Visit to Kew Gardens

Despite living near to Kew Gardens in south west London, for many years, I have only been there a few times, usually with a camera. Here are some of my latest photographic efforts, from April 2016. Apparently Kew Gardens is best known for its flora ? Really?

The Palm House ....

 Palm House Lines - colour version

Palm House Lines - monochrome version

Palm House - another monchrome

Palm House and Clouds -

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.

St Patrick's Day - in London

     Now in its 13th year,  the St Patrick's Day parade in London was on a bright and sunny Sunday in mid March. As St Patrick's Day itself (March 17th) is not a public holday in England, the parade is held on the Sunday closest to this date, which in 2014 was the 16th. 
   
     The Parade runs along Piccadilly from Hyde Park corner, to Trafalgar Square, where more Irish related events are held, and has grown is size over the years.

  St Patrick turns up to the parade

A celebrity attends, to head up the event

Appropriate coloured costumes are worn 

The bright sunshine whilst welcome, is obvious, and it makes and welcome change from the cold conditions and rain in previous year's events.

 Traditional bands take part

South American style also is in

The red phone box in the background gives a clue to the location ...

It's also a colourful parade, although the colours here are more Italian than Irish

Trafalgar Square

I recently upgraded my mobile phone, and thought I'd try out its camera while in Trafalgar Square in London. So here is a sequence taken on that occasion.

When I getused to the camera, I'll get to know its limitations, and what its good points are. It certainly beats carrying a heavy DLSR around ....

Work in Progress ...

Quite a few murals on buildings may be found in London, particularly in the Shoreditch area. Here is one I found recently as a work in progress ...

 The passer-by was colour co-ordinated, wearing a red jacket which matched the red in the mural and also that bottle on the windowsill. I've shown this image to some friends at my local photographic society, and one comment which was made was "Mondrian" - as in the painter. This hadn't occured to me at the time the photograph was taken,  but it is a valid comment.

Went back to the site a few days later (on this occasion, with rather different lighting conditions, bright sunshine and shadows!) and found the work is finished, at least for now. I expect it will develop over time

Looking a little to my left, another mural. Wonder if it's by the same artist?

Rainy Parades

St Patrick's Day is on March 17th, and while it is not a public holiday on that day here in London (as it is in Ireland), in recent years a parade has been taking place on the nearest Sunday to the 17th.

March in London isn't exactly the height of summer in London, and it is frequently (almost always) cold and it rains a lot.

The cold and rain doesn't stop the bands which are taking part having some fun, and a large crowd is in attendance.  The parade starts near Hyde Park, winds its way up Piccadilly and eventually finishes in Trafalgar Sqaure

A St Patrick's "Day" parade is a relatively new innovation in London - the first one was about 10 years ago and very small,  with only a few bands and floats taking part. It has grown considerably since then, but still is small compared to the parade in Dublin, and of course to that in New York.

These sax players - apart from sounding great (at least to me)  - even had rain gear colour coordinated  with their band uniforms. They must be used to the London weather.

 

Colonnade and Shadows

Visited Brompton Cemetery, here in London last week. This was my first visit, I'd been to Kensal Green and Highgate before, but not Brompton.

A good spring like day for photography, with the sun dodging the clouds, and being early in the year, still relatively low on the horizon, even in the afternoon. You can see, I like shadows,  as the images here of the Colonnade show.

People Groups continued

Here are a few more images from my "People Group" project ....all in London, with the common links of clothing types (usually with colour) and a shared activity connecting the people.

Red and White

A third image for my "people group" series .... these people were on a giant chess board in Trafalgar Square. I like the mostly red, black and white.

Torch Relay in London

Towards the end of July last - July 26th -  the Olympic Torch Relay passed through London's Trafalgar Square. It's now quite a couple of months since then, but it seems all so long ago now.

People Groups

A change in blog template and style - don't know if I like it yet - and I'll have to fine tune things over the next day or so ... so please bear with me whilst I do this.

Anyways, first image in a series which I have loosely called "People Groups" ....

Interviews

The recently ended Olympic Games here in London provided many opportunities for interviews in the street.