A day in London

Although most of my work involves film cameras, from time to time I take great delight in using a compact digital camera. For most occasions film gives me the expression that I seek, but when it comes to street photography I don’t think you can better a fast digital camera …

Last week I wandered around London for a day, remembering how I got into photography in the first place: through street photography. Here is the photo journal for the day ..

Arriving at Euston station in the morning, I quickly settled into a search for pictures:

I took a tube to Liverpool Station and walked into Petticoat Lane market, an area I used to know well in the 1980s, as it was close to where I worked. When in ‘street mode’ I enjoy matching active foregrounds to interesting backgrounds. I couldn’t resist this picture. The man was very absorbed in his music, so I had plenty of time (5 seconds) to get the framing right:

It’s a short walk to Spitalfields. My how this area has changed over the years! I met my daughter for coffee and cake and we wandered around the area. I finally settled on a reflection picture:

From Spitalfields to Brick Lane. I find Brick Lane a challenge because it tends to be very crowded which means isolating a subject against a simple background can be tricky.

In the end I found a contrast between two scenes: A colour scene without people and a colour-less scene with two people.

A short walk from the end of Brick Lane takes you to Columbia Street Flower market. The mood here tends to be very relaxed, so approaching people for portraits is quite easy:

From here I made my way to the South Bank area.

In the early evening I went to Kilburn High St by tube for some night-time pictures.

It was a long day – 31,000 steps. The day brought back to me how engaging street photography can be.