9 posts tagged “south bank”

It's not been much of a summer here in London this year. One of the reasons I'm really looking forward to my summer holiday away in the end of the month actually. But the changeable weather has given a cloud lover like myself some stunning photo opportunities (like above). And despite the cool-ish weather there were plenty people around today to help me pull my socks up with the colour purple...

Like these girls hanging about waiting for... something.
I love the odd one out. Only dead fish go with the flow, right? :D

Some people come with their own subtitles...

And some people are too cool for school. The low tide makes life by the Thames a real beach.

It might have been the length of the queue to get on the London Eye that shocked her.
It's pretty long on July Saturdays. Trust me. :)

It's better to enjoy the sound installation Volume by the Royal Festival Hall.
The annual fountain is back too, no cliché photos by it today though. ;)

  Instead another cliché - photographers taking photos of other photographers.
Lovely. ;) This is by the graffiti street behind Waterloo station. Stunning art, go see it!

Let's finish with hugs all around today!
Summer + love = London. ;)

New month, new colour! It was nice to get over the green themed photos of April. For some reason I found green a bit of an uninspiring colour, but I think I have some nice photos in the series. May means ORANGE, and I had some photos already waiting to be added to that series, so I added those on Flickr, along with some blue and purple photos in their own series as well while I was at it. Although the most exciting thing about starting a new theme yesterday was the fact that I got to borrow my friend Marianne's 5D! Seriously, I want to marry that camera.

I popped my 28-75mm lens on it yesterday as I went over to Tate Britain to see the amazing Peter Doig exhibition. Look at this wide angle goodness. Mmmm, wide angle! Actually, I went a bit wide angle mad yesterday, just because I could. :D


It's so great to be able to fit in everything in the frame, if you want.


Traffic rules of London. I got some nice photos for my run series yesterday, too.
It's been a while since people have been dashing around in my presence.
Or maybe it's only a summer thing, dashing?


I was standing again in this spot on the South Bank mesmerized by the power of wide angle. :D It's a nice spot actually for a great London background as well as for people going by. The afternoon was shadowed by rain showers, as you can see. I thought this was a nice green to orange transitional photo.


The South Bank book market is a great place to shelter from the showers.
Luckily she was also wearing orange. :)


This was my favourite photo from the day. I really, really am in love with this camera. Marianne might have to kill me for me to be able to give it back to her. :D I love the man in yellow in the background btw, it really makes this photo for me. ;)

So, it's been a while, but hello! I've had a little hiatus from photography for the past couple weeks (since I finished the colour pink actually). Today was the first time I got out with a sole purpose of taking some new photographs. Before I got to the South Bank I stopped over at the Hayward Gallery for some inspiration. It's the last weeks of the Alexander Rodchenko exhibition and I'm so glad I caught it. Very inspirational in especially angles and composition. Catch it if you can!


After filling up on the inspirational side I went down South Bank to try to catch green things for this months Project Rainbow theme. Feeling a bit overused and photographed about the whole South Bank I was trying to see if I could catch something "new" whilst I was there. I've always been a great fan of impressionistic photography, so I'm quite pleased how this angle turned out of the London Eye.


The light certainly was as changeable as in impressionistic paintings, hence a little overblow on the silver hair(s) in this one. But the ladies were the cutest thing in the queue to go around in the eye today.


There was a lot of kerfuffle going on due to the Olympic torch coming through this way tomorrow to London.
I loved to see the men of London hard at work, as always... ;)


Oh yes, I did take a photo of you and not the London Eye.
In the series of suspicious people (being right). :D


Best viewed large. This visual pun made me smile.


With Project Rainbow my intention originally was to concentrate on one colour at a time, but I've slipped a bit and taken shots in different colours when I've seen something interesting. I think there are already about ten blue photos, including this one, in my stash so I might as well add them to Flickr as well. :)


Like this one, too. Why join a tour group if you don't like what you hear? ;)

All and all it was a lovely, cultural morning for me today. Not having taken any photos for a while meant I felt a bit rusty again and I didn't take as many photos I would on average (good) day, but I hope you've enjoyed these. Spring is coming to London, the days are longer and I'm planning to spend more time with my camera in my hand in the next month, so watch this space. :)

Today I went out to the South Bank just to soak up the mild weather and to do some people watching. Photography seems to be a bit of a chore for me at the moment and I have noticed a shift in my aesthetic, which was quite obvious from how I approached things today. It was an especially hard day to extract anything greatly pink, and looking through my photos today there is actually more blue that I might use in the future for the project... but this is what I managed to catch today:


  Lots of people just enjoyed the day - and the weekend.


