Ms Incredible

GRD, f5, 1/500, ISO 64, JPG

Ok, this is a cheesy color cut-out picture but I think it looks better this way and at least it's different if nothing else ;).
Took this today while going out for lunch and I only got the shot because the GRD I was on and is very fast to focus and take a picture.

Heroes Remembered

GRD, f4, 1/320, ISO 400, JPG sepia

Took this picture while walking through Postman's Park today. I always wanted to take a picture here since I have seen the movie Closer and have taken one before, with the GX, but never of the tiles. While walking past I saw this guy looking at the inscriptions and I thought that it would make a good picture in sepia, I am indeed happy with how it came out.

Burnt Out

I posted quite a few series recently so my motto of 'One Day. One Picture.' did not quite apply. But sometimes it is necessary to show a series of 5 pictures to give a better feel to a place or theme.

I took the pictures today in a burnt out building nearby with the Panasonic LC1. Always wanted to go there and take pictures but never really got round to. It was really lucky that I could go in and take pictures close up. As much as I enjoyed taking pictures in Bodiam Castle, I somehow found taking pictures of this building more inspiring but also more challenging. It is easy to take a nice picture of a beautiful place or great building but taking interesting pictures of decay is a bigger challenge. The weather was on my side today and I went there at the right time to have the sun provide great light and shadows inside.

Tree Shadow

GRD, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 100, JPG sepia, 21mm

Today's picture is inspired by some of Wouter's shadow pictures. I took it in Regent's Park with the 21mm lens and modified the blacks and contrast to get the deep shadows.

We had the 2nd unofficial Ricoh meetup today. It is always great to meet people with similar interests, everyone bought their Ricoh cameras for the very same reasons. The main reason is the size and feel/handling of the camera. Having the chance to talk about cameras but also the pictures taken with it was very nice.
We had a chat and some coffee before heading off to do what we do best with the Ricoh cameras, take pictures. The weather was great so we decided to walk to Regent's Park and take some pictures along the way and in the park. After our walk we went for coffee to view the pictures we took and also each nominate a 'Picture of the Day' and we had a small competition to determine the winning picture. Can't wait for the next official Ricoh meet-up.

Overgrown

GRD, f4.5, 1/320, ISO 64, JPG

After the last two days of covering protests I needed some quiet and decided to take a walk through Greenwich Park on my way home and relax there.
Took this picture while walking towards the park.

The Big Nothing

Today was a strange day, after the big protest yesterday everyone expected even bigger protests for today. But it turned out that there were only a handful protesters, twice as many photographers and around four times the police at Bank and at the ExCel Centre.
A lot of people expected disruptions and violence but no one showed up. Over half of the protesters at the ExCel Centre were good spirited Ethiopians. It was strange and a bit disappointing indeed that not much happened. Reminded me of a slogan I read: "What if they gave a war and no one came?"


After my criticism of the police yesterday, I have to say that they were great at the ExCel Centre today, they allowed people to demonstrate and did not bully them around. The police near Bank however was a bit rude in the way they dealt with people, still it was overall not quite the same as yesterday.

"The Day of the Big Protest, Or...

How the Police Managed to Escalate a Peaceful Situation".


The G20 Summit started and massive demonstrations were expected in the City of London for today. At first there were more police officers and reporters than protesters but this turned soon and around lunctime a lot of people came to protest but also to see what is going on.


In the beginning everything was fine, people were having a good time and were in good spirits, police was present but did not impede or bullied the protesters and other people there. This turned soon when the police got the stupid order to contain people and circled the people in. I was one of the people who got caught in the middle with the police refusing to let anyone out, even an injured person. Only reporters were alowed through.


People were nice and talked to the police at first but after being "contained" for over 1.5h people started to get impatient and angry. They called on the police to let them through and when this failed started to call them faschists and nazis. It did not take long till people decided that pushing was the only way out.
The police thought it was a good idea to bully people and push them to the ground and this is when the situation escalated and everyone pushed their way through. I was in the front line just in front of the police and while I could avoid being pushed by the police I was pushed forward by the people behind me. This resuled in the police line breaking down and the ploce finally moving away and letting people get out.


This whole situation only escalated because some idiot gave the order to contain people, after people pushed their way out they went peacefully about their way. So a note to the London Police, if you want to escalate a situation and turn people against you just go ahead and "contain" people.


Overall it was a very interesting experience and I really enjoy covering protests. Getting caught up in the midle was not great but the people I met, including the police, were generaly very friendly and passionate. Using the GRD only was great and it is the perfect camera for these events, it's fast, small and easy to handle. Took over 450 pictures today, not all of them good but sometimes it is better to take more than not enough on an event like this.
I even managed to get another photographer interested in my GRD. It was generally also a great opportunity to spot the camera people were using and from big dSLRs over Leicas, Contax G2, Rolleiflex, compact and mobile phones there were all sorts of cameras present.

For more pictures go an see my Dropbox gallery here.

Tomorrow after work I'll be heading to the Excel Centre to cover the 2nd day of the protests so check back for more pictures.