A buddy of mine (and fellow pro photographer) called Pete Boyd is in a Leeds-based camera club called ‘Exposure Leeds‘.

Basically, amongst other things they do photo walks & ‘photocamps’ around Leeds for photographers of all skill levels.  Pete is into architectural photography & joined the gang on an architectural photowalk around Leeds city centre.  I asked him to keep me posted on upcoming walks, and lo & behold, it turned out the next photowalk was in my neighbourhood of Bramley!

So bright and bleary on a sunny Saturday morning, Pete bobbed by to join Clare & I for a mosey round Brammers.

Pete was packing his shooting gloves, which are literally for shooting guns, and have cheeky pop back finger & thumb holes.

For a change, I’ve decided instead of clean bordering, I fancied going to town on the bordering and texturing of the images.

I’ve recently updated an old photoshop action I created for overlaying fun ‘filmy’ borders (which I’ve geekily hoarded over the years) onto images, which also drops images I’ve shot of textured surfaces over that to give images an interesting finish.

I’m always on the lookout for cool textures, and found these one’s on the Bramley walk:

When they’re dropped over another image in photoshop (creating a layer) & the ‘blending Mode’ set to overlay it gives effects like these:

Loads of peeps turned in for the walk (probably about 15), including an ace Bramlian couple who’s wedding I’m shooting in May!

One of my first shots of the day was this cheeky catch of some scallywags scoping someone’s yard out!

Over we strolled through Bramley park, where some kids were being dragged around by a particularly large kite

I rather like this view of the park from the town street side

We walked past the sandstone terraces of Westover Road; home to the first house Clare & I looked at when we started shopping for houses.

Some of Bramley is pretty mundane, some rather rough, some nice first time buyer neighbourhoods.  We’ve certainly enjoyed living where we are.

Like it or not, I think the texturing of the above image certainly lifts the feel of below’s otherwise dull street shot:

I loved this pimped little Renault van, which I grabbed as it passed.

Theres something I like about this street scene.  The lines & rules all fit the bill.

Again, I thought there was some potential in this photo of a closed chippy, and the texture and muted colouring gives it life

Bramley’s window cleaner, hard at work.

A tired ol’ ginnel, round the back of St Peters.

Bramley Baths is a cool spot.  It’s a beautiful, ornately tiled Victorian swimming baths, with old-school poolside changing rooms.   The chimney is visible from miles around & Clare & I like to pop over now and again on a weekend for a lazy bathe.

They’re currently having their hours cut by the council in an attempt to make cuts.  Read more & show your support here

Here’s one I like of Clare, working the EOS camera strap.

With the action I’ve made, I mask the texture layer so I can paint out the effect over key areas (eg peoples faces) to selectively texture the background only

We know Bramley pretty well, but we did take a nosey through a yard I’ve never been down, and caught this snap of barbed wire

Boring door, fun texture & edge!

In Bramley Park I got down on all fours to snap the Spring crocuses (I think that’s what they are, and if so, perhaps they should be ‘crocaii’).

The tour pretty much ended at the depressing Bramley shopping centre.  Functional it may be, with a post office, tescos & more bookies & cash converters than you can shake a stick at, it’s an unsightly place & a shame the old stone high street of Bramley had to go all those years ago.

Intimidating though it may be, I donned the big zoom and squeeze off a few street portraits.

I also like how this one comes out under a layer of scratch

Another street scene

And an old fellow taking a turn

And an old dear taking a scoot.

I can’t wait till I’m allowed one of these.

On the way out of the centre a bunch of us spotted two precariously balanced girls throwing sweets up in the air and catching them in their mouths

I like the lines of this picture.  We visited most of the pubs of Bramley one night and found The Old Unicorn to be Bramley’s friendliest pub (with a great quiz to boot!).  Above Bramley’s original well and horse trough (in that arch) it sits on Stock Hill.  A suspiciously bearded old lady told me once as I strolled to the post office, that the hill is so named because they used to put delinquents & reprobates in stocks on the hill to teach them a lesson!

After a long walk, many of us decided to sample Thornton’s fish & chips…

Not quite as as good as Midgeley’s down the road, but I was more than pleased with me fish butty!

And Clare was so excited by her chips & peas that she managed to burn the roof of her mouth and subsequently went on about it all weekend…

So there you are!  That’s a taste of our ‘Exposure Leeds’ adventures in Bramley.  If you’d like to hear more about their doings, you can read more on their site here, or join their facebook group here.