This included a lot of sitting around...


... even though your seat might have not been the most comfortable one.


But never we mind about that as long as you had ice cream. :)

I think this photo is a good example about that aesthetic I mentioned earlier.
There is something I am pushing myself towards.
I feel like questioning something although I'm not sure quite what it is myself yet.
Sometimes pictures like this open up to me more with time.


Part of that aesthetic is this new static approach to my surroundings.
Like in this place I was drawn to that diagonal line and was just waiting for something interesting to happen.
Luckily it was something pink. :)


Before the static approach I was already a big fan of this kind of low angle.
And she is so gorgeously suspicious in her neon pink shoes.
Rightly so! ;)


I'm also a big fan of unconscious synchronicity, like in this one.


But nothing beats capturing something like this...
More photos to be really proud of in 2008. :)

At the moment I am trying to decide if I want to get back to the darkroom a bit or whether to do a two-day conference/workshop in May. It's not really a case of one cancelling the other, but May seems to already be quite action packed for me, including some time to be spent in Finland (as I was getting incredibly home sick last week). :) I'm quite looking forward to catching some orange photos in Helsinki then as well. But there are three more pink photos to complete this months series, so until then!

Today was the second day of the Mayors Thames Festival by the South Bank in London. It's quite funny, but I seem to only shoot at festivals at the moment, but it's really not my fault! It just seems that there is one every weekend in London! (For anyone who wants to get into street photography public events are great for people watching and taking photos at. You're surrounded with thousand of people with cameras anyways so you won't stick out!)

I went to the Thames Festival last year, too.
This time I stayed a bit longer, but it all came to me in a flash why I didn't stay that long last summer...

The place was packed! I really hate when things get this busy in London.


At least the air was filled with the scents of all kinds of delicious foods.


People seemed to be having a great time despite the crush.
These people were showing off their amazing jive skills by one of the live music stages.



There were all kinds of stalls selling the usual stuff, but some were very... interesting.
This is from the life mask stall near the OXO Tower. I wasn't the only one who couldn't quite believe what they were selling! :D


If you didn't want to suffocate under liquid latex you could enjoy things more pleasurable, like a massage from a group of very attractive women. They took their work very seriously, and concentrated very very hard. :D


And if you were lucky and not lifted and carried along the South Bank by the crush of people, you might have caught some of the live acts entertaining people like these acrobats. I think they were from Czech Republic.


There were also lovely pockets to the festival along the way. One of my favourites were the huge pile of flowers made out of plastic bags to raise awareness of recycling in one of the parks by the South Bank. The mound of plastic bag flowers was decorated with these cute map of London butterflies.


Under the dome of flowers was a small crawl space very popular with kids. They scared the living daylights our of me when they peeked out for the first time from underneath though. I wasn't expecting it at all. :D



The kids had lots of things to do and try out actually this year. I don't know if this was the case last year as I didn't stay that long, but it seemed the organisers really thought about what to do and made a great effort this year to take care of people of all ages.



Even the men were entertained... ;)
This is one of my favourite photos from the day. The light hitting these men literally stopped me in my tracks. Doesn't the guy on the right look like some awesome character from a vintage 50's Italian movie?!



And this scene made me laugh.
The little girl was throwing a right old strop about not being in the photo.
So I think this shot is very appropriately named... Kids these days, eh? ;)


Speaking of children... I had no idea they start this young...
I found this amusing, but it made me think about how we actually start to pass judgement from a very young age, or are we taught to?

Before I get into any deeper debates about these things... let's just conclude my days journey:

Things got busier and busier longer I stayed in the afternoon. As I write this I am sure there are still plenty people ebbing and flowing by the Thames (see what I did there?! :D), especially as there is a huge fireworks display in about an hour's time to finish the festivities. But I had to escape...


