10th Feb, 2008 – Protest against Scientology, London
Internet-based group, Anonymous, today protested in front of the Church of Scientology building in London. As far as I understand, this group is made up of members of 4chan, who are affiliated with Project Chanology, which is an internet-based protest against Scientology.
A number of people have tried to explain what this group (and 4chan in particular) is about, but to be honest, I don’t fully understand it (I’m not nerd-enough). Basically the idea for this protest was to wear masks, and demonstrate in front of the Church of Scientology’s London base.
Outside Blackfriars Station:
Outside the Church itself:
Quite a few cars honked – good to see drivers paying attention to the signs! Then again, it was hard to miss these guys.
I took this shot of the doors of the building from across the road.
I crossed the road to get a little closer and was approached by this policeman, who asked me not to take pictures of the building.
I asked why. I mean, I’m in a public area, it’s a public building, and I’m simply taking a picture of people who are choosing to watch the protest from within the building. I was told that taking a picture can be construed as threatening and provoking. WTF! I have a terrible cold and look close-to-dead, I can barely see or breathe, and I’m apparently being threatening by taking a picture of a building? Right, Mr Policeman. I’m sure the chaps at Scientology would consider me a highly threatening character!
These ‘rules’ at protests always amuse me. It’s funny how a camera can be so provoking 
Bring in the horses to control the obviously out-of-control protest!
The turnout was better than I expected.
This is the first protest I’ve been to where I’ve been offered sweets.
There were apple pies too! Ace.
I spoke to a a few very cool guys including the one below.
The protest was great (have you ever been offered a Kipling pie at a protest before?). The demonstrators were loud, quirky (they were playing songs like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air tune – sorry for the low quality some kind of private joke I guess), humorous and yet managed to get a point across.
I think I shall read up on this organisation a bit more.
More demos like this please!
Watch this for the reaction of the policeman at the end. Win for protests and free speech!
Chinese New Year Celebrations, London
It was also the Chinese New Year parade today – ’tis the year of the Rat, which is my year 
I bought this rat >__<
The celebrations in London are the biggest outside of China, which is no surprise as there was a huge number of people, and parts of Chinatown were closed due to overcrowding.
The Chinese definitely know how to celebrate.
So there we have it. Last year I managed to take a lot more pictures, but then I wasn’t suffering from the worst cold ever. Cold + crowds = bad combination.
That’s all from me for now – see you in a few weeks when I’m back from Uganda, hopefully minus mosquito bites.
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.
