Who’d Want to do Photography in Leeds ?
I’ve heard this said many times – along with classics such as…
- you’ve not got many great buildings,
- you’ve not got any sky scrapers
- costs a fortune to park and they charge you at night
- its really rough and you’ll get mugged.
Ok… Parking is Terrible…
Well the one I agree with is the parking issue. It’s a pain to park in the city – it has to be said. Hugely over priced car parks, and hour of on-street parking costs more than a Bugatti Veyron…
To add insult to injury, the council, in their infinite wisdom, decided to charge for parking in the evenings too – which has certainly put me and lots of other photographers off “popping into town” for a few shots at sunset. A shame…
Here’s Why Leeds is Great for Photography…
Quirky hipsters and locals
The people are usually pretty interesting for starters – it’s a reasonably big city and everyone’s racing around doing their own thing, so capturing them is as good as anywhere!
Carvings on buildings
Look up and you’ll find thousands of heads and faces looking back – no its not a horror movie, but the carvings on the banks and municipal buildings. The Financial and legal area are full of them – go take a look!
Cool Architecture
Ok, it may not be as big as you get in London, Birmingham and Manchester, but there’s some really cool facades if you look. This is near the station and when the sun hits it right… looks great
Trinity’s HUGE Glass Roof
It’s a lot of glass – it’s all around you – it doesn’t rain in there and the security are pretty cool about you taking photos! There’s also some bizare horse statue with a wool sack on its back
The Victoria Quarter
Most places have arcades, but few as grand as County Arcade and Cross Arcade in the Vic Quarter… then there’s the HUGE ceiling with a massive stained glass roof! There’s loads in here, and again you’re cool to take photos if you don’t use a tripod… if you do, they burn you as witches!
Leeds Market
Europe’s biggest covered market apparently – it goes on forever and ever. Its the top bit, on Vicar Lane, which is worth seeing though. The fish and butcher alleys too.
The Corn Exchange
Big round buildings are ace – Manchester Library, Albert Hall in London… and Leeds has its Corn Exchange. An amazing building inside and out. It’s not really “round” but a slight egg shape really. But both from the outside and inside, this is amazing to photograph!
Is it really RUBBISH for Photographers?
I don’t think so – it’s definitely no London or New York, but there’s so much out there if you only LOOK and be AWARE of what’s going on…
- Look for stuff which isn’t obvious, look reflections in puddles or up at buildings and you’ll find a whole new world you’ve walked past thousands of times
- Be Aware of things going on – find a cool scene and wait for people to walk into it, then capture those. Or wait for a red to come into your scene to add a splash of colour
