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 ....

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.

91 Days to go

91 Days to the 2012 Olympics here in London and counting ...... the Olympic Clock in Trafalgar Square continues to form a backdrop for portrait photography - and in no particular order ...

Countdown - 100 days

100 days to the 2012 London Olympics and in a rather wet Trafalgar Square, the countdown continues.

Given the number of days to go, there was a media scrum and an "event" .....

And some tourists provided some colour on a rather drab day - given the weather here in London, it will be probably as wet in July in 100 days ...

The Square seems to attract footie supporters also - this time from visting Barca. Shame the result of the game didn't go their way.

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....

A New 4th Plinth Artwork

A new artwork arrived on the fourth plint in Trafalgar Square this week - ‘Powerless Structures Fig. 101', replacing the Ship in a Bottle which was there previously - you may have seen my previous postings on the various offerings on trhe fourth plinth elsewhere in this blog.

Some good early spring sunlight and a vivid blue sky assisted my humble photographic efforts here and my polarising filter - which can at times be an almost permanent addition on my lens - was unnecessary on this occasion.  Whilst I don't always like aircraft vapour in my images, in the case of the 4th image above, perhaps they add something ?

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but what does the title of the artwork mean ?

159 Days and Counting

Even on a cold Sunday morning in February of an Olympic year - and with 159 days to go (there is no  paticular significance in this number for me) to the Opening Ceremony, folks are still  having their photo taken at the countdown clock in Trafalgar Square.

I've posted some images previously - of people and this  clock - over the last few months. On this ocassion I photographed from across the Square,  and as you can see above, some of the picture takers as well. I hope they have happy memories of London.