Greenwich

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"This is where people come to die." 

The above is a quote from my friend who observed that Greenwich is full of couples and families with kids, the living dead in her opinion. They're not living the fast life of an east end girl and have opted for the more sedate charm of south London.

Being a Greenwich resident I've come to appreciate that charm, it's nice round 'ere and I imagine that the student population make sure it's not as slow and quiet on a Saturday night as it is on a Saturday afternoon. 

I like the quiet sometimes, I like moments like those above. I hope you do too.

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Starlight, Star Bright

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More autuminal shots from the weekend. I was shooting straight into the sun and using the branches and remaining leaves to create these shadows and starbursts. It hasn't worked as well as I would have liked and I'm wondering if reshooting will be easier/more fun than doing a bit of photoshop.

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Fall Down

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Kids Stuff/Adult Stuff

Londoners may recognise the lights in this diptych as the signs you find around Soho outside the bookstores, lingerie shops and video stores of London's seedier side of the West End. 

Soho has toy shops aplenty but the one in the foreground won't be familiar to the usual purveyor of vibrating phalluses and studded paddles, no, those belong to GOSH! the comic store.

I don't actually believe that kids are the only audience for comics, I'm currently reading some Adrian Tomine which is not suitable for kids at all, but I wanted to choose a title that highlighted the dichotomy of this one view.

 

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Searching for The Decisive Moment

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I've been sitting on these images for a while now, the plan being to make a large album of photos I've taken within the 'decisive moment', but the project never really got legs and instead I've put photos which would have fit into this gallery into lots of other smaller collections.

So in a bid to break up the Bestival and Tattoo Festival photos (I only have two more sets of them to post, I promise) I thought I would share these.

A woman striding out of the gloom on a sunny afternoon, a couple sit on a the steps of the South Bank parade framed by the shadow of the bunting, a lad flicks a football in a busy park eyes set on it and both feet off the ground and a man looks directly into camera as I intrude upon his time with his girlfriend, his expression neither neutral or angry.

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Tattoo Convention: Graf

I was in two minds about posting these. I don't feel like they're good photos, they're not good photos, but the art in them is so vibrant and quirky that I felt like I wanted to share it.

It was possible to win this massive piece which was made on the day by serveral graf artists live in front of the attendees of the convention.

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Tattoo Convention: A Few of My Favourites

I love this guy's tattoo! I've not featured the whole thing in the shot, sorry for being a tease, but it really was magnificient as you can tell from the suggestion of scale and intracacy you see here.

This lady had a few admirers amongst the convention goers and none more admirer than her owner.

This ladies tattoo, made up from godesseses and cobras and all manner of other things stopped at her neck and covered every other visible inch of her body.

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Tattoo Convention: In Tincidunt Vivamus Tripudiis est Punctum

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Do You Remember Summer?

Hi London, 

I know you're feeling a bit down and wondering where our summer went? Feels like you may have blinked and missed, right? Well, we did have a few good days, I have photographic evidence here.

If that trip down memory lane isn't enough then I hope this summer scene from London's South Bank makes up for it.

No? Well, I tried.

-- 

South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark (which is properly Bankside) and was formerly simply known as Lambeth Marsh / Lower Marsh. It developed much more slowly than the north bank of the river due to adverse conditions, and throughout its history has twice functioned as an entertainment district, separated by a hundred years of use as a location for industry.^[1] Change to the current use of the South Bank began in 1917 with the construction of County Hall at Lambeth and the Festival of Britain in 1951 redefined the area as a place for arts and entertainment and the name 'South Bank' was formally adopted. It now forms a significant tourist district in central London which stretches from the near Oxo Tower to the east to the London Eye and County Hall at Westminster Bridge in the west.^[1] A series of central London bridges connect the South Bank to North London, including the more recent Golden Jubilee pedestrian bridge.^[1]

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Tall Structures by Water

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Notting Hill Carnival - 2011

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Salsa Dancing - Notting Hill Carnival

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which since 1964 has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London, UK each August, over two days (the August bank holiday Monday and the day beforehand).^[1] It is led by members of the West Indian community, particularly the Trinidadian and Tobagonian Britishpopulation or 'Trinis', many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted up to 2 million people in the past, making it the second largest street festival in the world^[2] after the Rio Carnival held in Brazil.^[3]

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Covent Garden

The morning of my birthday I woke up and was still a bit tipsy from the night before. Wearing last nights clothes and smile I made my way to Covent Garden where I had arranged to meet my friends and family for lunch at 12pm at 12:45pm when the majority of my guests deemed it convenient for them to show up (at this point my mother and dad still hand't made an appearance) we all sat down for lunch at Wahaca for some Mexican Street food.

Before 12 though, I took a walk around and took a whole load of photographs, three of which I'm posting here. I hope you like them.

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Covent Garden ( /ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Laneand Drury Lane.^[1] It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum.

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Living Fast, Brick Lane

I enjoy a stroll down Brick Lane every once in a while, it's interesting to see just how much it and the surrounding area changes and how rapidly those changes occur.

The people seem to stay the same though, the same age, the same fashions and the same modes of transport.

During a coffee stop I practiced panningand got these shots. I hope you like them.

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Westferry, London

It's probably not too clever announcing to the world where you live, yet here I am again with another couple of photos of my neighbourhood. I guess I did exactly the same thing when I live in Leytonstone but expect a lot more now I'm a stones throw from Canary Wharf (expect a lot more stones to be thrown too... we've not forgiven the bankers yet... well I haven't). 

So I took these photos from the bank of the Thames, I actually can walk right down onto the shore and be at water lever, well when it's low tide anyway. I need more practice at this kind of photography, I have a few rolls (folders) of photos which are blurred, underexposed, dull, uninspiring or all of the above. I hope that these two are none of those things. You decide.

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Charity Workers: Running On Empty

Last Sunday (10th of July 2011) I went down to Westminster to support my friend, Natasha, as she ran the London 10K and earned some pennies for her chosen charity. It was a gorgeous day, balmy warm and sunny and there was a lot of support for the runners besides me. I sat on a wall on Parliament Street, 300 metres from the finish line and 10 metres from the PA system playing inspiration songs by Black Eyed Peas and Lady GaGa!

I sat, I cheered, I listened, waved and took photos!

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