London 2022 - A Bag Full Of Pictures
In the last months there was a lot ongoing in my Street Photography (S.P.). Street walks in Cologne, Paris, London and the great S.P. festival in Iserlohn. I was so much in contact with international people and shared my web site, therefore it makes really sense to switch to English on my blog now.
This post, it‘s about my last very intensive and long days in London and Milton Keynes, in June and July 2022.
I took the train and went directly to London Pancras this time (500m away from my Hostel). Through the Euro tunnel with the Eurostar train. Very comfortable I would say. Btw, this was highly recommended from a good old friend always.
After the hostel check in, I started directly with my S.P. in SOHO, China Town and Covent Garden and for sure I was visiting the Fujifilm and Brompton store. Later in the evening I photographed two guys leaning on their cargo bike and they noticed me and asked me. After explanation we did a nice conversation and I invited both to a Pub, where we continued with live music and good beer. Finally they paid my beer… Thank you very much. Great first day I would say.
The second day (Friday) was reserved for visiting my first Vivian Maier exhibition. 70 km away from London in the MK gallery in Milton Keynes, I spend some nice hours to enjoy and to be inspired for my upcoming days in London. In this blog post I wrote already about the fascinating story of Vivian and this is still a big topic in my thoughts and philosophy about S.P. The exhibition itself was great, but there was no undiscovered picture and onsite there was not so much ongoing. I think it’s better to be on the vernissage (the opening day) to meet more other interested people and to enjoy it more together. The exhibition is still ongoing until 25th of September. Other good news: The movie „Finding Vivian Maier“ is currently available in the Arte TV mediathek for free, until end of the year 2022.
The Pride Parade on Saturday with sunny weather was the next big thing. It was really luck again, to be on the parade like in 2019. This time I was aware around 1h after my travel bookings. So my goal was to take some pictures from all around the parade, nice portraits from people and maybe have some after party pictures. And yes I was successful with this wishes.
Shortly before the Pride Parade, I meet Ovidiu Șelaru on the streets with his Ricoh GR3 camera and he told me, he is also doing S.P. He showed me also some pictures on his phone and we shared our Instagram profiles. I don’t know why, I was not giving more attention to this encounter. Only at home in Cologne I checked his profile in detail and was really surprised about his great images.
On Sunday as planed, I was in Camden Town to have crowded streets and markets. On weekends you will have it, for sure. Mostly it’s easier for me to take photos, if I am a part of the crowd and to play the tourist. What else…, right? In the evening I took a picture of two people and the guy asked me directly: „Are you a Street Photographer?“. After my yes, he said: „me too“. Crazy... We had a nice conversation and I told him my plannings for Monday and asked for other useful townships and other tipps. Btw his name is Richard Morgan. He recommended my actual plannings, to be in the Bank District on a working day.
In the late evening at the hotel, I checked his web page and was surprised and impressed. Directly I was thinking to meet him again if possible and I wrote an invitation to have a dinner on Monday evening. Luckily he agreed…, because I was sure he is too busy.
Like planned again I was in the Bank District on Monday and took a lot of pictures. I also tried two roof-decks and spend around 30min in a shopping mal, where the circle stairs picture was taken, which I have in use on my start web page now. In the later afternoon I was on my way home to the hostel and suddenly I saw a stealthy guy with a Fuji X100. I was very sure to see a Street Photographer in action. So I followed him to a great market area with beautiful light and a lot of great possible scenes. I did the right choice. I also photographed him and he directly realized it and turned away. The crazy thing I meet him again and again in this area. Step by step, even conversation started. At the end we even shared our contacts and I had a nice chat with J. Cabon.
In the evening I meet Richard again, for dinner and conversation. I love to have dedicated time for S.P. philosophy and discussion with like-minded person. It was really valuable and satisfiable, and therefore a last great evening in London.
Even on Tuesday I was on the streets to use the last hours before my train journey back home. My last goal was visiting the Shad area. Here I found great backgrounds and nice light and reflections, to bring all this together with busy business people around lunch time.
My journey back was a little bit disappointing. I mean a little bit delay, because of the normal situation in holidays is ok, but the last train (Deutsche Bahn) from Brussels to Cologne was canceled. The proposed alternatives via Liege and Maastricht would be very time consuming. Luckily I decided in Liege very spontaneous to book the Thalys train to Cologne.
Conclusion
Direct after home I was so powerless from the very intensive days, so I was even thinking to not have any valuable picture after the first quick LR import. Some days later and more intensive reviews with my friends Andre and Steffen, I got more and more happy. All in all, it was worth to spend most of the time on the streets to fully use the dedicated short vacation for my photography. Even the decision for these days in middle of the summer time was a good choice, to have beautiful light and the right summer feeling.
The other great thing in the U.K., was the easy contact to the people. I was so much in conversation and took a lot of street portraits as well. Very nice. Ah yes, the chance to meet a Street Photographer is also very high…
I also used in some special situations successfully the approach: „First take the picture and then ask for the permission“, but only if the chance is nearly 100% to get caught. This is motivating me to try this more in the future and especially in the subway or tram.
My workhorse camera the Sony A7R4a ,combined with only one lens (Zeiss 35mm, f2.8), was the right choice for this trip. Unfortunately in some situations, the eye-AF was sticky on uninteresting people in the background. Here I was later thinking in the direction of better using manual focusing… Unfortunately this an endless loop to think about the right camera or technic. At the end… just try and find the right solution for you.
2022-08-21