… and we’re back in London!
The Tate Modern has a new installation in the Turbine Hall – Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth. I went to see it sometime in summer, but completely forgot about the pictures.
It’s essentially a huge crack along the floor. It’s cool in some respects (definitely better than this installation), but it didn’t engage me a great deal. I know I wouldn’t have wanted to drop my phone or something down it though!
But hey, apparently this is deep, meaningful art.
The other pictures I took are pretty boring (to me anyway) so we’ll move away from digital and to some yummy Kodak 400CN (C41 b&w mmm).
I shot the following using a broken Nikon FM. Well, OK it’s not technically broken, but the batteries are screwed up so I had to guess the shutter speed and exposure – on top of focusing manually, which is hard work for a non-techy like me! It really made me think about what I was doing with the camera, something I normally just take for granted with the digital. Even when I shoot film, as I just rely on the little red light 
Walking around the Brick Lane/Shoreditch/Hoxton area (my new favourite place in London!) – there’s lots of Banksy around here.
I haven’t seen any of these before, even though I work 5 minutes up the road. Where have I been all this time?!
I hope the council doesn’t remove these – they really give the place character.
I liked the small print in the ‘cancelled’ bit of this next one.
Yes, yes – wrong depth of field, I know!
The Hackney area is full of little quirky signs like this..
.. and this
I like noticing the small things.
There’s some kind of light exhibition on but it was closed on Sunday, so I took this through the gates. I should probably rotate it a bit but I’m lazy.
The Brick Lane area is full of markets on Sunday, and one in particular was full of druggies and the extremely inebriated, like this guy, selling all kinds of junk.
I asked if I could take a pic of what he was selling, but then took a picture of him. He protested but then forgot I’d just taken a picture. Excellent!
Check out this cutie of a dog.
He’s a Pomeranian – extremely adorable. I love dogs.
This girl came and sat opposite me on the bus and was looking right at me. She continued looking so I took this shot of her. I thought she’d react when I lifted up the camera, but nope. I’m wary of taking pics of kids actually – I was once told not to take a picture of some twins, and I didn’t really understand why.. I mean, I don’t think I look like a dodgy character!
Or do I..?!
I personally don’t really see the big deal in taking pictures of children – I mean, can a picture really be harmful? Maybe if I had a child of my own I’d think differently. I just think the fact pictures can’t be taken (even by parents themselves!) in places like swimming pools and even school shows is slightly absurd.
If you’re wondering how Trafalgar Square remains pigeon-free, here’s your answer:
He goes around every day with a falcon and lets it loose to scare away all the pigeons. I’d heard of this but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it! I asked if I could stroke the bird and he said yes – the bird looked a bit confused though.. I heard later that one bite could have ripped my finger off 
Oops.
I’ll finish with some shots in Dublin, walking around with Seamus.
How tacky are these?! I mean, who actually buys this stuff!
Meaningful graffiti..
I’m sure you’ll agree that Seamus’ shot of it is a lot better!
C’est tout : )
I think I’ll be using 400CN again soon.
I got these lovely little Moo mini-cards made.
They’re so very dinky, and for just £10 you can get 100 printed using as many pictures as you want. As you can see, I selected all b&w shots, although I wish I’d chosen some colour ones now, particularly since the finish is really quite good! On the back of them I have my name, email and website address, so I guess they act as little business-cards. The card is really thick too, so this is a great, cheap way of creating your own personal cards.
In other news, Caritas, a charity organisation in Australia asked me if they could use one of my images on posters/flyers regarding events in support of Burma. Of course I agreed, as I think the event is a great idea, and I’m quite honoured that one of my shots is being used to promote this worthy cause, all the way on the other side of the world!
So, if there are any Australians reading this, go and show your support for the Burmese people on the 21st October! 
This is going to be a bit of a random blog, starting with my favourite subject of late.. protests.
October 8 marked the day that MPs returned to Parliament from their summer breaks, and to coincide with this, the Stop The War Coalition decided to hold a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
I went along in my lunch hour to check it out, and was surprised by the high turnout, especially considering it was on a weekday. It made me wonder – do these people not have jobs? In any case, it was an impressive turnout.
Tourists being tourists, seemingly oblivious to the protest
I guess they have to send off their pics ASAP!
I spotted this on the way back to the station:
Onto some random pictures I’ve taken over the past few weeks or so. It feels like I haven’t done any ‘proper’ street photography for a while.
People asleep on public transport always seems to be a popular street photography subject.
A month or so ago there was an Indian festival on Regent Street to celebrate Indian culture, where I snapped this ‘lady’.
A few weeks back there was a seafood festival, and being the big fan of food that I am, of course I took some pictures.
Mmmm.
A random shot of Richmond Park – I’m not sure why I converted this to b/w but for some reason I prefer it this way.
Back to Trafalgar Square, and there was an exhibition about sex trafficking, called Journey.
The queue was pretty long and I didn’t have time to wait, so unfortunately I missed out on going inside.
The other day at work we had a conference at the London Stock Exchange (LSE). I was asked to take a few pictures throughout the day of people minging, presentations being given, that kind of boring stuff. We were near the studio where financial news is broadcast from so I took a couple of pictures from the outside.
I think he’s from Sky News and the one below from the BBC. No prizes for guessing what was dominating the news that week.
Me and a colleague considered making funny faces to put them off, but that wouldn’t have been very professional now, would it.
Artiness.
In the middle of the LSE building are 729 spheres that move up and down a 32metre-long cable throughout the day, making different patterns. The fluidity of the movement is meant to represent the nature of the stock market.
Apparently pictures aren’t allowed here but I managed to find a staff member who accompanied me around 
The spheres even turn blue – fancy stuff!
Some elegant graffiti, which makes a nice change
A giant girl invaded a photobooth at Victoria Station.
The idea was promote a show called London Ink.
Lastly, we end with..
Jesus, of course.
