Last Sunday, I visited Liverpool to meet up with fellow photographer and good friend Steve O’Nions. It’s been some time since we’ve had a joint trip to a city, and I don’t mind admitting that I struggled initially trying to find compositions.
My initial idea had been to photograph abstract subjects, like paint on walls and ripped posters. But it wasn’t long before I found myself photographing the wall art. If you are familiar with Liverpool, you will know that wall art is encouraged in some areas, like Manchester. As a result, the displays often change and create an interesting vibe in certain areas.
Here are a few examples, all from within a few hundred yards of each other.
My camera of choice for the day was the Panasonic G9. Although the body is larger than my Olympus EM5 MKiii, the G9 is an excellent camera for this type of work. Its articulated screen makes it easy to use from waist height, so it isn’t obvious when you are taking a shot.
Another feature I like to use on the G9 is the Silent Shooting mode. This turns off the focus beep and the shutter sound, meaning you don’t draw as much attention. But it does mean that you need to watch the focus point for it to turn green, so you know when the camera has focussed.
I took three lenses with me, all in a small shoulder bag:
- Panasonic Leica 8-18.
- Panasonic Leica 12-60.
- Panasonic 45-150. A cheap lens with superb image quality.
It was a great outfit for the day, but I only used the Leica 12-60 for the entire time, so I could have been even lighter.
It was pretty dull in Liverpool in the morning, and it started raining in the afternoon, so I used the G9 in Auto ISO. I set the maximum ISO at 1600 and the minimum shutter speed to 1/15 second. This allowed me to ignore the shutter speed and ISO and instead concentrate on working with the aperture and exposure compensation. The camera would then use the lowest ISO unless the shutter speed fell below 1/15 second. If that happened, it would then increase the ISO to achieve a faster speed.
It was a great day of photography, but that was only the morning. We explored other city areas in the afternoon, which I’ll share another day.
I hope you like the images, and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Some great images. Typical of Liverpool to excel!
Thanks. Yes, there were some great examples of art on the walls. I might need to take a trip into Manchester next to add to my collection.