Unfortunately I couldn't float home like this balloon (how I envied him), but had to elbow my way home by foot.
This photo is another personal favourite from today. A bit surreal and lovely in the way that I caught a plane crossing the sky on the bottom left by pure accident.


I was trying out a few new and old tricks today when I could. I really like how this flare came out above the London Eye. I only wish I could've used a flash to make this look all ambient, but I'm no Diane Arbus and I'm sure the kids and their parents would have mobbed me if they thought that even for a second I was taking photos of them. Oh well, the perils of being a street photographer... You sometimes have to compromise on some technical aspects in the circumstances you are in.

But yes, until next time!
And yes, I don't know of any festivals coming up in the next couple of weeks so maybe,
just maybe, I'll be doing some normal London stuff! ;)

For a moment I stepped in the documentation spot today, as I had to bring my camera with me to work and it seemed like a waste not to do anything with it after. So, on my way home I took a short cut... well, a detour really, via South Bank and this is what I saw:

For the past two three weeks the weather reports have been predicting rain showers for us, like today. Most of the time though the skies have stayed sunny with these kind of beautifully ominous clouds. But no rain. It's lovely really, almost like living in a painting!


The fashion trends have brought bright colours to the streets of London this summer. Some of it is that naff 80's neon bright, but some of it is lovely and refreshing, like this yellow. On cloudy and supposedly rainy days it's nice that people bring brightness to the day with their fashion and style. Even I have succumbed to buying a yellow top this summer, and I haven't really worn yellow since I was 8 years old!


Things on the South Bank have improved greatly in the past couple of years. The renovations of the Royal Festival Hall were completed this month, and there was a grand opening. Its face lift has brought new shops, cafes and restaurants to the area. Even further down the old concrete blocks make an effort as a result. National Theatre has got astroturf (fake grass) in front of it for people to enjoy the summer and special events. They even grew real grass on one of its main walls from May onwards! Seeing it being watered was quite a sight! :D


My new favourite feature of the new Royal Festival Hall is the fountain on the upper terrace. They have timed these rows of water shooting up so people can walk in between them and not get wet. The children go mad for this fountain, but so do the adults. It's a great place to hang out if you need a quick pick-me-up after a hard day at work, or just for the cooling down effect on a hot summer day.

I know it's not much, but at least there was something to update (with proper photos) rather than me going on about how I'm not taking any photographs at the moment. I felt terribly rusty today and it had been a long day at work, but I do hope you've enjoyed these (and the longest day of the year)!

I don't know how politically correct it is to call end of April summer, but it sure felt like a beautiful summers day on the South Bank in London today. It was about time I took my camera out and took some new photos anyways, don't you think? It still needs a good clean, but it did a good job today. So, let's hop to it:

Quite literally I suppose...


Most people were really enjoying the weather by strolling down the South Bank today.
It looks quiter in this photo than it really was.





There were ways of strolling down in style.
Although I think the second boy has outgrown his wheels, slightly.


This was the brightest colour co-ordinated family on South Bank today.
Really.
I suppose the good thing is that you won't loose each other easily. :-D



This really made me smile today.
Who needs or has the time for too much detail anyways?
:-D


Today was about funny looks and colour orange really.


I got my share of funny looks...


Person's eyes can say so much, can't they.



Even though it was a lovely day some people were still working.
And some were curious about what they were doing.



Some people on the other hand were somewhere else totally.
I'm guessing he's thinking about football...
There was a big game on today (I think).


It's really difficult to find some peace and quiet in London, especially at lunch time.
Yet somehow some people manage it with ease and with a view of the Thames.


Some find it by endulging in a great book.


And some just try to find that great book.
(Another Canon user, how could I resist snapping this?!)


Even tough men deserve breaks from a days hard work.
And what could be better than to do it with ice cream? ;-)


All the excitement and people got to some...


It was too much for the big...



... and the small.

Some preferred the grass near the London Eye.


I hope he didn't burn his stomach...
The warm weather and sun really does make people go a bit funny in London.

And to end, these are my three favourites from today: