to be quite precise, or is that imprecise? There's a lot of diffusion caused by all of the glass so a sharp-edged selection would show up in an extremely ugly fashion. Fortunately the vivid blues in this case are well seperated from other colours in the image. It is typically extremely difficult to colour select such a diffuse source.

It also helps to change the blending mode of the colour selected layer with the new black & white layer from the default (or 'normal' as photoshop calls it) to 'colour blend'.

Here's what the colour selected layer looks like:

A lot of my work relies on precision of geometry. Upright verticals and round circles. Looking for that specific line of sight that makes all of the inherent shapes 'cohere'.

You can do a lot in post-processing to fix any tilt or pitch you may have introduced to the attitude of the camera; but once the 3D world has been projected onto your 2D sensor, there is no true recovery for errors of yaw (z-axis) alignment.

Perhaps the only thing we can't digitally rewrite in post is the picture composition. It might seem as though we can modify the composition post-capture with perspective adjustments and crops; but the truth is, it is extremely rare to be able to do so wholly satisfactorilly. Composition must be right in camera, at the point that the 3D to 2D projection is accomplished.

Here I have used a colour cut-out on top of a black & white base layer to isolate and emphasise the extreme perspective of the close-range wide-angle shot. I think its a treatment that suits the TARDIS, as if and as though it were setting off on a journey and we, the viewer, are being carried along. Look! There's that narrative I insist photographs must have. Sometimes. Mostly.

NB I've never found a consistent set of terms to describe a tilt of the camera in each of the 3 spatial planes. Photographers are used to the terms Tilt and Pan, but that only covers 2 of the 3 cases. Also 'panning' means something quite specific (especially in action shots) and so can be confusing when talking about the attitude of the camera to the subject.

I shot this from a distance of about 75 feet away, which was mostly up. This statue of Helios sits atop a tall column at the heart of the Television Centre 'doughnut', and as such really isn't seen by that many people in the greater scheme of things.

One purpose photography has is to show the unseeable, and I felt this subject was worthy because of the rarity of sighting.

It is deeply flawed. You can see strong noise in the shadow areas. It was particularly dim when I took the shot and with a subject so far away there was no opportunity to add any artificial light. The processing in the sky is also rather poor, I ought to go back and re-work the raw file really, but I guess I feel the image is never going to be of any technical merit, so I let it stand. Choose your battles.

As a principle of law you can stand in the street and take photographs. Obviously its way more complex, and subtle, than just that.

One (of the many) things you have to consider is your right (be that legal or moral) to photograph other people. In fact documentarians and street photographers may go so far as to consider it their duty to photograph people.

But what do the photographed have to say about this irrespective of your rights or duties?

In the UK we're pretty lucky as most people are generally fine with being photographed; but really I suspect that's because they never expect to see the results. If they were to believe they may wake up one morning plastered across billboards, they may not be so accommodating.

In a public space photograph who or what you like (current terrorism legislature allowing). But if you feature people as obvious subjects in a way whereby they could be recognised you need to be careful with how, and where, and if you publish the image.

And these days, you should know to speak to the parents before shooting kids.

I don't feel anyone in this shot would have thought to complain if they found it here one day, so I have published without any permissions, in this instance.

When it comes to candid shots of people, I think it's a case of 'use not abuse'.

I wrote about taking photographs on the wonk in my article Working with Dutch Angles.

Turns out (from the exif data) I shot this at half past eight in the evening - it should come as no suprise that I had been for a cigarette given that this data means I must have been still at work at that ungodly hour. It had been on my mind for sometime to capture the stairwell, and at that time of night there was very little chance anybody would trudge by just as I was arranging the shot. I don't see how having a person in view could possibly have worked.

Since this is the BBC, I naturally wanted an anonymous state machine feel to the image.

Is this what Ansel Adams meant when he talked about previsualisation? He seemed to make the whole concept rather complex for my mind. Sometimes, particularly with still subjects, its good to construct a narrative; whether or not that's the story you end up telling.

the term [pre]visualization refers to the entire emotional-mental process of creating a photograph

Ansel Adams

It shouldn't be hard.

I took this from a low vantage point so as to suggest we are looking over-the-top of the trench at the razor wire of an insane battlefield in an eternal war.

That eternal nature springs from the absolute abscence of anything suggestive of time or place; other than battlefield.

Photography is often about what isn't there, which is why super simple compositions can carry such power.

I think this image is right at the limit of what is effective in terms of using blur in an action shot. The essential features (a person and a bike) are still readilly discernable, whilst the overall blur is quite extreme.

It was a long lens (105mm) which is more susceptible to shake than wider lenses and the image was shot handheld at around 1/10th of a second, so quite slow. The aperture was at f/4, which gives very little depth of field; especially with a long lens.

...then shoot it.

Never hesitate to photograph anything red; it will give you a pleasing image.

That's just how it is.

The red backdrop building looks something akin to a fortification against which the statue is railing. Somewhat oblivious the man weilds his phone as the statue does its sword; the handle of his suitcase kicking back like a scabbard, in concert with the kick back of the statue's cloak - so that the two are in perfect harmony.

This precision in the balancing of the elements is most certainly good fortune. You take care of what you can and leave the rest to fate. BUT one must be prepared for good fortune lest it be wasted.

Typically on the street I will select and arrange a 'theatre' - some clear section of the scene through which I can watch people pass. It is then a matter of looking up and down the way to see who, or what is coming; so that the shot can be anticipated and timed.

For some reason I was on something called a 'shoot experience' day. I don't remember a lot about it, I think it was like a field workshop with a list of 'tasks' to be accomplished; but I quite fortuitously stumbled upon this scene. The courtyard is clearly reminiscent of a jousting arena, complete with the lord's stripey tent to watch proceedings, and the two cars look ready to rumble. The stupid name (warrior) of the foreground car resonates with this narrative.

It is an unusual composition as the main, central, area is essentially empty of any physical object but is stuffed full of anticipation. One can almost construct the film-real in the mind's eye of these two challengers setting off at a gallop...

This photograph is about anticipation. It is not always necessary to capture the 'decisive' moment, if the energies in the scene are enough to foreshadow it. It is always important to understand the timing of the image, why it was taken at that moment; be the moment decisive, insisive or some other compelling point in time.