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

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.

 

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 ....

A Colourful Henley Regatta

Went to Henley Regatta this year for the first time in many years. My old university - twice winners of the Ladies Plate - usually send a crew (an VIII) over to compete. This year their entry was entered in the Prince Albert Challenge (for student IV's). Unfortunately, I missed them by a day - I went on the Friday of the regatta, they only won their inital round on the Wednesday, and didn't make it past the Thursday.

The towpath can be very colourful, and whilst many of the people who do attend actually are interested in the rowing, not every one is. 

Those with the stripey blazers of many colours are perhaps those who are into the rowing ....

 A difference since my last visit, couldn't help noticing many more hospitality marquees along  the towpath, almost the full length of the course (it's over a mile in length). Corporate hospitality has made it big time here.

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.

 

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.

Winter Visit to Paris

You can find people and places to photograph outdoors in winter, when the days are short, available light doesn't last long and even when there is a light drizzle, as in this set of images from a visit to Paris late last year.

 

Those of you who know Paris, may possibly recognise La Défense in the last four images; the first - the odd one out location wise - is at the Centre Pompidou. The blue post-production processing 
matched the rather gloomy day ...

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.