Carnival 2017

     The Notting Hill Carnival has been taking place, annually, in the streets around Notting Hill, west London, at the end of August, since the mid 1960's. Visited it again this year, on its second day, last Monday. It is a very colourfully event, and it attracts large crowds. The music systems - both static and on moving floats make it rather LOUD. Anyways here are a few of my photos taken this time around  .....

        While capturing some of the colour and the characters at the Carnival, my images don't show anything of the music and sounds, nor the aromas of the many barbeques

Colourful Great Eastern Street

Great Eastern Street is an Inner London City street, near to Shoreditch High Street, which is now a fashionable part of London.

This street - and others around it - can be quite colourful, and, as can be seen here, with street art and highly decorated buildings. This one in particular is redecorated on a regular basis, and the images here were all made between May 2013 and July 2014.

Year of the Horse

   

Last Sunday saw the celebrations for the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Horse - take place in London's Trafalgar Square and Chinatown. For once it wasn't raining, in fact some there was some (very) early spring sunshine and wall to wall blue skies. This year there was a short parade around the environs of Chinatown. I like to get into these events early; and get in amongst the performers as they are getting ready, and last Sunday was no exception.

The blue skies and red lanterns also provided opportunities for photos ......

Een the blue Cockerel - the artwork cuurently occupying the Fouth Plinth in the north west of the Square , was coordinated, colour wise.

 

Patterns on the Street

Sometimes road users,  the road signs and colours on the road surface combine to make patterns ....

Countdown Clock

Some early (and warm) spring sunshine and coloured shirts (some football, others not so) around the Olympic Clock can brighten up what can be a very gloomy and dull Trafalgar Square, as these images show.

Two recent days with sunshine - must be a record for London. How do I know there were two days ? No, not by the date on the shirt - rather the days remaining to the Olympics reads 152 on the Clock in the bottom image and then 137 in the top three....

Portfolio in Yellow

I've spent a little time in the last year or so wondering up and down the South Bank in London, sometimes with a camera, sometimes without. There are always exhibitions to visit in Tate Modern (apart from anything else the South Bank provides a convenient short cut from Waterloo) and it's usually full of people going about their activities. But the architecture is pretty drab, 1950's conrete - except for some of the stairwells. One has been painted bright yellow, another blue and a third red. I 've been photographing that yellow stairwell off and on over this time  ... and here is a selection ...

The bright yellow can look stunning against a blue sky, and if the light is right - from the side - the textures  are apparent.

Don't think any 2 of this selection was taken at the same time, and I've got many more. I'm beginning to think in terms of building up a portfolio - possibly in yellow - based around them. Will have to decide whether to include my images of the blue stairwell, or the red stairwell also ......