My Top Leaps of the Leap Year

When reviewing the thousands of photos I have taken in 2012, I was a little surprised by how few contenders there were for the top five leaps of the year. I managed not to appear in a single leap shot in my first trip to New York (too hot), my trip to Paris (too cold) or my trip to Istanbul (leap ennui, I think). Nonetheless, I did pick out my five favourite leaping photos of the year and they are as follows:

1. The Olympic leap. London, UK. The letters R, U and N in the Olympic Park were just too tempting for me to ignore, although it would have been better if they had used L, E, A and P, of course. If the triple-leap montage is cheating, the U shot is definitely the best.

The Olympic Park, London

2. The family leap (part I). The Shire, UK. I seem to do more leaping shots with my family than with anyone else these days, partly since I gave them the leaping bug. This was taken at a barbecue in The Shire this summer--and it didn't take that many shots to get all six of us airborne.

Keeping it in the family

3. The mise-en-abyme leap. Bristol, UK. You might think that Bristol wouldn't offer as many leaping opportunities as Paris or Istanbul, but the Mirror Ball in Millennium Square was perfect for a spot of meta-leaping.

Millennium Square, Bristol

4. The auto-leap. London, UK. On one of the three or so sunny weekends we had this summer, I went for coffee in Shoreditch and then walked down to Tower Bridge and back along the Thames to Westminster, via the roof at One New Change. As the rooftop was unexpectedly quiet, I got out my GorillaPod, set my self-timer and captured a few shots of myself in leap mode.

On the rooftop at One New Change

5. The family leap (part II). New York City, USA. We were going to do a group leap on Brooklyn Bridge on our Christmas Day walk, but the bridge was too crowded so we waited for The Mall in Central Park instead. We took quite a few photos and generated almost as many odd looks, but the results were pretty good. I did wish I had insisted that we used my camera, the settings of which I now know well how to adapt for leaping photos.

Christmas Day leap in Central Park